Mildew Smell

[knt78dc]

I have a tenant who's complained of a mildew smell in her apartment. She says that the smell is coming from the carpet, and that the odor becomes very strong whenever it rains. She also says that the mildew smell is strong in one of the closets. I checked her apartment, and there is a mildew smell in the closet she identified, however, I don't smell anything coming from the carpet. Also, I just replaced the carpet in her apartment less than 1 year ago.

Is it possible that the carpet could be causing this smell? Could it be the padding under the carpet? Could the padding underneath the carpet be causing this smell(I didn't replace it when I replaced the carpet last year)? If necessary I'll replace it, but I'd hate to spend money replacing the carpet or padding is that's not the cause. Is there anyway to pinpoint the source? Or are there any services out there that I could contact? I want to resolve this issue for my tenant, but I don't want to just throw money at the problem. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

[DiG]

Replace the underlay.

I can't believe people just replace the carpet and not the underlay.

[Phisherman]

You need to put your detective hat on and determine where the moisture/water is coming from. Because it happens when it rains, there may be a roof leak dripping inside the walls. Look for water marks on all walls. Inspect the roof. Listen for water in the walls when it rains. Maybe the tenant will offer to help.

[DiG]

Carpet is just bad,bad,bad

[Cheri]

Especially in rentals, where people might have had pets or small children who could have accidents on the carpet.

Cheri

[Oren]

You say apartment, pehaps something is leaking next door or above.

Oren

[Goedjn]

I don't understand why people put in carpets at all. The sensible thing to do is put in some durable easy to clean flooring like, say, asphalt, and roll out a large area rug on top of it. That way you can take the damn thing OUT to clean it.

[Xeno Chauvin]

Mildew odor in a closet? Gross.....but could be dirty clothes and or SHOES. At one time Bed, Bath and Beyond sold something called activated Lava that was supposed to stop mildew odors. It doesn't stop the mildew (fungus as in athlete's foot too) but absorbs the odors. Carpet. What substrate is it on? If it's concrete call a carpet cleaning company and THEY will charge you extra for a "mildewcide" treatment. If it's on a wood floor then find a carpet cleaner that does "dry-cleaning" or surface cleaning not steam cleaning. If you go "dry-cleaning" tell your tenant she will have to vacate her apartment for a couple of days after the cleaning to let it air out or then she will be complaining of headaches after it's cleaned. Odors in carpet are caused by fungus,moisture and plain ol' DIRT. McM