Special Paint to Cover Terrible Smells

In our line of business, biohazard cleaning, smells can be overpowering.

When a body has decomposed for even one day, much less a week or two, the toxic residue is very deadly.

The smell it produces gives off a sickly-sweet odor that is hard to forget. The smell of death can consist of a complex mixture of more than 400 volatile compounds.

These compounds are produced by the actions of bacteria breaking down the body tissues into gases and salts.

The more heat a body has laid in before discovery, the faster it will break down into different fluids, and the richer the stench.

What type of drugs the deceased took before death will also impact what type of smell and how bad it will be?

This smell will seep and cling into not only the surface of the interior of a home or building but penetrate much deeper into the furniture, walls, ceilings, carpet, flooring, and vents.

If the air conditioning has been running the whole time the body was decomposing, then that smell has transferred to different parts of the house.

It all will have to be cleaned and repainted.

With all of our advanced cleaning techniques and high-grade cleaning fluids, we will not be able to eliminate the smell.

The carpet will have to be removed, and sometimes the cement below will have to be sealed. If it’s wood flooring, that will also have to be sealed.

The vents will need to be cleaned by a professional vent cleaning company.

All the furniture and clothing will have to be removed and many times thrown away.

The walls, ceilings, doors, and trim present a different type of problem. Washing them down and then repainting them with latex paint will not work.

Latex paint does not have the sealing capabilities that an oil base primer does.

The front and backside of cans of Kilz Oil Primer giving directions on covering stain and smells.

Special Paint to Cover Terrible Smells

Most painting contractors are not used to the unique problem that biohazard cleaning companies face when trying to cover the smell of death on painted surfaces.

Only an oil base primer, such as Kills, will need to be used first to seal up and encapsulate the smell molecules.

Then and only then can latex paint be used over the top.

Most painters today do not know how to use oil-based products anymore because it’s from a bygone era, but even more importantly, many cities and counties have outlawed the use of them because of pollution concerns

We have a painter who works for us, who is well-versed in this type of painting that is needed.

Randy Williams is our very own painting consultant, so to speak, and has, by trial and error, figured out a unique solution to our problem of covering the smell of death.

We also deal with other types of smells that need to be cleaned a sealed.

Garbage that has rotted, as in the case of a hoarding situation one.

Cat urine presents a problem that is so hard to eliminate that we no longer deal with cats’ cleanup. Even oil base sealers will not fix the problem.

In those cases, the cement and wood below the flooring will have to be removed, and all the drywall and wood 2 x 4’s.

It’s as if the whole house has to be rebuilt to get rid of the smell of cat urine.

When people contact us, they rely on our expertise in restoring a home or building to a livable condition, and that also means eliminating smells that will linger for a very long time.

There is a new type of paint being sold by Sherwin-Williams called Paint Shield.

It is the first EPA-registered paint that kills greater than 99.9% of bacteria, including Staph (Staphylococcus aureus), MRSA, E. coli, VRE and Enterobacter aerogenes within two hours of exposure on a painted surface.

By killing these harmful bacteria on painted surfaces, Paint Shield® offers you an additional, new way to help prevent the spread of disease-causing bacteria on high-traffic/high-touch painted surfaces.

We have written many articles on Biohazard cleanup and cleaning and AZ BIO of Phoenix is your expert source for biohazard cleanup. Go here to read about them AZ-BIO Cleanup Blogs.