smelly carpets

[peps]

can any one tell me how to freshen up my carpets, without having to get new ones, we have three dogs so it does smell rather doggy.We hired an industrial cleaner a few weeks ago, and have noticed more of a smell!

[smudge]

Wouldn't getting rid of the dogs be easier then? Sorry, I'm not into dogs as you can probably tell....!

[woofgang]

If your carpets are really...how shall I put this...pungent, you may need to clean two or three times. Currently with the humid weather, our house does get a bit..redolent...and I find that on clean carpets, febreze helps. A traditional remedy is to sprinkle bicarbonate of soda on the carpet, brush in with a stiff broom, leave over night and then vacuum out (originally beat out with a carpet beater). If you decide to try this, make sure that your carpet is BONE DRY and if your carpet is dark in colour, be prepared to vacuum loads to get all the bicarb up

[Toffee]

I line up with smudge. There's a price to pay for keeping three dogs. Write to Aggie and Kim.

[smudge]

Thanks Toffe, I can just smell those carpets from here! Incidentally, I remember years back when we were house hunting, some dog owners were unaware of the stink of dog odour when showing us around. One owner even showed us the garden through the patio door glass & it was covered in dog poo. They didn't bat an eye lid, neither did the dogs! Needless to say, we didn't even bother looking around the upstairs, just made our excuses & left!

[Headtime]

I've heard that if "You do the Shake n'Vac" it will "put the freshness back".

[woofgang]

We did use shake n vac, but it made our dog's paws hot and itchy so had to discontinue. Incidentally I am with Toffee and smudge about cleanliness, there is no doubt that if you choose to keep a dog (or kids) it will involve more home cleaning and deoderising than if you do not. Our house is a house with a dog in it, not a kennel with people in it...have had similar experiences while househunting... pls don't tar us all with the same brush!

[peps]

I am a very clean person and like to keep my house clean, hence the reason of asking for some helpful hints on freshening up my carpet! so thank you to all the genuine advice

[woofgang]

peps, I wasn't tarring you and hope that my last post did not offend, it was aimed at smudge and toffee

[peps]

none taken woofgang :-)

[cheyenne]

rent a steam cleaner once a month??they reckon the road is much cleaner than peoples carpets/

[hedgehog]

We have 3 dogs and I have resorted to replacing the downstairs carpets with laminate and rugs, which are easier to keep clean and odour-free. A carpet machine lifts dirt and odour which was previously in the underlay, which is probably why you noticed an increase in the smell, but I found it only lasted a day or two, until the carpet was thoroughly dry again. If it's still there, maybe it needs a second go, or it may be worth getting in a company with a deep steam cleaning machine? I know they are expensive, but I hear the results are a lot better than from the hire shop machines.