How to remove musty smell from old furniture

[Scott Haddix]

My wife recently inherited a beautiful antique hutch from her Grandfather, but it has a musty smell that I'm trying to figure out how to remove. The piece sat in her grandparents house for the last two years with no one living there.

Any advice on how to remove a musty smell? Baking soda for a few weeks?

[Tony Bilello]

I have no idea what theu cost these days but they were fairly reasonable 30 years ago. LOL. Anyway, an ozone lamp will kill the odor in about a week.
BTW...hello from Kemah, Tx

[Ted Calver]

LOML would say the way to get rid of the musty smell on our couch...would be for me to sit somewhere else :)

[Jamie Ray]

I use a capfull of bleach in about a half gallon of water. wipe it down with a rag and dry it back off. Works great, kills any fungus, and the small amount of bleach doesn't hurt finished or bare wood.

[george wilson]

You can get rid of the smell by shellacking the insides of the musty furniture. This really works,by trapping the smell in.

[Philip Rodriquez]

+1 for george. Reseal the piece.

[Tom Hargrove]

I have had good luck with leaving things outside in the sun for a few hours. I would open the piece up so the sun can hit the inside of the cabinet. It may take more than one session.

As mentioned above, ozone works well for killing many odors. If you can't find the equipment, some fire and flood restoration contractors can do it for a fee.

[dan mahler]

We recently did the same and my wife used Murphy oil soap. Knocked the smell right out!

[george wilson]

You might get the smell off the surface,but unless you actually seal the inside surfaces,I'll bet the smell will come back.

[Darnell Hagen]

I've heard of crumpled up newspapers to take the smell from inside a drawer, fill the hutch up and leave it for a week.

[Tom Hammond]

I took an old musty chair my mother had (she was a heavy smoker to boot) to a local auto detailing shop. They have an ozone machine they use to remove smells, including smoker smell, from cars. He charged me $40, and I picked it up 48 hours later. Worked great.

[Tom McMahon]

This is a problem I have dealt with a lot. I have tried about every thing I have heard of, including sealing the inside of the cabinet with shellac. I can say with confidence that no one thing works all the time and the odor some times comes back no matter what you do even sealing with shellac. It depends on what is actually causing the odor. Your odor could be caused by any number of things like mold ,fungus, mildew, rodent urine, on and on. Having said all that here's what I do, it works most of the time.
1. wash thoroughly with TSP let dry
2. mist with 10% bleach let dry
3. spray with odor-be-gone, I don't know what this stuff is but it works better than any thing I have ever tried. I get it at wal-mart.

[Brian Kincaid]

...
1. wash thoroughly with TSP let dry
...

Tom, what is TSP?
-Brian

[Neil Brooks]

TSP = trisodium phosphate.

If it were me, I'd rent an ozone generator AND THEN re-seal the piece.

Put it in a closed room WITH the ozone generator. Let it run for about 8-10 hours (make sure nobody's around. Ozone is considered to be potentially harmful to humans).

Then, air it, and the room, out for 8-10 hours, and THEN re-seal.

[Tom McMahon]

Neil has answered the TSP question. I have never tried an ozone generator. The last time I ckecked the cheapest effective size generator was around $400. I would like to hear from anybody that has deodorized furniture with ozone. Does it last, do odors return, does it penetrate the wood, does it effect the finish? Plus a lot more questions. Maybe I need one and don't know it.

[Neil Brooks]

Neil has answered the TSP question. I have never tried an ozone generator. The last time I ckecked the cheapest effective size generator was around $400. I would like to hear from anybody that has deodorized furniture with ozone. Does it last, do odors return, does it penetrate the wood, does it effect the finish? Plus a lot more questions. Maybe I need one and don't know it.

In '96, I bought a used Airstream motorhome from ... a pair of smokers.

It ssssstunk.

I rented (many/most rental places have them) an ozone generator and did a 24hr on/24 hr off cycle.

Thing smelled like the pine forest, in the spring, after a warm rain, after that.

It did THAT good a job :)

[Gary Hodgin]

Brian,
TSP is trisodium phosphate, a powerful cleaner. I'm pretty sure you can find it HD, Lowe's, and paint stores. It's probably in the paint department at HD or Lowe's. Here is a link.
http://www.naturalhandyman.com/iip/infxtra/inftsp.html

[Jerome Stanek]

Tom, what is TSP?
-Brian


Trisodium phosphate

[Maurice Ungaro]

I think we've covered the TSP issue.

Another household item that is good at killing fungus is good old apple cider vinegar. I've used it on musty leather with very good success.

[Josiah Bartlett]

I have had good luck with leaving things outside in the sun for a few hours. I would open the piece up so the sun can hit the inside of the cabinet. It may take more than one session.

As mentioned above, ozone works well for killing many odors. If you can't find the equipment, some fire and flood restoration contractors can do it for a fee.

I wouldn't leave an antique piece exposed in the sun for long. It could really change the color or grain visibility. Cherry and Walnut are really succeptible to this.

I'd leave an open box of baking soda in it for a while. TSP (trisodium phosphate) or oil soap probably works fine by binding with some of the aromatic oils that are stinking it up. You could also try a citrus oil cleaner- they smell nice.

[Robert Chapman]

I volunteer at a Habitat for Humanity Restore and we get used refrigerators donated that don't always smell good. One of the things that we do that seems to work is to put some coffee [ground and fresh] in a sock and let it sit in the fridge for a few days - seems to get the ordor out. Might be worth a try.

[Jamie Ray]

Just ran across this. It should be helpful.

http://woodworking.about.com/od/dealingwithproblems/qt/RemovingOdors.htm

[Andrew Pitonyak]

Tom, what is TSP?
-Brian

cleaning agent, food additive, stain remover and degreaser.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trisodium_phosphate

Note that it is inexpensive. Should be able to get it at a big box store, hardware, amazon, etc...

[Bill ThompsonNM]

You might have TSP in your cupboard already.. If you have a box of the dry Spic N Span cleaner... it's almost all TSP.. just some fragrance added..
the TSP in the paint dept at the BORG is almost always cheaper if you're buying some however....