Most people love to save some extra money on carpet cleaning by doing the task themselves. However, some of them would end up as clean but smelly carpets! So, why does this happen? Let’s find out!
4 reasons for lingering carpet smells
- Longer drying time needed
Underlay usually takes more time to dry because it’s not exposed to light and air. If a carpet is oversoaked in the cleaning process, it will need a longer drying time to eliminate any moisture. As well as a bad smell, failure to dry carpets properly can lead to mold developing, which could even cause breathing issues.
- Low-quality carpet cleaning
One of the risks of using a cheap carpet cleaning service is that the equipment used may not be top-notch. It can lack the power to remove all excess water, leaving you with a soggy carpet and a hard smell to get rid of.
You could also find that your chosen carpet cleaner is inexperienced and doesn’t use the correct amount of solution or rinse the carpet thoroughly enough. It’s extremely important to the health of your carpet to use a professional, reputable service that has experience in cleaning all types of carpets.
- Persistent stains
Stains such as urine, vomit and feces can find their way into your carpet – especially if you have pets and young children. There is also the likelihood of walking things into your carpet from outside, meaning all of these unsavory substances are easily soaked through to the underlay. The smell will inevitably linger, due to the salts and protein that are in bodily fluids. Even after the initial stain is cleared up, these salts will cling to your carpet fibers and keep nasty smells in the room.
- Regular smoking
Cigarette smoke is full of chemicals and tar, making it very thick and easy to disappear into carpets. Clinging to the fibers of your carpet, the stale odor of cigarettes is notoriously difficult to remove. Even after a clean, unless it is carried out by a professional cleaning service, you are likely to still have lingering smells. Source: NCCA
How long should carpets smell after cleaning?
Whenever you have your carpets steam cleaned they won’t be completely dry which will eventually lead to a damp carpet smell. Usually this type of odor shouldn’t last longer than a day or two maximum, but there are a few factors that could affect that.
Since the carpets are installed directly on the floors, they are prone to collecting moisture for longer time periods, which is probably the number one reason why a carpet has a musty smell after being sanitized. Although you can freely walk on your carpet after it has undergone the steam cleaning procedure, that doesn’t mean that the wetness stuck in the fibers is completely gone.
Depending on how much direct sunlight there is in the room and the air ventilation in it, the wet carpet smell may stay for longer than two days, which will mean that the carpet can’t dry properly. The carpet padding retains all the leftover water and that’s why it causes unpleasant smells – the carpet doesn’t have to be soaking wet, in order to have a bad smell, most often even little amounts of moisture stuck in the fibers can turn the carpet into a mold and awful smell incubator.
And as we have already mentioned, there are different types of carpet smell after cleaning, so if you happen to have smelly carpets, depending on the origin of the odor, it may take more or less time to get rid of the musty smells. Source: Number One Carpet Cleaning
Other Ways to Improve Carpet Drying
Beyond using professional fans and carpet grooming equipment, there are plenty of other things you can do to help things dry out.
- Open up the windows in your home (assuming it’s a nice day with a comfortable outdoor temperature). The airflow will speed drying
- Run the fan on your HVAC system. If it’s summer time and you have an AC unit, feel free to use that, or heat in the winter. Otherwise, just the fan mode works well too. The idea is to circulate air and few things circulate air through your house as well as your HVAC system.
- Use your own fans – box fans or otherwise – to help move air around on the especially damp areas. Source: MSS Cleaning
If you start giving up on the cleaning and want to restore your carpet to its former glory, then don’t hesitate to seek our help. Just call on the number below!
