Picked up a couple of synthetic rugs from a client, they are machine woven. The two runners have cotton fringes and may have cotton warps? Not sure of the foundation on the larger rug. I cleaned them on the floor of my garage with my rotovac, and left my airpath on them. My dehu went out and for almost 3 humid days the rugs sat damp. Now they stink, my best description of the odor is wet jute. I dont even know what that smells like, but that is how I would best describe it(my wife says wet dog, there is no wool in the rugs). I then mixed up an encap cleaner and boosted it with some OSR and bonnet cleaned. Let them completely dry for a day, and this helped a little with the odor. I then cleaned the front and backs of the rugs with HWE, and got them dry fast. The two runners smell fine, but the larger rug stinks just as bad. Is this a Mold issue? Should I bathe the rug in rug restore? Have I ruined them? Any suggestions or advice would be greatly appreciated.
I would guess that there is a way to fix it. How long has it been since your last attempt at cleaning? Are you sure it is 100% dry? One thing I did on some rugs that had been in a flood and wet for days is I dried them first before cleaning (they did have a smell to them even when dry). After drying I cleaned them with my normal oriental rug cleaning pre spray (they were silk rugs) and rinsed with HWE and then immediatly sprayed on some downey fabric softener and rinsed again. The rugs were dry a few hours later and smelled great. For the downey I put 2 ounces of downey in a 32 ounce spray bottle and filled with water and just sprayed a light mist on. I used downey because the rugs not only smelled, but the fabric was really stiff prior to cleaning. It did a great job at making the rugs both soft and smell good. I am sure that some may say this is not the best way to do things, but it worked, and it worked well.
Being 100% sure from a description is always difficult. But I suspect that there is still high humidity that helps transmit the odor and makes the odor more noticed. If there is any type of latex backing, the odor could come from that. Odor may come from pet oils or urine not completely washed away that are still in the foundation of the rug or the odor could be beginning of mold issue. I would heavily spray the rug with a disinfectant product such as Microban, Sporicidin or Benefect. Allow 20 to 30 minutes or longer for it to soak in and do its job. Then reclean the rug and dry promptly and thoroughly. You can finish with a mist of Hydrocide or Hydrocide Xtreme.
