Why Does My Carpet Smell?

There are few things as frustrating as not being able to get rid of an odor. Carpets can smell for many reasons — pets, kids, mold, and poorly cleaned spills are all the most common causes. Regardless, when your carpet smells, your entire house smells. Getting down to the root of the problem is essential for ensuring that your home is clean and pleasant.

Pet Odors and Lingering Smells

When your carpet still smells, it’s because there’s still something residual left over on the carpet itself. For pet stains or other organic stains, this is very common. Even though you may no longer be able to see a pet stain, there is often some lingering residue. This lingering residue attracts bacteria and germs, which are what eventually create the lingering smell. The only way to get rid of these pet odors is usually through a neutralizing agent, such as an enzymatic remover. Most cleaners work through physical agitation and cleaning, but enzymatic removers break down the actual enzymes that are causing the bad smell.

Carpet and Carpet Padding

But it isn’t always just pet odor or residual staining that is a problem. In fact, you can remove the entirety of a stain from your carpet only to find that the odor (or even the stain) keeps coming back again. That’s because beneath every carpet is a thick layer of padding. Once a stain or spill penetrates the carpet itself, it can soak into that padding — and from there, it’s very difficult to remove. Most household cleaners simply won’t do the trick, and neither will blotting. Over time, the stains and the smells will reemerge.

There are preventative actions that you can take against this. Stainmaster carpeting and similar types of carpet are water-resistant, thereby making it more likely that the stains will sit on the surface. Cleaning your carpet quickly is also a way to make sure that it doesn’t penetrate all the way down to the padding. But once the stain has actually set into the padding, you will nearly always need a professional cleaning service. A professional cleaning system will be able to saturate through both carpet and padding, thereby cleaning up the entirety of the stain.

Environmental Issues

By far the most common environmental issue that will cause a smell in carpeting is smoke. Unlike a liquid stain, smoke will pervade every square inch of both the carpet and the padding. Over time, the entirety of an apartment or a home will smell like smoke — and it won’t matter how often you clean. Similar to saturated stains, the only thing that can generally resolve this is the use of a professional cleaning company. The entirety of the carpet and its padding will need to be washed in order to reclaim it. Similarly, this can happen if there is a fire within a home as well. The smoke smell will stick until it is removed.

Moisture and Dampness

When your carpet gets wet and doesn’t dry thoroughly, that can cause an entire host of issues. Not only will there be a damp smell that’s difficult to get out, but mold and mildew could begin growing underneath the carpet. Once this happens, professional cleaning is the only way to get the carpet smelling like new again.

At-home steam cleaners and carpet cleaners are actually one of the leading contributors to these issues. These carpet cleaning solutions put water down but cannot extract enough of it, leading to moist carpets and a strange odor. This is one of many reasons why at home carpet cleaning and steam cleaning can actually damage carpets over time. Power Pup Clean uses advanced encapsulation techniques that utilize less water — which is both better for the environment and better for your carpet.

Food and Drinks

Probably the most common type of spill on carpeting is food or drinks. Not only can these stain, but because they are organic matter the odor tends to linger, just like pet odors. Like pet odors, organic food and drink matter will eventually host bacteria, and it is this bacteria that will end up creating an unpleasant smell that cannot be removed. Food and drink spills also tend to contain artificial coloring or very deep coloring (such as tomato sauce), which can be nearly impossible to use without the appropriate treatments. Traditional steam cleaning units will use “deodorizers” to try to get rid of the smell, but these actually only cover the smell — leading to a perfumed fragrance over the original scent.

Nearly any odor issue with carpeting can be resolved with the appropriate cleaning, and it’s best to call a professional in. Trying to clean stains yourself could actually push them deeper into the padding or spread them throughout your carpet. There are also cleaning solutions that could be harsh on your carpet, your family, or the environment. A professional cleaning will be able to both remove odors and restore appearance. Contact us today at Power Pup Clean to learn more!