Hi,

The tenants finally left.

the house left heavy doggy smell/odor.

I had professional clean crew who vacuumed five pounds dog hair from the carpet; I had professional floor care vendor who came to steam and removed the dogs' unrein stains and smell, but,

it is still not enough.

What would you do? how do you charge your ex-tenant?

Thanks.

I know many here hate carpet, but it is still needed in some of my places.

I started putting thin painters plastic on top of the pad so the stuff on the carpet couldn't soak into it. Also works the reverse way unless there is a smell.

Ozone machine helped a lot, but when the humidity changed the smell returned. This was after a truck mounted carpet cleaner came thru. You can put enzymes and other stuff down that will eat the urine and smell. It isn't an overnight thing tho.

Had one apartment where they locked the dog in the hallway. Dog peed on the walls which soaked down under the pad. Two weeks after they left the floor was still wet. Took a lot of ozone and then killz oil to get it under control. Also replaced the trim on the walls.

Alice, we had a Resident with dogs and when the Resident left, the carpet was left with odors and stains.

We hired a professional carpet cleaning company come to try and resolve the issue with a deep cleaning. That did not work.

We replaced the carpet and pad and billed the Resident for everything that was needed to restore the flooring including the failed carpet cleaning, the carpet and pad removal and disposal fees, painting the floor with sealing primer for sealing and future waterproofing, and the final flooring installation.

In our situation, we requested a quote for replacement carpet and pad and charged our Resident that amount.

Some will disagree about prorating, but that is what we did. The carpet was new when the Resident moved in, and was 4 years old when the Resident left. We created a formula to charge for the replacement carpet that took into consideration the 4 years of use.

Instead of carpet and padding, we installed laminate flooring instead of the carpeting and pad so we would not be in that situation again.

In our security deposit accounting letter we clearly narrated what we done in regarding to charging the lower amount for carpet and prorating, but replacing with laminate.

Tip: take copious photos and have your carpet cleaner write detailed notes on their bill including smell remaining after the cleaning.

Remember to take photos of the underneath of the carpet and the soiled padding. We sent those to our Resident as part of the security deposit accounting. There isn't much arguing with pictures.

Be brave and don't eat these significant costs.

I have never ran the ozone machine for that long. I guess if I had another project to work on maybe, but a month is a long time to be sitting idle.

Have run it overnight. Last time I did that was the current apartment. I stuck the machine in the return duct and ran the furnace fan all night as well.

Still had a slight funky mix between dog, cigarettes and body odor.