How to get rid of odor

[happier]

Water has been leaking from antenna for some time - I've only owned 71 Overlander for 3 weeks. I removed the carpet, curtains, roller shades, and mattresses. What else can I do to combat musty ordor. I plan on sealing the floor with an odor blocking primer to help fight odor. What else should I do? The water leaked between the panels. Will I need to do something about that? I read somewhere that I should remove the old screens from window. I've washed the whole interior with various cleaners. Will the smell go away or should I expect some odor. Those of you with older AS's must have dealt with this issues at some time. HELP!

[overland]

We had the same problem with our 1970 Overlander when we got it. First thing is to make sure you have all the leaks stopped. It may not be where you think it is. I'm a firm beleiver of Clorox... Everything!!!! (Keep the windows open, fans going, and wear rubber gloves). After that I opened the windows up every chance I got and it finally lost the smell after about a month. But in that month we kept finding new leaks. So keep checking for new water and don't get in a hurry to redo the floor until it dries and gets cloroxed.

[uwe]

Is it dry now? Are you in a wet climate?
Odors can come from many places, most of which you have already addressed. I recently disassembled a 1963 Overlander, with tons of floor rot and decay in it.
The furniture and floor are out, but the smell lingers in the insulation. Every time I remove a piece of the glass fiber, the odor returns, although much weaker.
If you seal the floor, and again clean the walls and ceiling, you should be ok, though. Make sure and clean behind things, and inside cabinets really well. Especially behind the sink and stove, as far as you can gain access to it.
I cleaned my 71 like this, and I consider the odor very minimal now. I only notice a faint trace of it after the trailer has been closed up in storage for a week or so.
Keep cleaning, it will eventually get better.
Don't forget the bathroom, make sure the toilet flange is in good condition, and nothing leaks. Look for rotten floor under the bathroom cabinets etc.
Good Luck!

[Janet H]

Have you removed all the foam on couches etc?

[happier]

The PO removed the couch - broken. I'll have to rebuild a new one. I just thought about this one, how about purposly pouring bleach water through the antenna leak before I seal it up just in case there is mildew/mold between the layers? Let me know what you think about this unusual fix.

[dscluchfc]

If I did pour bleach down a leak, I would pour a dilute mix down that spot, but certainly not full strength.
Leaks are a bear to locate sometimes.
I have Parbonded on mine until I am about ready to scream.
But, little by little I am getting there. Everytime it rains I seem to find another leak....drag out the water hose to isolate it, and here we go again.
I have Parbonded the mid rails (not sure), the rub rails down low ( a couple of places were for sure), the front window rock guard attachments (definite leak), the vista view windows (not sure), the fan/vents on top (definite leak), the tv antenna on top (definite leak)...the AC hole on top (not sure)....all of the awning hardware attachments (definitel leak), the running lights on the front and back (definite), the fresh water inlet housing (definite), the tail light housings(definite), and every panel seam, especially the curved ones(not sure)....I don't know if all that was leaking but, I decided it was going to be eliminated as a source because it was faster than trying to chase every little thing. At first I had so much leaking, that I had to be aggressive to cut it down quickly, so I probably did more than I really had to do.
The latest places that were definitely leaking are the vents for the black and grey water tanks, the flood light lens gasket, and the large Excella badges were leaking at the 3 rivets that hold them to each side of the body, so I re-riveted them using plenty of Parbond on the rivet stems.
In West Texas so far this year, in 6 months we have had 19 inches of rain where I live....that is only 3X what I have had each year the past 2 years since buying the Airstream. I didn't know it leaked until it started raining.
The odor my trailer had that I had about eliminated by cleaning came back with the leaks. Now, it has less and less odor as the sources of moisture entering the trailer are eliminated. If it is DRY, and it doesn't LEAK, it won't STINK.
...just my 2 cents...

[happier]

Thanks for the reply. I too will be parbonding my entire trailer whether it needs it or not. That is after it stops RAINING!!!!! It has rained here (Georgia) every day for 2 weeks. I have to work on mine outside - no garage. I also have to remove miles of silicone caulk.

[Over59]

One cup beach to one gallon water. Spray with one of those garden bottles to saturated the areas. Wiping down the whole interior with this helps. Windows open and don't hang around inside as the fumes are toxic.

[dscluchfc]

People that put SILLY CONE on an Airstream should be beaten with sticks.
Parbond and Vulkem only.

[hiyosilver]

Originally Posted by happier

It has rained here (Georgia) every day for 2 weeks. I have to work on mine outside - no garage.

Happier,
another thought since you are in such a damp climate would be to either put an actual de-humidifer in the trailer & let it run or get some of those dehumidifying crystals that will help such up any extra moisture. It takes very little moisture for any kind of mildew & its following smell to take hold but if you can dry it out you'll have half the battle won! Good luck & remember bleach is our friend.
Don't forget to check your window tracks as well, I nearly always find mildew in there after a bit of dampness.

[JohnG]

I am new to this forum so my experience is limited. However, I once had a small 18 ft Charlette that had an odor problem. A friend told me to sprinkle NEW coffee grounds all over and wait about 3 to 5 days before cleaning them. I bought a lage can of Maxwell House (No Endorsement) and did as he instructed.

The result was a camper that had the smell of coffe when I first opened the door a week later. The coffee smell aired out in only a few hours and I vaccuumed the carpet and cleaned up my coffe grounds. Maybe I overkilled it with coffe as I used the whole can, but the odor was gone.

A second and perhaps cleaner task maybe better, but I have no experience with this one.
A friend told me that they had that problem once and used Pine-sol in a vaporizor.

I know there are many products on the market today that advertise eliminating odors, Fre-breeze, Odo-Ban, etc and I am sure they might work under the right circumstance, but I have no experience with any of them and can only say that I would try one or the other until I solved the problem.

Good Luck!

[JohnG]

Just a 2nd note:

If you should decide to try using the coffe grounds make sure you work your way from the back and out as you realy don't want to crush them into anything. Spread them working back to the door.

When you go in a few days later let the vaccuum lead you. I used a high qualty shop vac with a 7.5 hp motor and cleaned everything out. espically ther carpet.

I know this sounds a little crazy, but as I said it worked.

As before, Good Luck!

[eaglerab]

keep in mind that bleach corrodes aluminum- severely depending on concentration and exposure

[happier]

It is still raining here (Georgia)!!!!!!!!!!!! I think I'll attach a pontoon and call it a boat.

OK, how about a different cleaner between the outer and inner panel. I have a lemon scented cleaner that is suppose to stop mold and mildew, would this work? Wouldn't it have to have bleach and maybe ammonia in order to kill the mold/mildew? Don't know, do you?

[roadeo]

Never mix bleach and ammonia. Not sure why but they say it kills.....people... not just mold.Seriously VERY SERIOUSLY it can and often is DEADLY.

[dscluchfc]

Ammonia and Bleach mixed together produces a precipitate formimg chemical reaction releasing as one of the products of that immediate reaction, Hydrogen Chloride gas in a fog form...you do not want to inhale Hydrochloric Acid gas in any form...it can indeed be fatal.

[53flyingcloud]

The results could be even worse than stated above.
This is a lead off a 'BBC' website~
reprinted in its original format`

The Dangers of Mixing Bleach and Ammonia
Often, one looks at a bottle of bleach and wonders, 'Why shouldn't this be mixed with ammonia?' If you know how dangerous chlorine gas is to humans (it was used as a chemical weapon during World War I and later by Nazi Germany in World War II), this will be very apparent. This entry will tell of a few reactions that can occur when bleach and ammonia are mixed in various proportions - the release of chlorine gas is just one of these. In the following sections, the header will be the name of the most dangerous compound produced in the reaction shown. Please, do not try any of this at home.
Chlorine Gas (Cl2)
That warning is there to protect you. Household bleach has a chemical formula of NaOCl - that is, one atom each of sodium, oxygen, and chlorine. Its chemical name, for the curious, is sodium hypochlorite. Ammonia has a chemical formula of NH3, that is, one atom of nitrogen and three atoms of hydrogen. When these two compounds are combined, the following reaction takes place:
2(parts)NaOCl + 2NH3 --> 2NaONH3 + Cl2.
Do you see that Cl2 on the right hand side there? This means one part chlorine gas, made up of diatomic (two atom) molecules. It also means that the chlorine gas has been liberated from the bleach, and is quite capable of causing you harm when inhaled!
The Pain! The Pain!
To understand the effects chlorine gas has on the body, we first need to understand the chemical properties of chlorine, particularly its valence, or number of chemical bonds chlorine can form. Chlorine is in the seventh of the traditional groups of elements, one before the group of inert gases, which, as their name suggests, are almost completely unreactive. Chlorine has seven electrons in its outer electron shell.
The Octet Rule states that all elements try to fill in their outer electron shell until they have eight electrons. When a chemical has eight electrons in its outer shell, it is then stable. Being so close to having 8 electrons in its outer shell, chlorine is quite desperate to get that one last electron - and will literally rip other atoms apart to do so. This is what happens to your respiratory system when you inhale chlorine gas. The gas tears into your nasal passages, trachea, and lungs by causing massive cellular damage. Obviously, chlorine gas causes a very painful death.
Nitrogen Trichloride (NCl3)
Another potential reaction, which occurs when a greater amount of bleach is added than ammonia, is this:
3NaOCl + NH3 --> 3NaOH + NCl3
That's sodium hydroxide and nitrogen trichloride. Nitrogen trichloride is a very toxic chemical to humans, and even if you did get close enough to ingest it, it would probably explode in your face first, as it is also a very volatile explosive. There is little necessity in explaining why that is bad.
Hydrazine (N2H4)
Still another reaction - in three parts this time - can occur, producing hydrazine (N2H4, a component of rocket fuel) if you have more ammonia than bleach:
NH3 + NaOCl --> NaOH + NH2Cl.
These two products then react with ammonia as follows:
NH3 + NH2Cl + NaOH -->N2H4 + NaCl + H2O.
One last reaction occurs to stabilise the reagents:
2NH2Cl + N2H4 --> 2 NH4Cl + N2.
This last equation is of particular interest because of the amount of heat it produces. The heat is so great that it usually leads to an explosion.
Danger!

As mentioned before, this article mentions some very dangerous chemicals. One should not ever, ever attempt to create the chemicals described above as it could result in injury or even death.

This is enough to scare the "*&@#*" outa of anyone~!
ciao
53FC

[dmreilly10000]

Originally Posted by happier

Water has been leaking from antenna for some time - I've only owned 71 Overlander for 3 weeks. I removed the carpet, curtains, roller shades, and mattresses. What else can I do to combat musty ordor. I plan on sealing the floor with an odor blocking primer to help fight odor. What else should I do? The water leaked between the panels. Will I need to do something about that? I read somewhere that I should remove the old screens from window. I've washed the whole interior with various cleaners. Will the smell go away or should I expect some odor. Those of you with older AS's must have dealt with this issues at some time. HELP!

Go to #10 on this thread. An ozone generator has worked for me.


http://www.airforums.com/forum...zone+generator

[happier]

I should have clarified my bleach/ammonia option to include : Never mix the two.

I know someone who died while cleaning a bathroom with the door shut by mixing bleach/ammonia.

I would use one or the other or maybe neither.

[wingfoot321]

Originally Posted by dmreilly10000

Go to #10 on this thread. An ozone generator has worked for me.


http://www.airforums.com/forum...zone+generator

I second the ozone generator. Some carpet cleaners have them to put in apartments or houses that have gotten wet. You may have to haggle them on price. they are used to dealing with insurance companies who pay through the nose. ( our money)