Sometimes giving people bad news is an occupational hazard. Earlier this week I had an appointment with a young couple that had just bought their first home and wanted the carpets cleaned before they moved in. It’s a very beautiful home, and the carpet appeared to only be a couple of years old. The house has creme-colored plush carpeting throughout, and there wasn’t a single spot or stain to be found. It honestly didn’t look like most of the carpeting had ever been walked on at all.
But something smelled…. bad.
The smell was real subtle, but very pungent, and I could only catch an occasional “whiff” here and there. The walls had all been freshly painted, and everything was EXTREMELY clean. We exchanged a couple of “do you smell that?”s, and I was done trying to guess. I pulled out my U.V. flashlight.
When I closed the blinds and turned the black light on, the room lit up like Christmas in a Disco Tech. It looked like the alien from the “Predator” movies had rolled around the floor with a bloody nose… or… whatever he has where his nose should be. In other words, there were glowing spots on about 80% of the carpet. Once kneeling down, the odor was much more noticeable, and it became obvious that it was all caused by pet urine.
There was similar urine contamination throughout the entire home, and I had no choice but to advise them to remove and replace all of the carpeting and padding. Without even seeing the sub-flooring beneath the carpeting, I advised them to seal it with Kilz or a similar product before installing any new flooring. This would be the only way to avoid odor possibly contaminating brand new flooring.
I’ve been at this for a very long time and I’m still amazed that in normal light the pet urine spots were not visible at all… I mean, AT ALL. The previous owner definitely knew how to handle pet spots “visibly”, but must not have known how to deal with the salt crystals or the odor issues that they cause.
Keep your eyes open
When you enter a property and your sense of smell is overwhelmed by deodorizers, scented candles or potpourri, it’s a red flag that somebody is trying to cover up an odor problem. These smells can linger, and often the offending odor(s) that they are meant to cover up only gradually return over time. It’s not uncommon for me to meet people that live together and have one of them convinced that there’s an odor, but the other (or others) smell nothing. Odors may also not be as obvious when the weather is colder, but suddenly become intolerable on a hot and humid day.
When planning to buy a new home, you should ask the home inspectors if they will be doing a black light inspection of the flooring. Strangely, many home inspectors do not offer black light inspection as part of their service.
Another thing to be on the lookout for is bottles of carpet cleaning solution or pet urine enzyme cleaner. I’ve seen houses and apartments with so many bottles of that stuff laying around, the cost of it alone would have paid for a professional to correct the problem the right way many times over.
Let us have a look… for FREE
If you are looking at buying or renting a home in the Quad Cities, Sabyl Tech offers FREE black light inspections to buyers, sellers, renters, realtors and property managers. We will be able to tell you if the carpet is cleanable, or if replacement would be a better (more inexpensive) option. Merely covering up a urine issue may be acceptable to other companies, but we know that the problem will inevitably need to be addressed.
For a free black light inspection of your carpet, call Sabyl Tech 309-716-5912
