That Odor May Be More Dangerous Than You Thought
You’ve got odors in your home. Not just the odor from the fish or onions that you cooked yesterday. FOUL ODORS! Odors are caused by things like mold or mildew; smoke; bio-hazards; pet urine; cigarette smoke; skunk odor; decaying rodents; bat guano; animal feces; or sewage. Some of these odors can indicate that damage is being done to your property, or worse still, causing damage to you and your family’s health. Contaminated air quality, bacteria, and viruses can be present with a foul odor.
If you check the internet, you’ll find dozens of over-the-counter odor remedies, most only designed to mask the odors, not remove them.
Home remedies like baking soda, vinegar, coffee grounds, vanilla extract, and lemons are great to cover cooking and food odors, but to remove foul odors, you have to find and remove the source of the odor.
Foul odors penetrate floors, cement, ceilings, walls, carpets, furniture, clothing, mattresses, curtains, etc. If you have this type of odor, you probably need a professional restoration cleaning company. They have the training, technology, and experience to track down the cause of the odor; remove it; clean; sanitize, and make your property odor-free.
The first step for the professional restoration cleaning company is to remove the source of the odor. This may involve thorough cleaning and sanitizing; removal and replacement of building materials; and drying and sealing of affected areas. The next step is to remove the odor that has penetrated walls, floors, ceilings, cement floors, furniture, clothing, and the air you are breathing.
Your professional restoration cleaning company will have many tools to accomplish odor removal, including:
- HEPA Filtration-High Efficiency Particulate Air filtration works to filter odor particles in the air.
- Hydroxyl Generator Technology produces hydroxyl molecules, which break down and eliminate odors
- Thermal Fogging-deodorizes by neutralizing odor particles. A variety of disinfectants and odor neutralizers can be fogged.
- Ozone-oxygen is O2. Ozone is O3. Ozone reacts with odor molecules by transferring the “extra” oxygen atom to the odor molecule, changing the chemical make-up of the odor (oxidation).
Each one of these technologies has advantages for specific applications. If you have a “foul odor” in your home or business, give the Restoration Cleaning Professionals at G.W. Savage a call.
This blog was written by Gary Pinckney, a partner at G.W. Savage Corporation. We are an IICRC certified Cleaning and Restoration company, with offices in So. Burlington and Rutland, Vermont.
