Odor Removal in Oconomowoc, Wisconsin

From our shop

About 25 minutes

Price

Quoted

Common source

Wet fabric, lake water

First step

Find the source

Wet fabric in a closed car

A wet swimsuit or towel left on a seat in a car parked in July sun is a small humid chamber inside a large one. The seat fabric under it takes on the water, the foam under the fabric takes on the water, and the closed cabin at high temperature is close to ideal for what grows in damp fabric.

By the time the towel is found the mildew smell has moved from the towel into the seat, and removing the towel removes almost none of it. The seat foam is the source now. That is an extraction job, and it is one where the honest timeline matters: a day or two, a single pass usually resolves it; a week in a hot car, it is in the foam and may take two.

Lake water is not clean water

Lake water carries algae, silt and dissolved organic matter, and when it goes into seat fabric or carpet from wet swimwear and dripping gear, it leaves that behind as it dries. Algae in carpet fibre continues to break down and produces a distinct green, pondy note that owners describe as the car smelling of the lake, which is exactly what it is.

It sits in the rear seats and the boot mostly, where the wet things go, and it needs extraction rather than surface cleaning because the material has gone into the backing with the water.

The cooler

A cooler that leaked meltwater into the boot carpet is the third Lake Country source, and it is often the one behind the smell when the towels have been ruled out. Meltwater carrying food residue drains through the boot carpet into the spare wheel well, where it has nowhere to go and nobody looks.

We lift the load floor on every Oconomowoc vehicle for exactly this reason. If the vehicle also has a season of sand and sunscreen through the cabin, the interior detail with the odor work folded in is the better booking, and September is the month.