How to rid the musty smell from water leaks in RV?

[Skid_Row_Joe]

After 2 water leaks that saturated parts of my RV's carpeting, I'm not able to rid the musty mold smell from the RV. Is it necessary to rip up the carpeting to get rid of the smell? I've had windows open for days and it still smells, even though the carpeting has long since dried out. Is there anything that will negate the smell that is on the market?

[nomad_297]

Once you are sure you have taken care of the problem that caused the odor, buy or rent an ozone generator and use it to eliminate all odors in your RV. They do a great job.

[camperdave]

On my old trailer, I removed all the old flooring down to the plywood subfloor. Rented a dehumidifier for a few days and dried it all out as best I could. sprayed everything I could with a bleach solution, then coated the exposed plywood with CPES. Laid down new linoleum, good as new! 🙂

And of course, make sure you've sealed up whatever was leaking.

[bdpreece]

IF!! everything is dry, you can then rent or buy an ozone generator. That is what motels use to get rid of smells.

[ksg5000]

Many RV's don't have padding under the carpet which is just stapled to the wood floor. Not sure why your carpet got wet but many would shampoo the carpet and then use combo of heat/fans to dry out the area ... if it still smells then look for wet insulation or some other issue. Normally with smells I would recommend coffee grounds etc but when smells come from dampness then you should be concerned with mold which can be harmful.

[Lynnmor]

Did you check for wet insulation UNDER the floor? You might need to open a bottom cover to dry or replace insulation there.

[Naio]

Definitely check for wet under the padding.

If the subfloor is wood, once it dries out very thoroughly, you could seal it up with any kind of varnish or similar. Seal in the smell.

The carpet and padding, you can get the smell out with oxygen bleach. Then rinse with vinegar to neutralize the bleach. You can rent a carpet machine and use a bleach solution and then a vinegar solution instead of soap.

You should do this in a warm climate, even if it means waiting till summer. Technically, you can do it in cooler weather, and then have the windows open and heaters running for days until everything dries out, but it takes a lot of heat.

[coolmom42]

Tyler0215 wrote:
Rip up the carpet NOW, the floor is wet underneath. Run a fan and hope for dry weather.

Yep.

and maybe run a dehumidifier, too.

[Tyler0215]

Rip up the carpet NOW, the floor is wet underneath. Run a fan and hope for dry weather.