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perfume smells in laundry room and bathroom from previous owners

last year

Previous owners spilled VERY smelly laundry detergent or fabric softener in the cabinet in the laundry room. Lots of it. The perfume smell is very bad. We scrubbed the shelf to the point of removing the finish (don't care, will re-stain) and soaked it repeatedly with vinegar. Then covered it with baking soda overnight. The smell is only very slightly improved.

Bathroom cabinets have similar problems (visible stains from spills that smell of perfume) but aren't quite as bad.

We thought when the weather got nice and we could air out the house the scents wold dissipate. No such luck. The HVAC wafts the smell throughout the house. It's driving us crazy. (Well, some of us. My husband seems to have no nose.)

Any suggestions?

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SEA SEA

last year

last modified: last year

I'm not sure if this is comparable?...Our house had pine paneling in most of the rooms. Stained and varnished several times over the decades. 50+ years of smokers in the house made our house smell like a dirty ashtray. I scrubbed the walls so many times over the years and still smelled of cig smoke/ash tray.

When I painted most of the paneling, I primed twice, then two coats of high quality paint in a semi-gloss (more sealing that flat). That helped very much. The bedroom and coat closet that did not get painted still smell of cigs/ash tray, so I know I'm not imagining the improvement.

To me, the cig smell is similar to cat urine, in that it's a forever scent once it's built up and very hard to remove. But the priming and painting sealed the cig smell. Maybe think of painting the cabs after a primer? Not sure if applying the schellac like you just did would seal the smell in. Maybe as it cures, it might?

Comments (12)

Gerry
last year
Maybe paint the cabinet bottoms with a sealer such as Kilz? Or shellac?
drsaj
last year
Try putting a box or two of baking soda in the cabinet.
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Olychick
last year
last modified: last year
I agree, get something like Kilz and seal in the odors. I just had a bathroom remodeled and when they pulled out the fiberglass shower stall, the insulation had been used as nesting for mice...ewww. The mice have never got in the house and I've had exterminators seal up the crawlspace several years ago, so this was old, but mouse pee apparently never loses its strength. My contractor cut out all that he could that was contaminated, then sprayed Kilz on the framing. After the 1st coat it was almost gone, but I could still smell it, so he did two more coats over a couple of days and the smell was completely gone.
Fori
last year
Yup, Kilz or shellac. You can paint over either.
jlhug
last year
last modified: last year
Try ozone generators. Open all the cabinet doors, remove all living things, close up the house and leave while the ozone does its work.
juniperg92
Original Author
last year
So we tried the 2 coats of shellac in one cabinet that was not as bad smelling. It didn't seem to help. Maybe it will take more coats? Can also smell the shellac now, too, so not sure how to proceed. I think the wood is entirely saturated with the scent. Removing the cabinets is out of the question ($). I wonder if anyone has tried those scent removers you see advertised, such as Enviro Klens (I think it's called). I've read about and am not willing to try the ozone.
olychick
last year
last modified: last year
Try kilz and spray it on every interior surface of the cabinet, including the under counter area. If you plan on painting the exterior, put a couple of coats on that, too. No absorber is going to remove the smell. At some point you may want to weigh the cost of products and your time against the cost of a budget replacement, like Ikea, or used from Habitat for Humanity Restore, or Craigslis/FB Marketplace.
S Rodriguez
last year
Stuff the cabinets with wadded up newspaper and change out daily
juniperg92
Original Author
last year
Thank for all the ideas.
juniperg92
Original Author
last year
How would I go about removing the cabinet?
juniperg92
Original Author
last year
Also, 2 of the cabinets are built in. Isn't that impossible for me to replace myself?

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