It is more than likely soaked I to the subfloor and possibly the floor joists. We had some joists that had stains down a couple inches.

And bleach is unfortunately not very effective. It doesn't actually kill all the microbiology that is stinking and it doesn't lift out the materials that are creating a breeding ground. Some methods that actually change the chemistry of the area or absorb and hold the odour like activated charcoal, tea tree oil, compost tea (really) can work but if your problem is as bad as ours was I fear the whole subfloor just needs to be out of there.

Bleach solution only makes pet odors worse, I believe. OdoBan or something like it is what you would have needed to use. You need an enzymatic based product to break down the urine.

You will need an ultraviolet light to detect any place you have missed, baseboards, etc and spray those with the enzyme based product.

https://www.thebalance.com/how-to-get-rid-of-dog-urine-and-cat-urine-odors-1799052

Can you remind me, did you use hardwood? It's possible to lift it up very carefully so it can be reused.

Go under the joists, I am assuming the crawl space? and spray enzymatic odor eliminators.

It’s the old hardwood floors under the carpet.

You’ll have to rip it all up, plus subfloor.

I had a friend who lived in a house that had been an old folks home - you could smell the urine on certain days, despite the floors being thoroughly cleaned.

Ozone air cleaning machine is your last hope. Did you get your air ducts cleaned?

NOBODY really knows the answer to eliminating the damage to a house by smoking in it for years. They are just guessing. I feel for you Lindsay.

We dont have carpet anymore. we have hardwood throughout the house. Its just the subfloor - which is plywood and then the hardwood.

The smell still radiates through out the house. We put in new duct work and HVAC system when we moved in.

Would we need the air ducts cleaned if we just got new duct work a few years ago?

I dont know what kind of specialist to call. I have tried servpo, they said they dont know what it is.

Out of the other ideas suggested here, what have you tried?

You mentioned a crawl space under the home. Of all the comments and great suggestions here, only one briefly touched on the subject of sewer lines. If you are located in a freeze/thaw area of the country, you have a cracked pipe or two. Have you had a plumber out to check for any cracks in the lines or blockages in the lines or soil stacks? There may be a sewer gas (just smelly air) coming thru the lines which will come up thru the drains in sinks, floor drains, etc. permiating the air. From your local hardware stores (or thru your plumber) there are additives that can be poured into your drains to help break down waste as well. When nature's water table is very low and weather is damp this can often be a time you notice this more. Try a few cups of bleach in a bucket of water and pour into any floor drains. Do the same for your sink drains. Now call a good plumber to check all your stacks, piping, and venting. Good luck! If this is not the problem, at least you know your plumber won't need to be called in the middle of the night for something!

After catching up on this thread, I have a question about your crawl space. Have you checked the foundation vents to ensure they are working properly? We had to replace ours when we moved in, as they were original to the house, and most were sealed shut. The new ones have a built in thermostat, so they open and close on their own depending on the temperature to allow fresh air to flow under the house. They're under $20 and very easy to install.

I bought a house with a bad smell that emanated from the carpeting and drywall. Part cigarette smoke and part pet urine. Just lovely. For the drywall, I had to scrub with detergent, then shellac the drywall to seal in any odors the scrubbing didn't remove, then paint with a special smell-reducing paint. For the floor, I pulled up the carpeting, scrubbed the concrete slab, then sealed it also with oil-based sealer, then a couple of coats of a special concrete paint, then installed the new flooring. Big pain in the neck, but worth the effort.

NO... smell is still here. With the weather being nicer, i smell it through the vents.
I appreciate all your comments.

We do not have a crawl space, so we can eliminate that.

All duct work is new.

The only insulation we have left is in our attic.

Im not sure what kind of contractor to call, i dont think any specialize in 'smell'

Im just still completely lost on what to do!

I didn't read comments, but is it at all sewer gas smell.... mold behind walls, bathroom maybe, can start to smell in nearby room.

Lindsay, did you try the suggestions here regarding activated charcoal, etc?

Is the attic insulation new? Old insulation especially when rodents are/were present is rank.

Did you pay the carpet over the word floors? Wood is extremely porous you would never get the smell out. You would have to remove carpet which can be salvaged, rip out the wood and then reinstall carpet. My neighbor have me a beautiful wood 2-drawer file cabinet when she moved. I was thrilled. Then I opened the drawers and nearly fell over. The time it would take to clean this with everything under the sun people and pros recommend would take months and lots of hard labor..... 2 drawers inside out and backwards as well as underneath. No thanks, threw it out. Nothing comes out of wood.

You might try ozoning the house. It is a form of bleaching that is air born and used to be used in hotels to eliminate cigarette smoke in rooms. It can be quite effective in eliminating odors. It may not do the trick if the problem is urine in the hardwood and subfloor however. If that is the case, you may have to follow Fla_chic's advise first and even then before putting down a new subfloor I would use a sealer like kilz to block the smell from seeping out.

Most larger disaster restoration companies will have ozone machines if you are wondering.

Have you tried ripping up the carpet in one room (or even a closet) then painting the floor with several coats of sealant? If you have one room you could sacrifice, paint the floor, and then seal the door up, you might be able to tell if that fixed the problem in that one room. If the sealant worked you would have your answer - smelly floors. And by the way, a painted wood floor can look nice with a nice rug placed on top, although you could also use clear polyurethane.

A family member gave me a very nice oriental rug that had pet stains. Over the course of several years I washed it myself with mild soap and hung it outside for a few weeks - no luck with the smell. I sent it to several different commercial rug cleaners and those didn't work either. I rolled it up with baking soda and that didn't remove the smell.

Finally I used liquid soap and a curry comb (rubber brush used to clean horses) on both sides, scrubbed, washed and rinsed both sides several times, and hung it out in the sun for a few weeks with a sheet on top to prevent sun bleaching. That finally worked and I have a lovely non-smelly rug.

The point of this story is that pet urine is very smelly and if the smell is in wood floors, you will never get it out. I do think, though, that you could encapsulate it with paint or polyurethane.

"Ugh! Do not use charcoal to absorb odors and then use it to cook food on the grill! That is a disgusting idea! Good luck to you!"

No one suggested this...

Is it possible that you have some animals living in/under/over your home -- in walls; in attic; beneath floor, perhaps even in the insulation between the floor joists or even in the hollow spot beneath a bathtub?

Before you start ripping out anything/everything, call a pest pro and see if they can find the stink for you.

If you do rip out your flooring, replace any carpeting with something other than carpeting.

Lindsay - I cannot believe everyone recommends thousands in house remodeling - I don't think all of that work is/was necessary at all. I had a similar issue and fixed it with an Ozone generator. Buy one from Amazon for $100, run it overnight (leave for the night). Air out the place the next day and your smell issue will most likely be resolved.

reading through.... bemused.... we bought our vacation house in 2000. since then we've removed carpeting and replaced with hardwood and tile, rebuilt the stairs, have painted several times, redone all 3 bathrooms and the kitchen.... and you know, it still smells like a beach house. hard to put a finger on what it is... not pets, not smokers...we dont even notice it when we enter the house but when we get home on sunday night all of our clothes we bring home smell like... beach house. we're currently having a screen porch and deck built and some rot was found when the side of the house was opened up. maybe that was the source, we'll see.

"and you know, it still smells like a beach house. hard to put a finger on what it is..." --> Do you have wet suits?? Because I finally figured out why my garage smells like weed -- it's that neoprene/salt-water/seaweed combo. :P

could be! not wet suits, but wet suits.... we don't dive but always lots of wet bathing suits. eau de sand, sunscreen, chlorine, salt, bugspray, charcoal smoke, mixed with morning and afternoon fog, sprinkle in just a hint of mold/mildew. you could bottle it but no one would buy it!

we're having the big construction project still going on, so beachyfug is still overwhelmed by sawdust inside, and portapotty and construction dumpster in the front yard. maybe the thing to do is have someone come over every week and saw up some boards in the downstairs den. i love the smell of sawdust....

Omggggg! Story of my life. My clothes smells when i leave the mobile home. I have two smells going on here. I have old wood smell and a moist/damp/humid disgusting smell i cannot seem to fine whar is causing this. Just like you I’ve done several things but I cannot get rid of it. Any update on your house smell?

Lindsay,

My daughter purchased a home from an investor who did cosmetic changes only. We noticed a smell and asked what it was and was told that the previous owner had a lot of animals in the home. So we asked that they do a ozone air cleaning prior to closing. Thinking that would help she purchased the home. Now its been a year and the smell is still there. Her home is on a slab, we have repainted, replaced all of the flooring and done tons of others things. So after reading all of this I was hoping that you found some sort of resolution to how you stopped your smell. We are at a loss and have spent thousands of dollars with no end results of what the smell is or where it is coming from. My daughter and grand baby clothes smell terrible. Have you had any luck on your end or have any suggestions? The only thing that I haven't done is cut out the walls and baseboards.

Hi I have same problem 1950s house suspect leaking roof into cavity wall and treat under sides of floorboards and joists at ground level and loft seal roof to prevent water ingres to cavity lot of work hope this helps a am half way started with roof

Smell issues in your home: Resources y'all might try could be your "county extension agent" or state sponsored college . They tend to deal with agricultural issues but if there is any chance the smell is an animal, they might be able to help or point you in.

For anyone living in a model home: Older model mobile homes had something that might have been a particle board cover that looked like cardboard that would crumble after getting wet under the flooring to hold the insulation and hide the pipes and animals really liked to chew an opening and crawl into that space near plumbing pipes.

If the issue is mold, no matter how it got started (dead animal or water problem) that is a health issue that needs to be addressed, especially if there are children or elderly or members of the family with health issues involved.

We just purchased a home built in 1976 with slab foundation and that's where the HVAC ducts are place. There's a septic tank and water damage from a roof leak. The house and the garage have a strong smell that reminds me of yeasty smell of vitamins. Not sure where to start. To me its weird that the smell is also in the garage which is not near the area of water damage.

Did you ever find the culprit?

Ozonators are very cheap and very effective - use it all the time - home, car, freezer etc.... Just ventilate well, move plants and pets. Good luck

We were stumped for 8+ years. We finally had to call a plumber to snake a clog. odor gone

Where was the clog?

@sharonm112 I wasnt home at the time, and my husband didnt ask. The odor was strongest in the master bath but the clog backed up the kitchen sinks at the opposite end of the house. The kitchen was renovated 4 years ago.

tdemonti. Interesting, our odor is all over. We had a smoke test, and venting good and everything seems to drain. Hum ….

This means your husbands grandmother neglected and abused animals - cats are naturally clean animals and want to use litter boxes or outside unless they have no other choice- this is very sad.

@Jennz9b Huh?