The Science of Deodorization

6/1/2020 (Permalink)

When you’re dealing with a bad smell in your home or office, it can be downright distracting.

And depending on what’s caused the smell, it might be really tough to get rid of it. If the odor was caused by a fire and/or smoke damage, for example, the scent can linger for months, if not years.

If this is something affecting your home or business, you might be tempted to spray an air freshener and try to forget about it, but we have some bad news: you won’t be able to forget. The air freshener won’t make the smell go away.

The good news is, team SERVPRO of Lockport / Lemont / Homer Glen has the equipment and scientific know how to eradicate those bad odors. And we mean ERADICATE them. We don’t try to cover up the smell with perfumes, we use scientifically proven methods to get rid of them.

Here’s a few of the odors we can deal with:

• Cigarette Smoke
• Pet Odors
• Decomposition
• Mold

And we deal with those using a few different methods. One is by using a piece of equipment called an “ozone generator.”

An ozone generator works by pumping ozone into the affected area. Ozone is a gas that’s made up of three particles of oxygen. (Ozone is different from the “oxygen” or O2 humans need to breathe, which is made up of two oxygen particles). When the ozone comes into contact with the particles making the bad odors, whether they be smoke, bacteria, etc., the ozone will literally change the chemical makeup of those particles through oxidization. Changing the odor-causing particles’ chemical makeup destroys the smell. After use, the ozone then turns into O2, which we’re eventually able to breathe.

Another method our technicians use to destroy stinky smells is thermal fogging.

Through this method, a deodorizer is put through a machine that turns it into a fine fog. That deodorizer fog can then get into every nook and cranny of the affected area, even the smallest, most porous spaces. The fog is even able to reach under floors, into ceilings and behind walls. The fog is then able to alter the particles causing the bad odors and destroy them.