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soc.singles.moderated |
Mikey (..lived in crappy old house in college.) Velochicdunord wrote: Get up-close and personal and put your nose close to the problem.
>As far as I can tell, the mildew smell is coming from either
>the carpets or the furniture. We last had the carpet cleaned
>in 2005. It also has a high voume traffic runner laid across
>it. It's a good question when _that_ last went out for
>cleaning. It may or may not be the source, because, according
>to my friend, the smell was stronger during the summer than
>it is now, when the heating is on.
>Any ideas as to what I should be checking....
If your sniffer aint up to the task, get a second and third opinion.
Hopefully the source is external (carpet, furniture, et al.) as you
say 'cuz those are a relatively easy fix. What you should probably do
is (carefully) remove an electrical covering (like a switch or wall
outlet) and check (and pray) the odor isn't coming from behind the
walls. Also check any nearby closets (whether public or in-unit) for
moisture or 'shrooms. Check the direction of bathroom and laundry
exhausts; there may be just some leaky ductwork.
>and possibly, how to handle it? I think it's 10:1 water/chlorine bleach (..but you should check that
proportion) in a carpet cleaning machine to cure the problem for the
carpet/runner (be sure to ventilate well). Furniture can usually be
cured by a good coating of spray Lysol (also pull dust cloak from
bottom to spray up underneath to the woodwork).
If the odor seems to be coming from behind the walls then I'd
recommend you gitcherself a qualified bona-fide carpentry/drywall
person.
--
"There is no nonsense so gross that society will not, at some
time, make a doctrine of it and defend it with every weapon
of communal stupidity." - Robertson Davies