How Do I Get Rid of Rancid Odor in My Front Hall Coat Closet?

Hi N., try bounce dryer sheets. They worked for my old moldy smelling closet at my parents house years ago.

Sounds like you've tried quite a few things that should have worked. Try KILZ primer it works great. You can buy it at Home Depot. If that does not work, rip out the drywall and see whats back there and replace with new drywall.

The odor may be in the concrete under the carpet. You may have to pull u the carpet again in the closet and treat the concrete. there are produces out their just for this specific use, contact your local building maintenance supply. If there was some kind of mold you may want to repaint with a product like "Kilz" that is a stain and odor blocker.

Dear N.,
My first thought was dead animal. But I don't know that it would still be smelling a year later.
It sounds like spraying things is just trying to mask the odor. I think you need something to absorb it. You can try moth balls or moth cakes. You can place a tray of cedar chips in the closet. (They can be purchased at pet supply stores). Or, you can try putting charcoal briquettes in a coffee can or in a tray. Believe it or not, charcoal also absorbs moisture. My mom got moisture in her car from a leaky window. She got the window fixed, but there was still condensation in her car every morning. The charcoal absorbed the moisture and it worked like magic.
If these things don't work, you may need to resort to more invasive measures. But I think any of the above, if not a combination of all three, is a good place to start.
Best of luck!

From Linda Cobb's book--"How the Queen Cleans Everything:" she recommends a natural product called ODORZOUT. See the website: www.88stink.com

Hope this helps you.
E. S. A 72 year old Gramma

Hi,

If it is any kind of animal smell (urine, cat marking, etc) Nature's Miracle should work. I have used it on HORRIBLE odors and it is truly miraculous. I had a cat that marked on hardwood floors (apparently) and the smell literally took one's breath away and soaking the floors with this stuff worked almost instantly...good luck!

If you are having problem with rancid order in your closet... may I offer a wonderful product called safeguard by melaleuca... it is fantastic stuff! you can spray everything in your closet, cloths, walls, rug, or hardwood floors... It is an anti fungal/ bacterial spray as well as a disenfectant and it will help get rid of the bacteria causing the smell...

It may also be there is a rats nest under the house or in the attic at that area and sometime seepage from the attic or from under the house be it rats, or cats can cause the smell...

Rat are habitual for hibernating in an area deficating in certain areas more then others...
After using the spray get fresh wild rosemary and pull the leaves off the vine in bunches and put them in sacthels and whalla.... good by odor hellooooooooooo freshness!

to order your bottle Safeguard by melaleuca go to www.Homebizwithlove.com or email me here..

I love this stuff !!!

Hi N.,

Please go to http:///www.marketamerica.com/lenausa
Click home and garden> then left side environmentally friendly cleaners > click Global care S.O.S Smoke Odor Stain. You will see the product information for your reference.

This product was used enzyme base to desolve the odor and stain. It's not just cover the odor. This wonderful product really clean odor and save my clothes. If you need further assistance, please email me. I live n W. San Jose. 58, mom, have two grown up sons.

Hi N.,
If you can still find them in the store, try kitty litter crystals. Even the store generic ones. Throw a layer down on the floor of the closet and leave it there as long as you can stand it. I once lived in a house where the animals were kept indoors and had accidents. The landlord had the carpets cleaned twice and it still smelled bad! I used the crystals and it seemed to have taken the odor out! I would try that and all that is suggested.
Good luck!

Move? :)

Sorry, but this sounds so surreal, that it's almost out of comedy with Dan Akroyd or something. The Closet That Stank!

I had a similar problem with those horrible little Indian Grain Moths that you sometimes accidentally bring home in cereal. These little buggers multiplied and got into EVERYTHING -- and I pretty much did the same routine, but with cleaning supplies and bug bombs. Imagine removing all of your food from the kitchen over and over again, and having to throw half of it out each time. Still, I could NOT get rid of them. And they were so gross!

Here's how I finally got rid of them -- remodel the kitchen.

The smell, whatever it is, is probably in the drywall or in the flooring. So, hire yourself a general contractor, keep the carpet (you can reuse it), and have them remove the drywall and the flooring and replace it. Once the studs are visible you can see if there is anything behind the wall, but it's probably old pet urine or something else that has seeped in to the drywall and keeps releasing over time...

Good luck!

J.

Every so often we have a dead rat/mouse in our vented
heating system. It smells for 1-2 weeks then the dead creature dries out and stops smelling....
Well......what if there was a colony and not just one critter? You would hear them in the walls at night. I had an infestation of rats one time.....it sounded like they were bowling at night!!!!!
Mold?

Maybe Coffee beans???

Hi N.
is there a heater vent nearby? we keep our house VERY clean and I too couldnt figure out why on occassion I could smell something similar to let's say old urine.. turns out our heating system needed to be cleaned.. so every time I would turn on the heater, eventually there would be this faint smell. thing is, it didnt come very every vent..
try and check the heating vents.. they can get quite dusty and full of bacteria, even if you don't use them much.

good luck !

Have you considered removing the drywall to see if there is mold growing in the walls or if something has died in them? Is there a water source above or on any/all sides of the closet? You could have a slow water leak that is supplying mold with a nice, warm, dark place to grow. If you have emptied the closet and found no source for the smell - you have to suspect it is IN the walls. Good luck!

I think I would call another pest control company to come out and check. Maybe you should get into the wall behind the closet and see what you find. With everything you did, the smell should be gone.

N.,
Could it possibly be mold? Just a thought. Maybe if you removed a small area of the drywall, you can check behind it? It's the only thing I could think of????
Good Luck,
L.

sounds like mold to me.
you can look mup agencies in your county that will come and test the air for mold spores.
if it ends up being mold, get it taken care of right away.
mold is very dangerous for your health and the health of children.

I agree - try another pest company. Be sure they go under the house to check if you have a raised foundation with a crawl space. Perhaps a mold specialist could be called to check inside the walls - you never know there could be small leak in nearby piping causing moistness allowing mold to grow. Maybe holes could be poked in the drywall to check for anything behind it and then patched up and repainted. If all else fails, I guess you could consider having the floor boards replaced and recarpeted. Kilz is supposed to be good regarding repainting. Lastly, be sure your kids aren't playing tricks on you and continuing to put an offensive odor in the closet (an oil, urine, something you can't see)just to see you frustrated- I know it's not a pleasant thought but I have heard of teenagers playing dirty tricks on their parents before.....

I have heard that white vinegar and water works. I used it to remove urine smell from my son's room, you will have to deal with the vinegar smell for a while but then it is gone. When you replaced the carpet did you replace the pad also? Sometime things get trapped in the pads. GOOD LUCK!!!

ok, one thing I would not do, as one person on here suggested, is call a mold specialist. If they go under your house, and find any mold,( and why wouldn't they, mold surrounds us) it could cost you thousands of dollars for them to rid you of it. And if you opt for them to not "rid" you of it they make you sign a paper saying you denied having it cleaned up (that covers their butt in case any problems arise later.) If you ever had to sell the house, you would have to disclose the fact that they found mold. That would cause another specialist to be called in, and potentially thousands of dollars anyway. Not to mention the fact that most people would freak if they were to get a mold disclosure on a potential home.

If no animals are found, I'd just replace the underlament(the subflooring under the carpet.)and then the wallboard if replacing the underlament doesn't work. By the way, I've had plenty of mold show up around my home, especially in the bathrooms, and it has NEVER let out a smell. rank smells come from something decomposing and the bacteria that comes to eat/thrive on it.

Other ideas: my parents had a rank smell coming out of a new couch they bought once. It was a formaldehyde type smell. I was the only one who could smell it. It seemed to be coming from the wood. Check your wood hangers, if you have any. spray the inside doornob with lysol in case a kid had foodie hands. Check those piano books, books can harbor nasty smells. Are you sure it's coming from the closet. If it is near the front door, could the smell be oozing in from a near area, maybe a broken sewer pipe in front under the lawn, etc? Make sure no one is sleep walking in your home and using the coat room as a toilet. My boy would sleepwalk when he was about 3 or 4, and he would go to a lego bucket and pee in it, thinking it was the toilet. After weeks of his room smelling I finally narrowed it down to that stinky lego bucket!gak!

Hi N.,

I am not sure if this will work or not but Nature's Cure is a pet odor remover that is very effective. I have used it on various stinky smells, and it gets it out immediately. Maybe you could wash the closet with it and then mop the floor with it as well. Hope this helps.

Molly

did you notice any stains on the wood when you replaced the carpet? If so... the smell is in the wood...

I 2nd the Natures cure... that's some crazy wonderful stuff!

BLEACH... dilute and wash everything... there is a paint primer... I think it's called KILZ ??? Home depot... you might have trapped odor under your new paint... the Kils is suposed to seal it so it won't get out...

Did you just move in? or did this smell just materialize? You have teenagers... time for a quiz... they might not want to tell what they put in there .... LOL.. What about old stinky shoes... My husband will love that I'm sharing this... but he used to wear his sneakers sockless... and once on a family trip he kicked his shoes off... about 5 minutes later... everyone completely freaked out about the odor... ONLY because they were his only pair of shoes on the trip did they NOT get thrown out... but his dad pulled over and tied them up in hefty bags... THAT GROSS..

Good Luck!