Odor removal only works if the source goes. Sprays and plug-in air fresheners cover a smell for a day. The musty odor after a basement flood, the sewage smell after a backup, and pet urine in carpet pad all come from something physical still in the house. Our job is to find it and remove or neutralize it.
After water damage, a lingering musty smell usually means something didn't dry. Maybe it's wet pad under carpet that was dried from the top, insulation inside a wall, or a subfloor under vinyl plank. We check with a moisture meter first. If something is still wet, deodorizing won't fix it. Structural drying or removal will.
For sewage odor, we clean affected framing and concrete, apply an antimicrobial, and seal it with an odor-blocking primer if needed. For pet urine, we find the spots with a UV light, then treat the carpet, pad and subfloor with an enzyme product that breaks down the urine salts. Heavily soaked pad gets replaced and the subfloor gets sealed.
Some jobs need air treatment. We use hydroxyl generators, which can run with people in the house, and ozone generators for severe cases in an empty space. Ozone isn't safe to breathe, so the house has to be empty during treatment and aired out afterward.
Odor removal is often the last step of a sewage cleanup or mold remediation job, and it's what tells you the house is really back to normal.
