Shag rug - need advice

[royalkid]

I cleaned an 8X10 shag rug (olefin) for a customer, she had it in the garage...said there was some cat urine on it...couldn't see it, tried black-light, but wasn't dark enough, so treated the general area she suspected it was on. Used HWE, no problem. 2 days later she calls and says it smells. Doesn't smell like urine, but like a dirty dog. She has a dog (small) and he spends a lot of time on the rug, however, the rug is only 6-7 months old. The garage was super hot/humid (i'm in florida), so my thoughts were that the olefin absorbed a lot of the mutts oils and the cleaning got the odors going...not too mention her leaving the rug in the sauna-like garage for 2 days.

I initially went back and treated (heavily) with an antimicrobial fearing that the humidity/heat got some nasty bacteria going...went back today and still had heavy dog smell. I feel like the dogs oils are deeply imbedded into the long, shag fibers. So today I used olefin pre-spray and LOTS of citra-boost with a splash of pH Fire, and used the RX-20 and did lots of passes. Left 2 air-movers and went back at the end of the day and can still smell the dog odor.

Have any of you guys/gals experienced this and what do you think would be my next best course of action? Thanx for any input you can offer!

Peter

 

[cleanimagemarketing]

Is it still in the garage?

 

[Lee Stockwell]

Car wash.

You can't hurt it.

 

[rhyde]

Microban works, well spray it front and back roll it up for several hours then clean it again


no money in running to the custy's house 3-4 times on the same rug !gotcha!

 

[Vivers]

I think I would of pretreated with OSR and post treated with x-cide. I hope your getting paid well on all these return trips? A cleaning is a cleaning. Heavy pet odor smell removal is another story. It also will dissipate once it relaxes from the cleaning and they get it out of the swamp you guys call Florida!
This kind of stinker might only be completely fixed by tanking.

 

[royalkid]

Philip, I asked her to please put the rug in the home as I feared the heat/humidity was making matters worse...she said she would bring it in today...we'll see. I truly think that was a major contributing factor.

Lee, "car wash"...my thoughts exactly, i came close to grabbing her hose and soaking it down and extracting.

Hyde, when she first called about the smell, I went and sprayed microban on it (heavily) and even sprayed the backing. That's when i realized the problem might be with the dog oils and most of all that hot n muggy garage.

Vivers, yeah, OSR probably would have done the trick, but there really wasn't a "dog smell" to begin with, just the cat urine, which is gone. Fortunately she lives just minutes from my shop and I don't usually get re-services, and when I went back the 1st time she asked "how much do I owe you"...she was surprised when I told her nothing. I'm trying to gain a super cheerleader with this "ideal" customer. I know her and her husband have been very happy (and surprised) by the lengths I've gone to solve this problem. I really haven't had to spend much time with each visit, but I'm ready for it to be over.

Thanx for the input guys!

Side note: Years ago I read somewhere....if you have a satisfied customer, they'll tell 2-3 people about their experience, if you have an unsatisfied customer, they'll tell 9-12 people how much you suck! If you have a customer that has a problem/complaint and you resolve it in a timely manner, they'll tell 6-7 people how good you are. I guess the point is...we don't want to encounter problems, but if/when we do, you can look at it as an opportunity to turn it into a positive.

 

[Ron Lippold]

Slop and gobble is great for dog oils and smells

 

[Heathrow]

No specific experience with rug cleaning, but to me it sounds like it might be the anal gland type dog contamination that I've always found pretty hard to remove.

 

[rhyde]

I think you need to get it out of the house do you have a pic of the rug by chance ?

 

[ascrubabove]

Lots of post on here about dog odor, vac front, back, and front, prespray with S&G or O2 front and back, dwell, dwell, dwell, extract front, back, and front, treat front and back with DD-12 as you roll it up, leave it over night and unroll next day, let dry and then sniff it !!!!!