Removing unpleasant odours from your premises

An unpleasant smell indoors almost always comes from a specific physical source: deposits on surfaces, damp structure, textiles, a ventilation duct, or something sitting where nobody can see it.

That is why air fresheners, scented candles and “fragrant” cleaning do not solve anything — they add a second smell on top of the first one. A few days later the first one is back.

How we work with odours

Where the source usually hides

The smell is rarely where you notice it most. Air carries it around the flat and materials absorb it, so after a couple of weeks the whole room smells, not just the spot with the source. In practice the source is usually in one of a few hidden places.

Another regular spot is a rarely used floor drain or a second bathroom. The water standing in the trap is the only barrier against sewer gases, and within a month it simply evaporates.

If the source stays in the room, any treatment is only a postponed problem.

What we treat with

We use two different approaches to odour removal, and nearly always both together.

Surface treatment removes the source itself — the deposits that give off the smell. This is physical work: washing, cleaning, sometimes removing material. Without it, nothing else works in the long run.

Ozone treatment reaches what a cloth cannot: the air, textiles, soft furniture, ventilation ducts, gaps. Ozone oxidises odour molecules rather than masking them. After treatment the room has to be aired.

The order is not negotiable: ozone treatment is always the last step. Ozone breaks down what is in the air and in materials at the moment of treatment, but it does not remove soot, grease, urine crystals or damp structure from the room. If those stay, they carry on releasing the smell the very next day.

What does not work

• Air fresheners and fragrances — they add a smell, they do not remove the existing one.
• Ozone treatment without removing the source — the smell returns as soon as the source starts releasing again.
• Painting over — partially seals the smell for a while, but not in porous materials.
• Prolonged airing — helps while the window is open; the smell returns when you close it.

How to assess your own smell before ordering anything

There is one thing people almost always get wrong: you cannot smell your own home. The nose adapts to a constant background within a few days, and after a week you no longer register it at all. That is why an owner often thinks the smell is faint while a visitor notices it right at the door.

• Ask someone who has not been to your place to judge it — their assessment is more accurate than yours.
• Leave the flat for half an hour and come back in from outside; the first few seconds tell you the most.
• Walk through the rooms with your nose at the skirting boards, behind furniture and by the ventilation grille — where it is strongest, the source is nearby.
• Check whether the smell changes after washing the floor, in rainy weather or in the evening — the timing points to the cause.

These observations are useful to us as well. If you tell us exactly when the smell gets stronger, the inspection starts with a specific hypothesis instead of walking the rooms from scratch.

How long the work takes and what changes the price

The scope is set not by how nice the premises are, but by three things: floor area, how many surfaces have to be treated physically, and how much material has to be removed. Ozone treatment itself is the cheapest part; it is the surface work before it that makes a job expensive.

In practice this means the same type of smell can cost very different amounts. A two-room flat with a light tobacco smell after a short period of smoking is a straightforward ozone treatment. The same flat after twenty years of smoking needs the ceilings and walls washed, and that is several hours of work before ozone treatment even begins.

The price also goes up when porous materials have to be removed — floor covering, skirting boards, soaked finishes — and when the property is outside Riga. It goes down with good preparation on your side: wardrobes open, textiles spread out, food and plants taken away.

About the safety of ozone treatment

Ozone is effective precisely because it is a strong oxidiser — and for that same reason no people, animals or houseplants may be in the room during treatment.

Afterwards the room has to stay closed for a set period and then be aired thoroughly. We give the exact time on site — it depends on the volume of the room and the intensity of the treatment. Once ozone breaks down it turns back into ordinary oxygen and leaves no residue.