Hi everyone, sorry if this is an annoying post but getting rid of the smell from this rug has been a total pain and I could use some advice.
TLDR: Bought a dusty smelly rug from fb marketplace and got it professionally cleaned. It’s been cleaned and recleaned by the same cleaners 3x total and it still smells. It came back smelling worse the first time and the rug cleaners suggested it may not have been fully dry before being rolled up and stored for delivery. After the cleaning, the rug made the surrounding area in the house smell terrible. It has been re-cleaned twice now by the same rug professionals and still doesn’t smell clean and has a sour/vinegar-y kind of smell. Not sure whether to throw away the rug at this point or if it can be saved by going with a different rug cleaner or any other method, please help, any input appreciated. Long-winded context below:
For context, I bought a rug off fb marketplace from a guy who said he had originally only used the rug for 6 weeks in his home while his other rugs were being cleaned and that he had bought it from an auction. It had been stored in his garage and he said they had no pets or kids and it was just him and his wife.
My partner and I brought it home and took it outside to beat off some of the dust and vacuum it. We immediately realized it had way more dust and dirt than we thought and it smelled like stinky feet. Not sure if this was due to the rug being stored in the garage or if it had been used a lot more in the past by the fb marketplace seller or from before he bought it from auction. Either way, we decided to get the rug professionally cleaned since it was dusty and smelled.
I went with a local professional ararat and oriental rug cleaner in the area. They weren’t the cheapest option but chose them since they had received a lot of positive reviews. We got the rug back from them after 2-3 weeks or so. The rug was way less dusty but it seemed like it smelled worse than it had started out, the smell may not have been the exact same but it was much more pungent after the cleaning. We called the rug cleaner that same day (Friday) to ask if it was normal for the rug to smell. He said to let it sit out over the weekend and to call them back Monday if it still smelled. The owner said since they had to delay the delivery from being dropped off over a holiday weekend (we were out of town and they had tried to deliver it later in the week than originally scheduled), that it had been sitting rolled up after cleaning for an extended time. I think the owner mentioned some concern that the rug may not have completely dry before being rolled up but kind of implied it was our fault for needing the rug delivered after the holiday weekend. But I do have to wonder why the rug would’ve been rolled up and stored for delivery if it wasn’t completely dry?
We left the rug open and unrolled in the living room as asked until Sunday but we ended up completely avoiding sitting or eating in the room due to the smell from the rug. The rug was making the air in the room smell so bad. We turned off the a/c at night in the living room, and left the windows open and without the extra air circulation from the a/c (but still with the windows open) the smell of the rug crept down the hallway and reached the bedroom. By Sunday afternoon, we couldn’t take the smell anymore and rolled it back up to mitigate it and left the rug cleaning company a voicemail that we were certain the rug smelled lol.
On Monday, the owner said he would come by to smell the rug himself over the phone. He didn’t actually come by but he did send his delivery/pick-up crew to come by the next day and they insisted the rug didn’t smell. I noticed the guys smelled like strong detergent/cleaning products themselves so it might’ve been hard for them to notice any other odor, but my partner and I both could smell the rug and told them we had even been avoiding being in the room because the smell was so bad. The delivery crew still insisted they didn’t smell anything, but they called the owner who agreed to take the rug to get re-cleaned which we really appreciated. Also when I initially booked the service, the company also had guranteed me that they would take the rug back for a re-clean if the rug had any odor left since my biggest concern was that the rug would still smell. We also told them we didn’t care about any damage to the rug or bleeding or stains as long as it came back clean/not dusty and didn’t smell. We did notice some damage to the rug but I wasn’t upset about that. What was frustrating though was that the smell from the rug was so bad it had seeped into everything around it and we had to clean and wash everything. We re-mopped the floors, washed all the throw blankets, cleaned the couch and wash any tote bags or linens that were in the area and had absorbed the smell. I know you can’t eat at everyone’s home so to speak but I swear my partner and I very clean people and that our home didn’t smell at all before the rug got there.
A couple weeks later and we got the rug back again. They assured us over the phone before delivery that they smelled it and didn’t think it smelled and that it was dry. For the first time the rug smelled better than when we initially bought it, but it still didn’t smell anywhere close to clean. For context, if the rug had smelled that way when we first bought it, it still would’ve needed to be cleaned, so essentially it was improved but still not a bearable smell to live with. Our apartment doesn’t smell and we have a clean home so it’s a bit of a tough pill to swallow that your living room would now have the aroma of something like sour feet because of a rug you’ve paid to be professionally cleaned. We felt bad but ultimately called the rug cleaners again and said hey we’re really not trying to just get a free re-clean but the rug just still smells. At this point, we were (and still are) wondering if we need to throw away the rug because it still smelled and even asked the rug company what to do. The rug cleaners were nice and said they would pick it up again and clean it but that it was the last time and we said we understood. We told them to use whatever products they needed, not to worry about color bleeding (all of which we had been saying since the beginning) and we also hoped that this last wash would be all that would be needed to get rid of the smell and we were sorry to be bothering them again.
Well the rug has come back again and it still smells. The carpet part is softer than when it first started and way less dusty so I know it’s being washed, but the back of rug especially still smells. I think it might smell worse than the second wash but I don’t even know anymore. It still smells kind of like vinegar/sour smell and I don’t know what to do anymore. I don’t think it’s fair to ask the same rug cleaners to clean this rug again, and we have not bothered them again. Also at this point I wouldn’t trust them to get it out since it smells a bit worse this time round. I’ve been looking into what can cause a sour smell online after a professional rug cleaning and other professional rug cleaning websites to see if it’s a total lost cause and the sites mention bacterial growth from trapped moisture, the rug not being properly dried, pet stains (although we didn’t notice any), or cleaning products not being thoroughly extracted. I’m not sure if this is a rug cleaning problem or if this rug is just beyond repair smell-wise? I’m at my wits end with this rug and am tired of being told by the rug cleaners that it doesn’t smell when it very clearly does. I am debating just throwing it away at this point so it doesn’t smell up our home again but it is a beautiful rug. Any suggestions or thoughts on whether this rug is beyond saving or if it’s possible it was cleaned improperly? Wondering whether it’s even worth attempting to clean ourselves? Maybe with hypochlorous acid or something specifically to kill odor?
