Archive for Odor

Remove Pet Urine Smell: The Impact of Pet Urine

Ew! Did Fluffy and Fido leave their mark on your carpet again? We love our furry friends, but we don’t like the stains that they leave behind on our carpets. Once the smell sinks into the carpet, the chances of your pet going back to the same spot are very high. Pet urine can be diverse, depending on the makeup of the urine. Depending on your pet’s health, diet, and reproductive cycle, the variations are the deciding factors on whether you’ll be able to remove stains or not. At Sams, we know that pet damage is more than what you see on the surface. With a proper inspection, the Sams team will identify the best course of action to clean the stains and remove the pet urine smell.

Although all accidents will leave permanent stains, urine has the power to affect the dyes used in carpet. Dyes may change colors immediately after contact with urine, while others may take weeks or months before experiencing a reaction. Stains can soon become permanent spots after it develops slowly and time starts to pass. After the deposit, many times, the moisture can weaken the bond between the layers of the carpet, separating the layers and seams.

Another problem to consider, is cat urine. All urine is bad, but cat pee isn’t just disgusting. It’s also dangerous. Urine from your cat can harm your health, and the waste that these pets carry could cause illness. Not only will the urine smell have an effect on your mood, but if you have a respiratory condition the strong odor can irritate and harm your lungs. It’s important that you’re not exposed to the frequency of the pet urine smell in your household.

How We Remove Pet Urine Smell

In order to locate all urine-saturated spots, you have to be mindful and understand that all stains aren’t on the surface but some may have seeped underneath the carpet. We’ve seen it all. Sometimes, accidents can seeping their way down to the padding and passing to the subfloor. When it comes to cleaning, focusing on the surface doesn’t solve the problem. Whether the damage is minimal or not, Sams will evaluate the many possibilities of how the carpet is damaged.

If it’s a minor impact, our trained technicians will perform regular cleaning duties and use enzymes to remove the pet urine smell, which will do the trick for minor causes. For repeat offenders, we will conduct a thorough inspection to assess the severity of damage done. We will use a special light on questionable areas. The Sams team might even pull the carpet and pad back to identify what damage has been done. We offer a variety of services that remove pet urine smell and other odors from your home. Whether it’s pets or cigarette smoke, Sams doesn’t mask the odors. We look to eliminate them.

When you hire the Sams team, you’re hiring trained technicians who care. These technicians will make sure you have the information needed to make educated decisions on when an appropriate job is done right. We’re committed to excellence, professionalism and respect that raises the bar of carpet repair, carpet cleaning and much more.

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Your Local St. Charles County Solution for Odor Removal

“What’s that smell?” This is usually a visitor’s first thought when they’re greeted with an unpleasant odor at any home. Lingering smells that live in your home will soon affect the love you once had for it. Sadly, spraying air freshener won’t solve that stinky issue of yours. In fact, you’ll find that even after showering your place with the finest Febreze on the market, the smell has remained. But never fear – you don’t have to move out of your musty home to escape the stench! Help is closer than you think, right here in St. Charles, MO. Let the Sams team help. Here are a few tips that will help you banish bad odor and kick them to the curb!

Clean Your Air Ducts to Prevent Odors from Spreading

Central heating and air conditioning systems are everyone’s best friend during those hot summers and cold winters. But they can also be a prime place for odors to build up. As the air passes through your hallways, you begin questioning the unpleasant scents you’re smelling. Before you tackle the problem, identify what’s causing your air ducts to smell. If you’re a do-it-yourselfer, you can try cleaning your condenser coils and collection pan utilizing a strong cleaning solution, preferably one with bleach, to kill off mold. Using your vacuum, suck up loose dust or debris from the fins and coils. If the smell wasn’t coming from the air conditioning unit, then it can be coming from any part of the duct system, and you’ll need professional help for that.

Clean Your Home to Address Odors at the Source

You’re going to pick up those dirty socks, right? Honestly, this is something you should already be doing, but if you’re just letting your teenager’s cleats lay around it’s time to make a change. Clean your home thoroughly with cleaning solutions and antibacterial rags regularly. Be sure to pay attention to places you normally wouldn’t clean, such as cabinets, window sills, vents, and under the sink. Take it one step further and wipe down the walls, baseboards, doors and countertops.

Dog & Cat on bed

Eliminate Pet Odors

You think Fluffy and Fido only leave odors behind when they have an accident? Think again. Just like us, dogs sweat when they’re hot, and the body parts that produce the greatest smells are bigger on dogs. Their paw pads spread on your carpets, floors, sofa and any other thing they can stand on. It may be best to keep Fluffy and Fido on a routine bathing and grooming schedule to reduce the aroma that’s sticking around. Speaking of sticking, let’s talk about those accidents on your carpet. A lot of accidents, specifically urine, can leave permanent stains – affecting the dyes on your floor. With a proper inspection, Sams will identify the best course of action to clean the stains and remove odor. Click here to read about the impact of urine deposits on your carpet.

Clean Your Carpet and Upholstered Furniture

“Knock, knock. Who’s there?” It’s the stench you’ve been stressing over. Pull out those odors in your carpet with a vacuum cleaner. A vacuum can help to keep your home smelling fresh by getting rid of dirt and other particles lodged in your carpet. To help with your vacuuming process, you can try an “at-home” remedy for odors and use baking soda. Try sprinkling it on your fabrics surface, letting it settle overnight, and vacuuming the carpet for the best results. Although this is an odor neutralizer, this will only get you so far. Instead of taking your chances, call a professional.

Call Your St. Charles Odor Removal Professionals

At Sams, we’re experts in eliminating offensive odors, and our trained technicians help identify areas holding the harsh smells. By highlighting the cause and location of the odor, we’re able to determine an appropriate course of action to remedy the situation. The science of identifying these areas can be tricky, but our cutting-edge equipment helps restore your home. We’re passionate about helping our customers maximize the enjoyment of their space. Between our infrared lighting technology to identify the cause of many odors to our thermo fog process and dehumidifiers, we’ll be sure to hunt down the problem, neutralize odors and kill pollutants.

So, what are you waiting for? Give us a call today and free your family of those stinky fumes. We love our community, and we would love the opportunity to be welcomed into your home. Let us properly remove the odor, and leave the restoration process to us.

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Follow This Checklist Before Selling Your House

Warm weather is here and just like all the flowers springing up in your yard, so are “FOR SALE” signs. Spring and summer are popular times to sell a house. If you’re planning to put your house on the market, your home must stand out and look its best. Sams is here to help you make that happen. Following this checklist will ensure your house is refreshed, renewed, and ready for a quick sale at top dollar.

Take Care of Offensive Odors at the Source

The moment that a potential buyer opens the door to your home, they begin to form a laundry list of impressions. Those first impressions can make all the difference in whether your home gets the offers it deserves. Good or bad, the way your home smells can set it apart from others.

You might not even realize that your home has a particular odor that could turn potential buyers off, but a real estate agent (or even your best friend) will point this out to you.

If odor is a problem in your home, Sams can take care of those funky smells and create an environment that’s pleasing to the noses of your potential buyers. Air fresheners create an unnatural smell and only temporarily cover up smells. Some potential home buyers may even be allergic to them or not like the scents you chose. The smell you’re looking for us “clean,” and there’s really only one way to get it. So leave this job to the pros!

Check out Sams’ specialized services to help with eliminating odors, whether it’s to help sell your current home or make your new one more enjoyable.

Clean Carpet is a Must

There are many in the real estate business who would advise that a total carpet replacement is needed when selling a house. We agree that stained, worn, or dirty carpets will surely turn many buyers away. But you may not need to replace your carpet at all when you rely on Sams! We have expertise in carpet cleaning and stain removal. We can even employ patching or spot dying for particularly tough areas. Even ripples and indentations are no match for the Sams team.

Remember that most buyers only spend moments in a house, and if they find themselves in a room with dirty or damaged carpets, they are far less likely to make your home their own.

Don’t Ignore Your Tile and Grout

Bathrooms and kitchens are where homebuyers focus most of their attention when viewing properties. Moldy or dingy tile and grout in these rooms can make or break a homebuyer’s impression. While tile is great because of its durability, it can be difficult to get truly clean. Many people do not know that tile and grout can be cleaned and made to look new again, giving your kitchen, bathroom, or any tiled room in your home a facelift. A visit from Sams can turn drab tile and grout into a showstopper.

Freshen Up Your Upholstery Furniture

Even though the person buying your home won’t likely be buying your furniture with it, it’s part of what they see when viewing your home. Stained or dirty furniture can leave potential homebuyers with a bad impression of your home overall. We understand all upholstery is different, and Sams knows the best way to clean and beautify your furniture again.  Do yourself a favor and have it cleaned so your home looks great for showing, and you will have clean furniture for your new home! It’s a win-win all around.

Eliminate Signs of Pets

We love our furry friends, but the reality is that having pets in the home can lead to fur trapped in hard-to-clean places such as carpeting or furniture. Pets can also be the cause of the odors we pointed out earlier.  While diligent vacuuming can keep the fur somewhat under control, it doesn’t always take care of the fur that has embedded deep in your carpets, or the smell your pet can leave behind. Even the best-trained pet can have an accident from time to time, and the moisture can penetrate below the carpet, into the padding or even the subfloor. Save yourself the hassle (or even worse) the need to get new carpet, and let Sams take care of it for a truly deep clean. Your future homebuyers will thank you.

Selling a home can be stressful and we are here to help you take the stress out of the process by getting your ready to be a show stopper from the moment a potential buyer sets foot inside your door. Call Sams today to schedule a cleaning before you list your home for sale this year!

Learn how we prepare your home for a fast sale at top dollar:

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How to Remove Carpet Smells and Other Household Odors

Smelly carpet can happen to anyone. You spill something on your carpet or the kids bring home sweat-soaked athletic wear from their daily sports practice. Your pet’s unfortunate accident. A leak in your home causes a stain on your carpet. Smelly carpet can also be caused by humidity in an area of your home or crawlspace that is virtually unseen.

No matter the cause, carpet stains and odor are unfortunate and inevitable facts of home ownership. It’s common to seek do-it-yourself remedies for carpet stains and damage. But proper treatment is critical in addressing the odor that can be left behind. When left untreated, carpet and other smelly odors can become very difficult to eliminate. Learn how to treat carpet odor and have your home smelling like new again.

Eliminate Carpet Odors at the Source

The first step to treating carpet odor is to identify what’s causing it. Carpet is a warm “welcome home,” but it requires care and maintenance. Carpet that isn’t properly cleaned can become an odor magnet, harboring everything that has been brought across it. If you think of everyone and everything that walks across your carpet, it’s not hard to imagine why it might develop odor problems. Carpet odor is the result of what’s in and has soaked below your carpet. Carpet odor can be caused by pets, human foot traffic, food, soil, and the general dust and debris we bring into our homes on our shoes and feet.

Once you’ve properly diagnosed the source of what’s causing your carpet odor, it’s time to clean your carpets and treat the odor. It’s important to ensure the cleaning and odor treatment you select will also address the carpet pad and underlay. This area below your actual carpet can hold excess moisture and cause additional odors if not cleaned properly. It can be hard to know if your carpet odor is coming from the pad and underlay without the help of a professional carpet cleaning company.

Knock Out Cooking, Sport, Air Odor Smells

Cooking fish for family dinner or using certain seasonings can cause strong odors to linger in the air. Your children come home from a long and hard practice and leave their stinky socks and clothes on a rug, carpet, chair, or anywhere they choose. Over time odors can start getting into your carpets, walls, furniture, and cabinets.  To completely remove these orders, you will need to wipe down everything with a cleaning product that is specially made for your wood furniture and cabinets.

A professional carpet cleaning company like Sams will clean your carpets, area rugs, and upholstered furniture deep down to remove these odors. For air orders, Sams also specializes in processes using odorized equipment to filter and clean the air.

Cut Through Smoke Smells

Maybe your uncle smoked a cigar in your home while visiting, though you kindly asked him not to. Or you had a small accident with a fireplace when you forgot to open the flute. Smoke from either of these can cause lingering odors and you will need to address them right away. If the smoke damaged the walls, you need to clean them. Depending upon how bad it is, you might need to use an oil-based paint to cover the smoke film on the wall. To completely remove smoke smells and residue from carpet, upholstered furniture, and area rugs, contact the professionals Sams Carpet Cleaning & Repairs. Sams can evaluate the situation and give you an appropriate plan of action.

The Most Effective Solution: Professional Carpet Cleaning

A quick online search will reveal plenty of do-it-yourself solutions for home odors, but be careful. Always test a small portion before going all out. Sometimes DIY solutions can cause even more damage.

The best remedy for many household odors is a call to Sams Carpet Cleaning and Repairs, the St. Louis area’s most trusted provider of carpet cleaning and odor removal services. Our professionally trained technicians use the latest technology and equipment available to treat your carpet odor at the source. Sams Carpet Cleaning and Repairs will assess your carpet, area rugs, and upholstery prior to beginning work to ensure we’ve identified the proper solution for your odor problem. In addition to treating carpet odors, we’re also equipped with odorized machines to purify and eliminate odors from the air in your home.

Your home is your refuge. It’s where you land at the end of a long day. Don’t let odors make your home an unpleasant place to be. Contact Sams Carpet Cleaning and Repairs today for a free estimate and assessment for those stubborn odors you simply can’t treat yourself. Sams Carpet Cleaning and Repairs is locally owned and operated in St. Louis and we’ll treat your home as if it were our own.

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How to Identify and Eliminate Odors in Your Home

Every house has its own smell. You’ve likely noticed it when visiting someone’s home for the first time or returning to a family member’s home you haven’t visited in years. You may have even noticed it upon returning to your own home after a vacation or long business trip. That smell of a home is really a combination of the odors of everything in the house. In most cases, its pleasant and familiar. But when its not, you want it fixed fast.

An unpleasant smell in your home can be caused by mildew, pets, smoke, cooking, and untold other sources. But you don’t just have to live with it. In this article, we will break down how to identify the cause of the odor invading your home, how the Sams team can help you eliminate it, and how to prevent future problems.

My House Stinks: Identifying the Source of the Odor
You may already know what’s causing the unpleasant smell in your home. If that’s the case, you can skip to the next section on odor elimination. But if you haven’t yet figured out what’s causing your home to smell, here’s how to identify it.

Step 1: Approach it with a Fresh Nose
Your senses can play tricks on you. Reset your sense of smell by stepping outside for a few minutes before returning to the house to track down the odor.

Step 2: Isolate the Source of the Smell
If the smell is pervasive enough to be present in every room, this can be tricky. But with patience, you should be able to move through the house and identify which room or part of the home the smell is strongest in.

Step 3: Investigate and Eliminate the Cause
Once you have the scent cornered, it’s time to dive deep. Is there a pet accident that’s gone undetected? Is there a water leak? Has a teenager been stashing food or dirty dishes? Are shoes or sweaty clothing the culprit? Some of these causes are a bigger deal than others. But once you’ve identified what’s causing the scent, mitigate the cause. In some cases, throwing out the source of the smell will eliminate the odor on its own. But sometimes, the damage is done and the odor lingers.

Eliminating Odors in Your Home
Depending on the type of odor you’re dealing with, Sams Carpet Cleaning & Repairs has several tools at our disposal to help you eliminate it. Here’s how we use our three most powerful ones to stop odor at the source:

Thermo Fog: Fine particles of fog penetrate contaminated surfaces and reach into cracks, crevices, and voids to neutralize smoke, food, pet, and other odors. This treatment is incredibly effective, and treated areas need to be vacated for 2-4 hours after the process is completed.

Ozone Machines: These machines don’t simply mask or filter the air in your home. They change it. We use ozone machines to convert normal oxygen (O2) to ozone or activated oxygen (O3) that breaks down odors at the source instead of just temporarily covering them up. You’ll need to leave your home while the machine is running.

Dehumidifiers: for smells with a root cause related to moisture, we turn to powerful dehumidifiers to reduce humidity and create an environment where mold and mildew are less likely to grow and cause problems.

Preventing Future Odors
Once the smell is gone from your home, you can turn your attention toward preventing future issues. We suggest these six tips for avoiding future home odor situations:

Avoid anyone smoking inside your home. Create an atmosphere that is comfortable outside for those who choose to smoke.

  • Avoid anyone smoking inside your home. Create an atmosphere outside that is comfortable for those who choose to smoke.
  • Clean regularly. A clean home smells better and will help you identify odor causes sooner.
  • Have your air ducts professionally cleaned. You would be surprised what we can find in Air Ducts!
  • Have your upholstery furniture and carpets professionally cleaned regularly.
  • Clean your walls, cabinets, and ceiling. Detailed cleaning of hard services in your home will also give it a fresh new look!
  • Address pet accidents quickly to minimize damage and scent.

Home is supposed to be your happy place. If a pervasive odor is preventing that, call the experts at Sams Carpet Cleaning and Repairs. Our technicians will help stop the smell at its source.

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Issues That Affect Odor and Indoor Air Quality

Odors in your home can come from everywhere and everything, including (but certainly not limited to) cooking, pets, smoke, and even dirty clothes.  Headaches, dizziness, and fatigue, as well as irritation of the eyes, nose and throat are all possible side effects of short-term exposure to pollutants found in indoor air with poor quality.  Health effects from poor indoor air quality can be experienced soon after exposure or even up to years later.

The quality of the air in your home can directly affect the health of you and your loved ones.  But not to worry, because there are a number of things you can do to reduce odors and keep your home smelling fresh and clean.

  • Have your air ducts cleaned. Dirty air ducts and dryer vents can not only restrict air flow throughout your home, but they can also affect your health.  Not only can we clean them for you, but we also use an Anti-Microbial Disinfectant to inhibit the growth of molds, mildews, and odor causing bacteria.  This will help keep the air in your home fresher, longer!
  • Thoroughly clean carpets and upholstered furniture. Your furniture, as well as your carpets, can play host to all kinds of dirt, bacteria, and odors that can affect the air quality of your home.  We use a number of steps to care for each one and help improve air quality.
  • Remove pet urine immediately. If not treated quickly, pet urine odor can be incredibly tricky to completely remove.  We can determine just how severe the odor damage may be and proper course of treatment to remove the odor. This could range anywhere from minor impact, which may only require a simple cleaning, to a more intense impact, which may require cleaning the subfloor, padding, carpet backing, and sealing the subfloor.  No matter the severity, we can help your home smell clean and free of pet odors again.
  • Heavy duty cleaning of walls, ceilings, cabinets, etc. This is especially helpful with cooking smells and smoke. Be sure to only use products that are meant to be used on these types of surfaces.  Repainting walls, ceilings, or wooden furniture would also help to cover up any lingering odors.
  • Dust frequently and properly. The hard surfaces and floors in your home should be cleaned at least once a week with a damp rag or mop to capture the dirt and dust.  Dry cloths and feather dusters will just push those allergens and dust right back into the air.
  • Invest in a dehumidifier. Humidity levels in your basement or crawl spaces can easily become quite high, created a moldy or musty smell.  A dehumidifier will reduce the humidity level and the subsequent mold; keeping your home smelling fresh.

Candles are another great way to reduce odors in your home. However, candles can sometimes leave a trace of soot in rugs or carpets that can be quite difficult to remove depending on the severity of the soot.  Keep an eye on your candles and don’t burn them for too long at one time.  Although they tend to be a bit more expensive, soot free candles are certainly an option.

As always, if you have any questions or concerns, Sams is here to help.  Feel free to contact us at any time.

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