How In The World Do You Remove The Smell Of Dog From A House?

quinn profile photo

We went and looked at a REO today. The house is priced at 99,000. The comps in the area are at 160,000. The thing is, the previous owner kept the dog in the basement and the whole place reeks. There is an area on the door wall leading to the basement that has been clawed away by the dog. I know the door jab can be replaced and the carpet removed but other than aring the place out, is there anything else? Will the smell completely go away with air, paint, and new carpeting?

quinn

Comments(7)

  • california855511th April, 2004

    Use the primer and paint.

  • Sunshine5900011th April, 2004

    Pure amonia works wonders! Wear gloves and a mask!

  • knucs11th April, 2004

    Quinn,

    I've run into this problem and just came across some good info at another site.

    "Here is what worked for us.

    - Remove all the carpet, old vinyl floor and we had to grind out the grout in the tile floor.
    - Remove the Baseboard, the cat spray had soaked the wood
    - Cleaned everything with bleach and followed up with the special treatments from Home Depot.
    - Painted everything with Oil Based Kilz.
    - There was so much "stuff" in the vents, we had to have the air ducts cleaned cause when the heat kicked on it started smelling all over again.
    - Even after all this, in one closet, we had to cutout all the subfloor and the bottom 3 ft of the drywall and kilz the joists and studs then rebuild it all.
    - Where the cracks were to wide for the paint to seal um up we had to caulk the crack in.

    A lot of work but it really stunk!! After we were done, the Neighboors thanked us since they could now cookout on there deck again with gagging from the smell."
    This was from Mark IL

    Another poster says
    "After you remove all of the carpet, any shoe moulding and baseboard trim, paint the floor with oil based KILZ, then a topcoat of clear schellac (sp?). Before you put anything back in the house, run a STRONG ozone machine for several hours per room. Do not stay in the house while the machine is running. Ozone is very dangerous. You need an industrial strength ozone machine, not just an air purifier. These are hard to find but you should be able to get one from somewhere that rents industrial equipment. I ended up buying one (it was about $800) and it has certainly paid for itself over and over again. They WORK. Ozone leaves an almost bleachy smell in the house when it has done its job. Open the windows and doors and air the house out for several hours after running the machine . This system destrpued the smell of four grown pit bulls that NEVER left house."
    This was from Buddy (VA)

    Hope that helps
    Kelly(WI)
    8-)

  • norrist11th April, 2004

    I have used Odorxit before, but nothing as bad as what you describe. I think it's www.odorxit.com. Good luck, Tim

  • InActive_Account11th April, 2004

    I do not believe you will experience the difficulty I had getting the odor out of this house. In 1988 we had one of our hottest summers on record and an elderly couples a/c unit malfunctioned and they both died from dehydration. The family which lived nearby was on vacation and did not discover what had happened for 6 days. You cannot imagine the smell in a 120 degree house. The couple's children sold the house to the insurance company. The insurance adjuster called me to see if I would be interested. I had bought a couple of burnouts from this adjuster. I bought the house for $10,000.00 and spent $15,000.00 rehabbing the house. To rehab this house we replaced all the sheetrock,insulation,carpet kitchen appliances and a/c system. You will learn the worse they smell the cheaper they are. Stench doesn't bother me anymore,it smells like opportunity.

  • InActive_Account6th May, 2004

    One of the most profitable deals I did in my early career was a house with a virtually lethal dose of cat piss. It was intolerable. No "fear factor" contestant could have survived for more than 15 minutes.

    I had all floor covering,baseboards, subflooring replaced. Two coats of sealer did the job to a satisfactory extent.

  • SmileyFace6th May, 2004

    I bought a very small house (750 sf) where the owner kept three big dogs and two cats in the house. The house smelled like hell. Now that we painted, refinish the wood floor and replace the baseboard, the house smells like a brand new house. You can do the same.

Add Comment

Login To Comment