Air Scrubbing.

[Tyler Howell]

Me again.
Getting real close to country living. (Septic sys passed inspection) Hope to close/take possession of my new home November 17, 2006:D
First order of business is clean the place:( . The present owners are immaculate (for house showings) but they have cats. I'll sneeze my head off if I don't deep clean before moving in.
Was thinking about an air filter system while I'm getting settled in. Up in the woods it has hot water heat plant.
Would a WW air filter be worth running for cat dander and pollen ? I've seen the Orec(sp?) advertised on the tube and was curious.
Plan to keep my jet 1200 Air filter in the city shop till I move it all up north probably Summer 2007. At a 100lbs It's not real portable.
Any suggestions??
TIA.

[Art Mulder]

. The present owners are immaculate (for house showings) but they have cats. I'll sneeze my head off if I don't deep clean before moving in.
Was thinking about an air filter system while I'm getting settled in. Up in the woods it has hot water heat plant.

Suggestion 1- have all the carpets ripped out. Then have professional cleaners go through. Then clean it again. then put in new carpets.

Okay, maybe that is a bit extreme. Good thing it is Hot water heat, or you'd also need ductwork cleaned.

I did some googling, and a HEPA vacuum seems to be strongly recommended, along with steam-cleaning carpets.

...art

edit to add:
ps: I meant to say... have all this cleaning done while the house is empty before you move in! And don't forget the draperies as well.

[JayStPeter]

My first house was formerly owned by a little old lady with a bunch of cats. I had to rip out all the carpet and seal the floors and seal/paint the baseboards before the stink was gone. You might have a little less work to do since it's more an allergy thing than a stink thing.
If you want to keep them, you can try to get the carpets cleaned before moving anything in. When I did it, it just activated the stink to a putrid new level :eek: .
In my case, the little old lady was also a chain smoker. So I had to scrub, seal and paint everything just so I could stand to live in there while renovating. In the following months I ripped down about half the newly painted walls and replaced some of the new carpet again :rolleyes: .

[Joe Pelonio]

I sympathize, I'm allergic too as is my son and he also has asthma. There are places around mainly advertised under mold abatement like the one below in our area that you can hire for this. Probably too late but it can be written in as a condition of the sale. They do dander removal, just not as common or as "sexy" as mold these days.

http://www.schatzmold.com/

[Ben Grunow]

OT- Hey Jay- I think I bought the same house as you except all of the cabinets and doors had a bumpy layer of grease surrounding their handles/pulls. Cleaned them with laquer thinner and finally acetone to get them smooth and stop the stickyness (and paint scraper- also works well for 20 years of soap scum in baqth). I think my seller had a cat that was allowed to go to the bathroom on the kitchen floor, which happened to be astroturf that was worn to the backing. Needless to say I did a little remodeling before moving in with wife and kid.

On topic. There are hepa quality filters available for HVAC systems if there is any sort of ductwork. Even AC only can be used by running the fan for a period each day (if house has ducts for AC not heat).

[Mark Pruitt]

The people we bought this house from had a cat. We were mostly afraid that our dog would "smell" where the cat had been and "make his mark.":eek: We had a professional come in and thoroughly clean the carpets. We also had a cleaning service come in and clean the whole house. There have been no problems.

[Ken Garlock]

Give the ServPro people a call. They claim to be able to remove smoke odors, and just about everything else. Check the yellow pages for their ad under carpet cleaning. I haven't used them, but they may be able to handle your problem.