Doing up a house - getting rid of smells.

Stheno

Mods feel free to move if this is in the wrong forum.

Anyway I'm doing up a house. Main problems are general neglect, and animals being allowed to roam free unrestricted.

Some of the rooms have a strong odour of cat in particular, both cat full stop and cat pee.

I'm trying to figure out the best way to get rid of it, I've tried a few cleaning solutions. vinegar, biological washing powder, specialist animal products, and none seem to have worked.

I'm at the point I'm considering ripping out everything apart from the walls (floors, skirting etc) and replacing it after washing the walls and concrete floors down.

Any other suggestions?

I also meant to ask about floors. Is there a huge amount of difference in terms of the effort in putting down laminate versus solid wood flooring? It's a bungalow, the base floors are concrete.

jaspertheghost

the cats pee is probably soaked into the timbers so it might be best to remove it and scrub the concrete floor....laminate flooring is cheaper and a bit easier for a diy-er..

Juwwi

Whats in the rooms at the moment.

Is everything thrown out like curtains carpets and all that?

DublinDilbert

If its gotten onto any floor boards I would replace them, almost impossible to get rid of that. There was a thread here a while ago about toilet floors smelling and replace was the only way.

On the plus side it will make re-wiring/plumbing very easy if all the boards are lifted.

paddy147

Id personally ripp it all out and start afresh.

Stheno

Thanks guys appreciated as always.

The rooms previously have laminate with osb at the moment, I reckon the moisture has gotten in there and when it's removed that will get rid of pretty much the problem.

Slightly worried about skirting, and am wanting to do a good job, and am considering ripping that out too.

Then once the rooms are bare so to speak of any fabric/wood, am going to give all the surfaces a good cleaning, and air them out for a few days

Again, much appreciated for the time you've given

Stoner

DublinDilbert wrote: »

If its gotten onto any floor boards I would replace them, almost impossible to get rid of that. There was a thread here a while ago about toilet floors smelling and replace was the only way.

On the plus side it will make re-wiring/plumbing very easy if all the boards are lifted.

+1

you'll end up cleaning and cleaning, you might think the smell is gone but it always comes back, rip em up and replace them is the only solution IMHO.

I can't remember where I got them, but years ago I was able to buy odor-absorbers. They were bags around 4-6 inches in diameter and about a foot long, filled with charcoal. We just hung them up and they helped the smell drastically, (was a dead animal in a derelict farm house.)

KKkitty

An onion chopped in half is meant to absorb smells. Leave a few near the locations of the odour overnight