Ultimate Challenge

I just received a call from a real estate agent asking if I did miracles? She has a home going on the market with 2 areas that she has described as "impossible" to clean, but the owners are on the verge of losing the home and can't afford to replace it. Another agent suggested that I could handle it.

The first area is a basement that has been destroyed by 3 cats. It has the whole pallet of ills from feces to urine contamination. Being on cement, I think I can do the old trash can of OSR and gain some success with that one.

It is the other room that will be the challenge. A teenage daughter's room that is in horrible shape they said. Not only was she a slob, but she was a heavy pot smoker and bong user. Yup, the exact kind of contaminated room that I have spoken about would become more common place now that neighboring States have legalized MJ. So there are stains of all kinds covering the entire rainbow of colors and odors to match. It has never been professionally cleaned before and probably never even vacuumed for that matter.

The other cleaners in that city all turned down the job, so it came to me. Normally, I would pass on this one too, but there is a chance to pull off a miracle and put my competition to shame. I am no stranger to haz-mat jobs and this is certainly one of them, but if I can make this house presentable, I will have the mother of before and after shots for the website.

I plan to document this job from start to finish and maybe even shoot video. They are paying a premium and it will take a couple of hours to clean the equipment after, but the chance to pull off the cleaning that 9 companies said couldn't be done was too much of a temptation to say no.

So, the job will be next Sunday in the morning with results posted that evening.....be looking for it.

May the force be with you Obi. I figured the basement with the three cats would be the tough one given the choice of cat pee odor or mary jane.

Good luck. It doesn't sound fun.

It will not be fun, but a good test of ability. I still don't know how people live like that, some people should still live in caves.

Saw a video years ago. A guy rigged up a trash can with a sump pump. Put hot water in with OCR; recirculate. Then used a flower water gun. The kind with 25 little pin holes on the head. He'd hose, yes hose down the affected area, then go over with a weighted wheel to squish the OSR around and in. Then water claw.....
Only guy in the area that was serious about pet urine jobs. Yes he got a premium price. Like, $100/RM +

Gonna fog the place??
I would, as I'm done and walking out.

That is pretty much the plan with the basement. Trash can mixture and soaking that floor. Strong extraction and then treating as a flood job with air movers and Dehu units.

The bedroom will see a more traditional method. I just picked up a new wall paper steamer for much of the color stains and service up the rotary unit. The cannibis part is going to be the interesting part of the job.....have a few ideas to try.

The point of the experiment will be to show not only what "can" be done with a professional cleaning as well as what "can't" be done.

It should be worth the effort and prove useful regardless of the outcome.

I'm sure with the pothead room, it will be extremely difficult with the pot permeating the walls and ceiling to boot.

Great. I have a move out on the schedule this Friday were they had 9 cats living in it. Can wait

Freemind1 wrote:I'm sure with the pothead room, it will be extremely difficult with the pot permeating the walls and ceiling to boot.

That is exactly what I have been curious about all this past year....is it really different than cigarette smoke? I believe that is vastly different, but haven't been able to experiment (pardon the pun) with cleaning that item due to legalities in this State.

This will be a valuable experience to see just what is needed and to find out what works.

Yeah, it's different. A bad smokers house will smell like a musty ashtray.

A house with the stanky dank, will ratchet up the smell factor by 10.

That has been my experience as well. The real question has been the nature of the smoke? I expect it to be tougher to remove due to the natural oil content as opposed to tobacco.

Will certainly find out if my expectations are correct. Will probably test out the sample that I got from Pro's Choice as well as my bag of tricks.

I would pre spray the room with joedorcide first before doing anything else to help with the odor, then do what you got to do, I hate cats !

The cats don't concern me actually, remember that I routinely clean carpets that contain urine from tigers, lions, and cheetahs. Little fluffy types are not much of a challenge.

Weed will be the main event.

I have used ozone for cigarette smoke with excellent results. I would think it would work for this as well.

That has been the early thoughts, but I don't know if it would.....kind of doubt it actually do to the greater oil content. Wiping the walls with unsmoke or something might still work or even strong peroxide, but I really don't know.

That is the only benefit this job offers....I get to field test.

Well, there is another twist to this job.

They just called me today and asked if I cleaned crime scenes as well? Turned out that his son's roommate committed suicide last night (shotgun beneath the chin).

Initial estimates are in the ten's of thousands, but that includes the damage to the drywall and ceiling as well. I will be getting a look at it in the morning.

It has been awhile since I've done death scenes, but I can't believe that it would be that bad. Some brain material likely and extensive splatter / blood to all materials, but I can't imagine it would cost more than 4-5 grand to correct.

Should be an all around nasty day!! Anyone want pictures?

Yeah post pics Bob along with how you cleaned it up. When I went to Vegas all the did was post pics but no details. The just wanted to sign up for the two week course.

Crime scene or such; are materials usually baged and discarded. Carpet, drywall, bedding, nic-nacs, ????
It would seem easier to throw all that away and remodel the area.

Yes Matt, you pretty much rip everything out that was contaminated fully. Areas with splatter you can clean. The only real cost to these jobs are the labor (most people can't stomach it without a large paycheck) and the disposal costs.

I don't have a disposal company on contract any more. The nearest one was 6 hours away and would pick up my bio-waste drums on a monthly basis when they did the hospital routes. That often left me with sealed drums of "ick" in my garage for weeks or a large bill each month with nothing to pick up.

If I was to take this job, I would have to find a waste company willing to pick up on a one-time basis.....not sure if that is even possible.

There is a lot of overhead to crime scene / death scene work, but the work is actually easier than what must of us do already. It is a niche industry that over-charges in my view because of the situation....much like funeral homes.

Duh its not like its a nose bleed, What the hell was I thinking

Well, how did it all go?  Some good, some bad. some really bad.

First, the ultimate challenge house was hit and miss.  The cat problem was not a problem.  The basement was covered in a very nice grade of jade color nylon carpet....no visible stains as a result.  Just located the poo and pee areas with the light, OSR like normal, and bunny hopped followed by a normal prespray cleaning.  Wasn't even worth taking a picture, just everyday task in this business.

The bedroom was a different story.  When I walked in, I knew that I was in big trouble as there were fountain pen ink cartridges under the bed.  Owner looked at them and noted that they were at least empty.  The problem was that they were broken and emptied into the carpet damn near everywhere.

This is the good stuff, india water resistant ink.  The kind you used to find in inkwells and not the simple kind found in a ball point pen.  The were stepped on and rolled / kicked around and left huge stains all over the place.

Then there was the blue stains.  This turned out to be blue Mountain Dew which I now know is one of the worst thing to let spill on white carpet.  I don't know what that dye is, but it is murder to remove.

Then there are the reds.  Some were from lip stick, some from blush, some from ink, and some from Gawd knows what.  It at least seemed like a normal item to attempt removal although it was already pink in most areas.

Then there were what looked like tannin stains, but she supposedly only drinks the Mountain Dew.  Wasn't sure what it was, but suspected that it might be cannibis related like a plant stain.

There were also a few large bleach stains by the wall.  Why? I have no idea why I find so much bleach stains in bedrooms these days.  It is like they all work for the mafia or something.

Anyway, here is the how it looked when I arrived and removed the furniture.

I started off with just hitting the room with Pro-Zyme to remove the soil and see what I was really working with. I mixed it strong and scrubbed it with my CRB followed by extensive usage of the Hoss Rotary.

Result, the carpet was much lighter which only made the stains that much more obvious as well. It had little to no effect on the stains.

Next up was getting down on the floor and attacking those stains.

Reds:

Zilch, nodda, zip transfer to the towel.  I hit it with every red relief product that I had, wall paper steamer, and stain magic.  Virtually no transfer to the towel at all.

Inks:

Went through half a container and a tube of ink remover...not much.  Only had a slight transfer.

Browns:

A trend was forming....nothing worked.  Tannin remover, peroxide, nothing.  The more that I studied it, the fibers appeared to be melted, so it may have been from a curling iron dropped often on the floor.  Either way, not able to do much with it.

Mountain Dew Blue:

This stuff is worse than Red Dye 40 on carpet.  This stuff does not remove, but it can be lightened a little.  It almost acts like a bleach in that it grows when wet sort of like ink only far greater.  Horrible stuff.

So, I went to the alamo plan after 45 minutes of fighting the stains on my knees.  I have a bottle of auto upholstery cleaner that I buy from Eastwood which is the most powerful stuff on the planet.  It is considered the alamo treatment by auto dealership detailing shops.

I hate to use it as the smell will damn near kill you on the first squirt without a lot of ventillation.  I had to open the window and start a fan before I squeezed the trigger....still gave me a headache.

Result?  It bleached out the carpet around the stains, but did nothing to the stain.  Now some of the stains had white halos around them.

I gave up, went back and re-sprayed with some Slop and Gobble and flushed out all the treatments to make it safe and hoisted the white flag.  What could be tried was tried.....what could be removed was removed.  End of story.