Does your carpet have a distinct smell that won’t go away? Identifying the cause of the smell is imperative to dealing with the odor in the right way. We’ll discuss two different odors that are most common in carpet and rugs.

You guessed it, the first and most common odor issues in carpets and rugs is urine. If you have a pet, odds are they’ve had an accident or two (or maybe more) inside your home. The contaminated will have to be properly sanitized and deodorized. Technicians at a reputable carpet and rug cleaning company should be trained on the proper methods and techniques needed to solve urine contamination problems.

To successfully handle urine issues in carpet and rugs, here’s what you can expect from a professional:

– First, it’s always best to identify the area of contamination before cleaning.

You can do this by using a moisture sensor, high-intensity light, black light, or the good old sniff test. You can also see where the accident happened by looking at the back of your carpet or rug for stains and discoloration. If it’s carpet, it will need to be disengaged in order to check. If the pet accident took place on a rug, just simply flip it over.

– The area needs to be saturated with an acid deodorizer. Let the solution dwell to allow it to work its magic. With rugs, they’ll need to be taken to an in-plant facility to receive the best results.

– For carpet, the hot water extraction method will work best to clean your carpet. For rugs, the in-plant facility technicians should fully submerge your rug in a rug cleaning bath to be hand washed. Both should be rinsed thoroughly.

– Your home should have good air circulation to ensure a fast dry time for your carpet. Setting up fans and opening up windows is recommended. Your rugs should be dried in a controlled dry located at the in-plant facility location. Any remaining moisture will amplify residual odor so this step is important!

– If your area rug is over hardwood, clean and disinfect that area before laying your rug back down.

– You pay need to install a new carpet cushion if the urine seeped all the way through to it. Also, it’s best to purchase a new rug pad as well if that was affected also.

Hand Tufted Rugs can also create unwanted odors as well. Not all tufted rugs have this problem, but many of them do.

Tufted rugs are not hand knotted. The pile of a hand tufted rug is created by using a tufting gun. By using this gun, yarn gets inserted into a cotton base cloth to create the pattern. This backing sometimes can be stenciled to help ease the process of weaving the pattern of the rug. There is no way to tell this and it can create some bleeding issues when the rug gets washed. Once the rug is complete, the back of it is covered with a latex adhesive.

The foul odor coming from these tufted rugs are coming from the latex coating on the back. The odor may already be apparent when the rug is purchased, but can become more noticeable once it’s inside the home.

There is no way of pin pointing the cause of the odor. It could potentially be caused by defective latex, low quality latex adhesive, manufacturers not giving the latex enough time to dry before it gets shipped, or latex absorbing diesel fuel odors when in transport. Unfortunately, no amount of cleaning or deodorizing will take this type of odor fully away. It may help some, but the odor tends to linger still. This odor is a defect in the rug from the manufacturer. Your best option is to return the rug for a replacement or to get a refund.

If all your attempts to rid your rugs and carpet of terrible pet odors fail, give us a call. Our pet treatment includes a sanitizer and a deodorizer which will kill any bacteria and help with the odor as well. We also have a beautiful show room with a wide selection of rugs if you’re looking to replace your smelly, poor quality, tufted rug. We look forward to seeing you!