Subborn Odors

[Lola536]

I'm hoping for some advice from hosts who have successfully dealt with stubborn odors.

An Airbnb guest stayed in a room rental in my shared home for 93 days. At checkout, the room was in terrible condition: a soaked and heavily soiled mattress, broken bed frame, stained linens, thick sticky sauce spilled and left on the floor, sticky sauce residue covering much of the floor, fingerprints with the same residue on the walls, rotten lemon wedges, a tray of rotten eggs, eggshells on the floor and inside the floor vent, ants and other bugs, and other food debris.

The mattress, bed frame, and linens were discarded. The remaining furniture (except the wardrobe) was removed, and the room was professionally cleaned twice, plus cleaned several more times by me and a friend.

Once everything was removed, we noticed a very strong sweet, spicy food smell. Over the past month we have:

• Scrubbed every surface (walls, baseboards, trim, floor, doors, inside the closet, etc. - everything except the ceiling)

• Used multiple all-purpose cleaners

• Used an enzyme-based pet stain and odor remover

• Run an air purifier continuously for the past month

• Kept the windows open for the past month

• Washed the curtains (they don't smell)

• Left vinegar and baking soda in the room to help absorb odors

The smell has improved dramatically, but there is still a lingering sweet odor. The biggest challenge is that I can't determine where the smell is coming from. It no longer seems to be coming from one specific area, and I can't pinpoint the source.

Has anyone dealt with something similar? What finally worked for you? Is there a product that completely eliminated the smell? Did you end up repainting, sealing the walls with a primer like Kilz or BIN, replacing baseboards, using an ozone machine, or was there another solution?

I'd really appreciate any suggestions. Thank you!

[Greystone0]

Hi @Lola536  - yikes!

Lots of discussions around here about getting rid of odors. It seems you have deployed many of the recommendations.

Here's some additional ideas:

- run an ozone machine - as you noted this is an idea and I have seen it recommended around here. We have not had direct experience with this but understand that it is effective. 

- we have a heavy duty air purifier - and has worked for us, generally speaking.

- we use a product called "Zero Odor" - it's a spray that helps eliminate odors. Given your situation it might not work but it is worth having in your supply closet. We have never had as serious a situation as you mention. But we have had bad odors: cooking smells, REALLY strong cologne,  smoke smell from an indoor fire that was made improperly and thus very smokey smelly. Stuff like that.

-  another product that I really, really like is: biokleen bac-out, stain and odor remover. Another all natural product. It says "carpet' on it but I use it as a general purpose type cleaner and I really like using it. It cleans well and my hands are not all dry/weird after using it. It is hard to find (for me) and sometimes whole foods has it. I think buying it from Amazon can get you a fake product so not sure how I would go about this. (And I am aware that amazon owns whole foods). I would 'wash/mop' all your surfaces again with this product. We use this product for all surfaces and it helps keep odors from lingering.

Good luck!

[Lola536]

Thank you I will try these ideas. Appreciate you. 

[Lorna170]

@Lola536   Did you open the floor vent and wash out the framing and ducting that you could reach?  If your guest poured something down or next to the vent, that may be your odor source.  

We use an Ozone machine (less than $100 on Amazon) to eradicate odors that persist after thorough cleaning from guests who smoked or used cloying perfumes in the property.  While other hosts are uncomfortable with the machine usage warnings, I find this machine to be a lifesaver when dealing with guest odors.

[Lola536]

I vacuumed and wiped the vent area that I was able to reach as there were egg shells, leaves, flowers, etc in there. But the smell doesn’t seem to be coming from the vent. There was an empty essential oil bottle from my bathroom that was in the room. I suspect that the guest may have splashed it around the room on the plywood to mask the odors in the room. Do you think the ozone machine will get rid of this smell and the remaining food smells? I didn’t realize it was so affordable to buy an ozone machine. I was expecting to pay much more to rent one. Do you mind sharing the name of the one you use? Appreciate your help. Thank you so much. 

[Lorna170]

Enerzen Ozone Generator 60,000mg Industrial O3 Air Purifier Deodorizer (60,000mg - Black)
$59.95 with 20 percent savings

[Shelley159]

@Lola536 I once found the source of a food smell to be the fridge's external drip tray (which, at the time, I didn't even know existed).

It's at the back of the fridge and solved the issue for me when I cleaned it.

[Lola536]

Hi Shelley. Luckily the smell is contained in that bedroom (no fridge) and not the rest of the house. But I’ll keep that in mind if I have fridge odors in the future. Thank you for the tip! 

[Emilie]

😯 I had no idea that was a think, @Shelley159 ... I'll be checking my own fridge this weekend, better clean it before any smell starts -handy tip!

[Lorina14]

@Lola536 

I’m so sorry about that guest. I second that Bac-out cleaner is great, Folex carpet and stain remover is good too, RLR powder for a laundry additive to help with laundry odors and an ozone generator is priceless.

For an ozone machine: You need to close all windows to contain the area and keep pets, people and plants out of the space. After it runs, you will need to air it out/open the windows and run fans if you have them. I didn’t realize they come so inexpensive. I have a Aerus pure and clean (cleans up to 2000SF) and it does mold, dander, dust, pollen and has a plus mode and a leave the room mode. We run it when we had guests who did spicy deep fried cooking. What I did find out was that the lingering odor for me was due to filters on the hood vent that I had to pull out and use a degreaser/enzyme treatment on.

Another thing to consider is using TSP (tri sodium phosphate) dilution to clean the walls. A friend of mine used it when he used to clear spaces physically and energetically for his Sufi gatherings then he followed it with rose water on the walls.

Bamboo charcoal bags helped me absorb odors in a dresser that was off gassing. 

Zero odor may work if you use the spray on the walls and fabrics. I was only recently introduced to it by Greystone and I tried it after someone used the bathroom and the fan was taking a while to air it out. A couple of sprays and it cleared it out!

[Lola536]

I really appreciate you sharing all these tips! So helpful. Thank you. 

[Emilie]

Are the bamboo charcoal bags something you make yourself or buy ready to use @Lorina14? I'm familiar with the pot-pourri type of bags for the dressers but that one's new to me 💡 

[Lorina14]

@Emilie The bamboo charcoal bags are easily found on Amazon. I got the brands bmbu charcoal air purifying bag (various sizes from small to place in a drawer to large for putting in a car under the seat) and belle air 100% activated charcoal bags (they claim there is more surface area to absorb orders which may be true but this one is fine and I found it to leave some charcoal dust; comes in one size only). This was after I did research and read reviews on the top rated bags and compared for quality and price point.

[Emilie]

Thanks for the tip @Lorina14, I'll have a look around! 

[Emilie]

Thank you everyone for all the ideas!

@Lola536 Have you had a chance to try any of them yet? If so, I wondered if you're noticed an improvement so far?