How To Eliminate Common Home Odors

Your furry friend greeting you at the door is a welcome sight — until you walk in and inhale a strong, sour smell. Once it hits you, all you can think about is how to get rid of the pet odor in your house. 

All pet owners have experienced this before and know how stubborn those smells can be. Not only do they make your space unpleasant to be in, but they also hurt the quality of the air you breathe.

In order to enjoy both your pet and your home, it helps to understand what causes those bad smells, why they linger for so long, and how you can prevent them. If you are still struggling to remove pet odors and restore freshness in your home, you can reach out to us at First Call any time and learn more about how we can help.

And now, let’s dig into the smelly world of pet odors!

The Most Common Pet Odors and Why They Hang Around

Pet urine is one of the hardest odors to combat and remove from the home. If it is not cleaned up quickly, it can seep into the carpets, walls, floorboards, and furniture and dry there. Once this happens, it is almost impossible to reach and remove. 

Pet dander, the small bits of skin animals shed, is another common source of household odors. Although you can’t see it, dander builds up over time, adding to the general smell. 

Cat owners can also struggle with overpowering litter boxes, while dog owners have to combat the “wet dog” smell lingering long after their furry friends have dried. 

When smells enter the air of your home, things like fans, ventilation, and your HVAC system move them around and help them disperse. But when these things are poor or dirty, odors can build up.  

At that point, having a professional cleaning and restoration company inspect your home can be the fastest way to understand the root problem and address it.

4 Ways to Prevent Pet Odor From Staying in Your Home

1. Act Quickly

The first way to stop pet odors from building up in your home is to stay on top of the things that cause them. Being quick to clean up pet accidents and maintaining a regular schedule of dusting and vacuuming can help minimize the pet odors in the home. 

2. Clean Thoroughly

Understanding how to prevent pet odor in your carpet is especially helpful, since urine can be one of the hardest odors to beat. 

If you’re lucky enough to find the accident before it dries on your carpet or couch, there are a few tricks that can help. The most important thing is to pick up excess moisture in those initial moments. To do this, you can layer paper towels over the area, sprinkle baking soda on the spot, and use household products like white vinegar to neutralize the urine smell.

3. Neutralize

But, sometimes you find the pee stain after it’s completely dry. When this happens, it means the full amount of moisture from the original accident had time to seep below the surface. This can make it much harder to clean. 

The best thing to try is soaking the area with cool water and using paper towels to soak up water and urine. Then, sprinkle it with baking soda and let it sit overnight.  In the morning, use your vacuum to suck up the baking soda and, hopefully, the lingering smells with it. 

4. Call the Professionals

If you are wondering how to get pet odor out of furniture or carpets, these are some of the best things you can do. But, sometimes cleaning isn’t enough. When nothing is helping lift the smells from your home, the issue may be with the air itself.

What Scents Neutralize Pet Odor the Best? Why Covering Up Isn’t the Best Route

You might be wondering if there are scents you can use to neutralize pet odors, especially if paired with your cleaning efforts. Air fresheners and perfumed smells will only layer on top of the smell, creating an unpleasant effect. 

When you are trying to bust a stubborn pet odor, you want to focus on clearing the air rather than filling it with more scents.

Because lingering odors can be a sign of bad air quality in your home, you want to avoid anything that can add more harmful particles to your air. Instead, you want to focus on household items that can neutralize the pet odor and candles that clean the air rather than pollute it. 

Vinegar is a wonder for household cleaning. As we explained above, it is very helpful for tackling pet accidents and odors at their source. Using it as your first line of defense when cleaning up after your pets will help break down and remove most of the smells that other carpet cleaners leave untouched. 

Beeswax candles are known for their ability to clean up the air in the home and have the added benefit of looking and smelling nice. However, they are not powerful enough to clear a whole room of an especially strong or persistent odor.

When you’re ready to remove pet odor from your home for good, it’s best to start with a professional air quality test.

Restore Clean Air Quality to Your Home with Help From the Professionals

Sometimes, despite your best efforts, pet odors persist. In these cases, seeking professional help can be a game-changer. Professional air quality testing can identify hidden sources of odors, such as dander build-up in air ducts.

When we perform an air quality test, we take samples from around the home and have them assessed by multiple indoor air quality specialists. We use this to show you where the likely problems are, whether with your HVAC system, your home ventilation, or your plumbing.

We use this information to build you a customized plan for remediation and professional cleaning. We then retest once these efforts are complete to make sure your home’s air quality is restored and those pesky pet odors are gone for good. 

Understanding what caused the odors to stay in your home and addressing any big issues makes it easier to prevent them from returning. That is why investing in these services can create a more comfortable and healthier environment for you and your pets. 

First Call is Your Best Friend When Battling Pet Odors in the Home: Learn More Today

When you want to get rid of pet odors in your home, remember these four things: act quickly, clean thoroughly, neutralize, and when necessary, call the professionals. 

From regular cleaning routines to proactive pet care, there are many ways to keep your home smelling great. But sometimes, there are bigger problems causing your air to smell. And that is when seeking professional help can make all the difference. 

To learn more about how to enhance your home’s air quality, check out First Call’s air quality testing services. You can take a big step toward restoring your home’s air quality by requesting a free inspection and quote through our online form today. 

Next, let’s look at one of the most difficult—and disgusting—animal smells to try to get rid of around your house.

Does Your Home Stink? Get Rid of Smoke, Skunk & Mold Smells

There’s nothing worse than being hit with an odor as you walk into your home. Though some are easier to disperse, such as the lingering smells of last night’s dinner or your wet dog running through the house, others seem to sink into the walls for good. The odors that are hardest to get rid of are often the worst ones, such as smoke, skunk, or mold.

If you’re wondering if you can clear the air in your home after one of these foul smells has settled in, you can. But, it will take patience and the right solutions. 

After years of helping Winston-Salem and other suburban North Carolina towns restore clean air to their homes, we at First Call have learned how to help your home smell good again while also making it a safe environment for your family. Contact us for more information.

Here’s how we handle a few common smells:

Where There Was Fire, There’s Smoke. How to Make Your Home Smell Good Again By Putting Safety First

When a fire occurs in your home, it is a scary, even tragic, experience. Once it is over, the smell of smoke settles in like a ghost determined to haunt your home forever. We can hear the desperation in the voices of our customers who just want to return to normal after their homes are restored, but can’t because of the smell.

It is possible to get rid of the smoke smell in your home, but that is only part of what should cause concern. Even the smoke caused by a minor fire can have dangerous consequences, so it is best to call a fire restoration company to assess the areas affected.

At First Call, your family’s safety is our priority. That is why we use the best products and solutions to remove the smells from your home. Rather than replace smells with toxic chemicals, we use natural products whenever possible to leave your home safer than when we arrived.

How to Get Rid of Skunk Smell in the Home, With or Without a Skunk

Sometimes you know why your house smells like skunk, but other times it isn’t obvious. Some of the reasons your house could smell include:

• You or your pets were recently sprayed
• A skunk sprayed inside your house
• A skunk died nearby
• You have skunks living on your property

In order to get rid of the smell, you need to locate where the smell is strongest. As difficult as this may be, it is the first step to remove the smell. 

Once you locate the place where the smell is strongest, where the skunk sprayed or where your stinky pet laid down, you will have to treat it a few times.

Some of the best options for removing skunk smell include chlorine bleach, baking soda, and dish soap. If you suspect that the skunk may still be around, call your local wildlife authorities to have it removed safely.

What Does Mold in a Home Smell Like, and How Do I Remove It?

Mold is one of the scariest smells you can detect in a house because of the dangers it poses to you and your family’s health. But, how can you tell it’s mold and not something else? Mold in the home will have an unnatural smell. You may also notice that it smells musty, as if there is lingering moisture.

If something smells a little off, it is best to call a mold remediation company to look into it. When mold is present, it is important to address both the mold itself and its root cause: moisture.

In southeastern cities like Burlington, Raleigh and Greensboro, humidity creates a perpetually moist environment perfect for mold growth. That is why working with a local company to remove the mold is so important.

We have extensive experience helping North Carolina homeowners learn how to dehumidify their houses and get rid of the mold for good. Rather than just remove the mold, we offer a full suite of moisture control and mold removal services to solve the problem. These include:

• Dehumidifying the area
• Containment setup
• Filtering the air
• Removing any mold-contaminated removal
• Reconstruction
• Black mold removal
• Comprehensive clean up

Learn more about what causes mold growth and how our services prevent these things.

We Know How to Keep Your Home Smelling Fresh. Make Us Your First Call

If smoke, skunk, or mold smells are ruining your home environment, don’t wait. Contact us today. We are here to give you peace of mind by keeping your home smelling fresh, and more important, safe and clean beneath the surface.

The Important and Surprising Role of Essential Oils in Remediation

We take our responsibility to you—and the environment—seriously. That’s why we use natural solutions and cleaners to treat mold and remove odors from contents and homes.

One of the key elements of this is our use of essential oils in remediation. We’ll provide some great information on the benefits of these natural products as well as answer questions about which essential oils neutralize odors.

We Love Essential Oils

Here at First Call, we have a slight confession to make: We’re doTerra Essential Oil freaks! We Love these oils (yes, with a capital L). Our oils fix inner-office colds, our oils help us stay hydrated through a rough workday, and our oils are even being used in your homes.

Yeah, First Call trusts doTerra Essential Oils so much we use them throughout most of our services.

Want to know more? We’re glad to provide this useful information on how essential oils can help in remediation.

What Are Essential Oils?

You may have heard your coworkers or friends talk about the benefits of essential oils, but maybe you’re not clear what they are or how they are created.

Basically, essential oils are created by taking plant roots, seeds, flowers or bark and distilling their elements into a natural compound. That is the essential oil. 

Essential oils can provide many additional health benefits. However, research is ongoing and studies on the benefits of essential oils are still being conducted. Because the FDA doesn’t regulate essential oils, the findings cannot be tested or approved by the FDA. We encourage you to do your own additional research and talk to your health care professional if you have any concerns about the use of essential oils.

The Role of Essential Oils in Remediation

Research has been ongoing in the effectiveness in using the antifungal properties of essential oils, particularly those of cloves, lavender and eucalyptus. These oils can inhibit fungal growth in a manner that is more “natural” than using chemical compounds such as bleach and limonene.

The International Journal of Occupational Health cited a study that demonstrated clove oil was the most effective and has shown evidence of improving indoor air quality.

Can Essential Oils Help Eliminate Mold?

Cinnamon

This is a useful oil to place in your home in areas that may be prone to mold. The relaxing, comforting scent is an added bonus.

Thyme

This is one of our personal favorites. At First Call, we use thyme oil in an all-natural solution to treat and remediate mold and the surfaces affected.

Clove

Some claim that the antioxidants in clove oil can help benefit your immune system and help eliminate mold.

Tea Tree

This is an antimicrobial oil, which means it also helps with disinfecting as well as fighting off fungal growth. It’s also helpful for getting rid of the musty smell that accompanies mildew.

What Essential Oil Neutralizes Odors?

When it comes to neutralizing odors, you have a lot of choices when it comes to essential oils. Typically, you’ll want to look for those that have a hint of citrus in them. We recommend oils such as:

• Lemon
• Bergamot
• Grapefruit
• Lime
• Orange
• Lemongrass

First Call: Seeking Natural Solutions for Remediation

Along with our essential oils, our cleaners are all-natural and botanical. We use an entire line of degreasers, disinfectants, and multipurpose cleaners from a company called Benefect.

This line of antimicrobials was developed by a family who was personally in need for cleaners that were safe to them and their environment. Their story is listed on their website, along with in-depth information about their product line.

Why did we seek a more natural solution?

Because we at First Call Cleaning & Restoration wanted a way to better our connection with our services. Along with our services, we wanted a way to better connect with our customers. If you have an idea and a vision, just jump into the deep end and try it.

We decided to go all natural, and this process is still evolving within our construction industry. This choice was a risky one, but it was a choice that paid off and continues to distance us from the competition.

First Call now stands out.

First Call now stands apart.

All because First Call decided to stand up for health.

First Call Is the Right Call for Your Project…and the Environment

We don’t use natural products to be popular or to jump upon the latest environmental bandwagon. We do it because it’s the right thing to do. Not only do these products do the job right, but they are also a more natural solution.

For decades, we’ve built a solid reputation upon putting the needs of our customers first, whether helping remediation after flooding or removing black mold.

See how we’re making a difference in the lives of our clients. Contact us for an estimate today.