Retail
Odour removal for cars, vans and utes
For when a clean is not enough. Smoke, pet, vomit, milk, mould — we trace the smell back to whatever is causing it, take that out, then work up through the stages until the vehicle is clear, stopping at the stage that does the job.
This is the job if
- The smell comes back a day or two after you have cleaned it yourself.
- An ozone treatment fixed it for a week and then it returned.
- It is worse on a warm day, or worse when the air conditioning is running.
- Air freshener has turned it into a different smell rather than removing it.
- You are selling the car and the smell is the first thing a buyer notices.
- You have just bought the car and inherited someone else's problem.
What the job involves
Odour work is diagnostic before it is anything else. The quote follows the inspection, not the phone call.
We look at the vehicle first
Where the residue actually is decides which stages you need and what it costs. Over the phone we can tell you the likely stages; we cannot tell you the price.
The source comes out
Under the seats and rails, under the carpet, the boot well, the cabin filter, the air conditioning evaporator. If the source is a leak rather than a spill, that is a repair and we will say so.
Hard surfaces are cleaned out
Into the vents, the seams, the plastics and the trim gaps where a cloth passed flat over the surface cannot reach.
Carpet and fabric are extracted
Shampooed under pressure and pulled straight back out, so the contamination leaves the vehicle in the recovered water rather than drying back into the pile.
The air path is treated last
Ozone or hydroxyl, in the workshop, unoccupied and under controlled conditions, then fully ventilated before the vehicle comes back to you.
The method
How far up the ladder your vehicle goes
Every job starts at stage one. How far it escalates depends on what we find, and each stage is priced separately so you are not paying for stages your vehicle does not need.
- 1
Find and remove the source
Under seats and seat rails, under carpet, the boot well, the cabin filter, the HVAC evaporator.
- 2
Carpet shampoo
Shampoo worked through the carpet, the mats and the fabric seats, so what is bound into the pile lets go before it is pulled back out.
- 3
Hot-water extraction
Hot water driven through the pile and vacuumed straight back out, so the dirt leaves the vehicle in the water rather than drying back into it.
- 4
Air-path treatment
Ozone or hydroxyl, run in our workshop under controlled conditions, then fully ventilated before the vehicle goes back to you.
- 5
Carpet out
Worst cases only — carpet lifted, underlay treated or replaced, then sealed.
What it costs
Retail prices by vehicle size are published on the pricing page. A firm price comes after a look at the vehicle, because a cigarette smell in a five-year-old hatchback and a litre of milk under the carpet of a seven-seater are not the same job.
Each stage is quoted before it starts. If stage three does not clear it, stage four is priced and agreed before we run it — nothing escalates without you saying yes.
Questions we get asked
Can you guarantee the smell will be gone?
No, and treat anyone who does with suspicion. Most vehicles clear in one treatment. If yours does not, the next stage of the ladder is quoted before we start it, so you always know what the next step costs before you agree to it.
I already had an ozone treatment and it did not work. Why would this be different?
Because ozone on its own is the fourth stage of a five-stage job. If the milk is still under the carpet, ozone knocks the smell back for a few days and then the source starts again. It works when it is used after the source is out, not instead.
Is the ozone treatment safe?
It is safe the way we run it, which is in our workshop, with the vehicle sealed and unoccupied, followed by full ventilation before you get it back. Ozone is a lung irritant. We do not run it at a customer's home and we do not leave a generator with you.
Will the car be wet when I get it back?
Hard surfaces are dry as soon as they are finished. Hot-water extraction leaves carpet and fabric damp rather than wet, and it needs airflow to dry properly — which is why heavier extraction work is better done at the workshop, particularly in winter.
Do you do fire and smoke damage claims?
That is insurance remediation and it is scoped and invoiced differently. There is a separate page for it.