Years ago, when I started buying investment real estate, a more experienced friend said that a smelly house was the smell of money. This is especially true when the odors are pet urine. It’s an immediate turn off for would be buyers, and understandably so.

No one wants to live with foul odors in their homes, and for many buyers, addressing the cause can seem overwhelming or impossible.  It creates an opportunity to buy a house at a discount and increase profits. Thus, “the smell of money”. 

Currently, I have two renovation projects under way. You already know about the rental house damaged by the tenants.  I call it the Adams house because it’s located on Adams Avenue. (If you missed that post, you can find it here.)  The other is an extensive renovation/remodel for a client. I’ll share more about that soon. The two houses are as different as can be, but they have one thing in common. Both reek with the smell of pet urine. 

The first step in addressing this problem was to remove fouled carpet. In my client’s home, we removed all the carpet and the odor still persisted. I could not identify any clearly stained areas in the subfloor. I have a nose like a bloodhound so I started going through the house room by room in an attempt to find the source of the odor. 

After eliminating two bedrooms as suspects, I sniffed parts of the living room floor on hands and knees. Nothing. 

If you’re imagining me crawling around a dirty floor and stopping to smell it from time to time, your imagination is spot on. Yes, I know it’s gross! This is the unromantic part of the job. When I talk about renovation, people tend to imagine the fun stuff. You know, Joanna Gaines staging a now beautiful home. Yes, that’s part of it, but there’s a lot of dirty (and smelly) work between now and then! 

I made my way to the family room. Under the carpet was old 12” flooring tiles likely to contain asbestos. As a result, the new floating floor will be laid right over the top of the old. A careful visual inspection showed an area, right in front of the fireplace that could have been the source of the odor. 

So, back to my hands and knees. I didn’t have to get too close before I knew I’d found the source! Cleaning and sealing should solve the problem. 

In the Adams house there was very little carpet, only the staircase and one bedroom. The other floors are wood, concrete, or vinyl. 

We removed the carpet from the bedroom, and again, though the odor improved, it still persisted. I never even thought about the steps until I was sitting on them, cleaning the railings. The smell seemed stronger and sure enough, that carpet was soaked in urine as well.

Yuck! I hurried home to shower and wash those clothes. With all of the carpet removed, the odor improved immensely. 

I’ll clean, then sand and stain the steps, but the bedroom floor was cleaned and sealed. 

There are many opinions for sealing odors, but BIN primer by Zinnser is the absolute best! BIN primer is a shellac based primer with superior stain blocking, odor blocking and adherence properties. I love this stuff! 

I first discovered it twenty years ago. I was on a very tight budget, but desperate to give my dated kitchen a facelift. The cabinets were dark brown, wood grained laminate. They were hideous! I did not think paint would adhere well to that surface, but paint seemed the only affordable option for changing the look. 

That’s when BIN entered my life and it’s never been the same. 

It turns out that in addition to it’s many other benefits, BIN will stick to anything, even glass, tile and laminate. It solved my kitchen dilemma, but I would learn that it’s also exceptional at blocking odors and sealing stains. 

Shellac actually comes from female lac bugs. Crazy huh? Lac bugs live in India and Thailand. The female secretes a resin which she leaves on the trees in which they live. The resin is scraped from the tree, then heated and strained to remove bark. It’s then poured into large, thin sheets and allowed to dry. Once dry it’s broken into flakes. The flakes are ground up and dissolved in ethyl alcohol for use. Shellac primers must also have the naturally occurring wax removed. This is referred to as “de-waxed shellac.” Removing the wax allows other coatings, such as paint to stick to the primer. 

I could go on and on about shellac and probably bore you to tears.  In addition to creating an exceptional primer, before vinyl, shellac was used to make records.  It’s been used to mold trinkets and jewelry, stiffen ballet pointe shoes, and even as a coating for pills and candy. 

I guess I’m kind of a nerd, but I find it absolutely fascinating that something excreted by a bug gives us something so useful and versatile! I also realize that not everyone is as captivated by bug resins as I am. So, if you want to know more about shellac, it’s history and uses, just click this link. 

For the rest of you, just know that BIN primer is the best primer for sealing odors, blocking stains and adhering to shiny and glossy surfaces. 

There are only three downsides to BIN primer:

1.  It has a strong odor. This is because it’s not water-based. Fortunately, as it dries the odor dissipates and it dries fast. 
   
2. It’s runny. Unlike most thick odor and stain blocking primers, BIN is runny, making it a little messy if you aren’t careful.
3. It’s relatively expensive. At around $42 a gallon, it’s roughly twice the cost of other high quality primers. Still, it’s well worth it.If you need to block odors, including pet, cigarette smoke and fire smells, nothing works better. Imagine sealing a pet odor on a floor, covering that floor with new carpet only to the find the smell returning on humid days. You’d wish you had spend the extra 20 bucks!Similarly, if you need to adhere to a glossy, smooth surface, or hide difficult stains, this is your product. 

For less challenging projects, such as painting over a dark colored wall, I like Kilz premium, or Zinsser’s Bulls Eye 123. Both are excellent primers.

(Please note this contains an affiliate link by which This Place I Belong can profit. However, I never recommend a product I don’t believe in.)

If you aren’t concerned about stains and odors, don’t want to bother with primer at all, and want a stunning finish, just reach for a jar of a Maker’s Studio Rescue and Restore paint. No priming needed, even on slick surfaces. You can learn more about it here, or purchase it here. By the way,  A Maker’s Studio is offering a free 12″ x 12″ stencil with the purchase of 3 chalk art paints for a limited time.