Can anyone help with room odor at a retirement home?

I use OdoBan for my mom’s puddles. You can get the concentrated formula in a gallon jug or diluted formula in a spray bottle. I use the concentrate in the laundry rinse for her clothes and sheets and towels to eliminate the odors. I dilute the concentrate to refill the spray bottle. I spray the floor after I mop up the puddle. I like the eucalyptus scent.

Can you open the window and air it out while you are there? There are options like activated charcoal or vinegar in small bowls if he will let them be. I like the plug ins from bath and body works, or even glade ( at the grocer) and many have night lights also,, a plus! And since it;s gas,, can he have Beano? Its a small pill and it works at the source

Not sure if you are saying he has "gas" or "has" incontinence.
If he is incontinent then changing his disposable briefs (aka "diaper") EACH time it gets wet in important.
If clothes are wet they get changed as well.
If bedding gets wet they get changed.
Furniture should be cleanable NO cloth recliner, couch, chair...
Bathroom should be cleaned daily particularly at the base of the toilet. If the floor is tile the grout will hold urine and will cause odor unless it is cleaned properly.
There are products that will get rid of odors.
Clorox makes a product called Urine Remover that does a great job.
OdorBan is a very good product. Enzyme based it eliminates odors not just covers them. Diluted several different strengths it can be an air freshener all the way to a Sanitizer.
If this is an Assisted Living facility this problem should be brought up to management. It is their responsibility to provide a clean and safe environment.

NOW if this is a "gas" problem. There are air fresheners that might help. I have also read of charcoal underwear liners that will help absorb odor. Not sure if they work but I guess there is a product for every "problem"

Aging92, before using any products, check with the Staff at the retirement home to be sure it is allowed due to any allergies the Staff or other residents may have. The retirement home may have a product that they use.

My moms memory care unit smells like urine and feces constantly. It's awful. I recently took some plug ins for her room. I haven't been told I can't, so I did. When she was in private pay, it didn't smell like this.

I remember an Aunts facility smelling. I couldn't take visiting her.

I found vinegar in a bowl helped with the smell. If Dad wears polyester pants, I found these are the hardest to get smells out of. Vinegar in the wash water seem to work until I put in the clothes dryer and the smell came back. So I hung Moms pants outside. Never tried the products listed. I did find that Arm and Hammer did not work for me so went back to Tide which seemed to work much better.

My mother lived in Memory Care AL for nearly 3 years. Towards the end of her life, nothing got rid of the urine odor in her room. The staff constantly changed the trash bag in her bathroom and cleaned it up, that wasn't the problem. The problem was this: she wet her recliner chair, she wet her throw, she wet her bedspread, she wet everything, it was all damp with urine. No matter how many times her items were washed, they still reeked. Nobody could wash her recliner fabric, and even though the staff laid down disposable chucks on it, it STILL reeked. I could open the windows in there till the cows came home, and it still smelled awful. This was private pay MC, so that had nothing to do with the price of eggs; her wetting everything in sight DID.

Ask the management what products you can bring in before you do. Then don't get your hopes up if your father is also like my mom, wetting everything that exists in his room. Even if you bring home his laundry and wash it in your machine with all the odor killers available, his room will STILL likely stink b/c the urine is soaked into everything IN there.

It is what it is. I had a hard time dealing with the odors myself in mom's room, but I realized there was nothing to be done about it, really. So I dealt with it.

I had a purse a few years ago that smelled of mildew; I bought some charcoal bags online to put inside the purse b/c charcoal absorbs odors. They did a great job. The bags are scent-free themselves; you can place them around the room w/o offending anyone's allergies etc. Here is a link to these bags on Amazon:

https://www.amazon.com/s?k=charcoal+bags+odor+absorber&crid=2EATEWPIC4MJH&sprefix=charcoal+%2Caps%2C853&ref=nb_sb_ss_deep-retrain-0-ops-acceptance_3_9

IDK that they will work to eliminate the odors in dad's room, but it might be worth a try.

Best of luck.

What works for me is getting rid of all carpets and upholstery. Laundry including bedding done daily in hot water and Persil. Trash with used incontinence products removed at least daily. If mattress is smelly get rid of it and get another. Cover with waterproof case. I use Odoban eucalyptus for cleanups. For me there has been nothing else that works. Also I have to be vigilant in making sure mom wears pullups at all times. I have to accompany her to each toilet visit to make sure she actually backs up and sits on the commode properly. Any drips or misses cleaned up with odoban immediately. Its a lot of work but it's the only solution for me. I doubt if the facility staff would be able to do all these tasks. Mom is at home with me so I have to do it all myself. I dont think I could do it if mom were in a facility.

Would an air purifier help? I own this one, which has an activated charcoal filter as well as a HEPA filter: https://www.amazon.com/Winix-5500-2-Purifier-PlasmaWave-Reducing/dp/B01D8DAYII

I don't have a urine odor problem in my house, so can't say if it will help, but it's not very expensive and might help.

If you do buy it you'll have to set it to run continuously. The default setting is for it to go into sleep mode at night.

Nature’s Miracle and other “neutralizer” products found in pet stores worked for us at home.

Ditto to Natasana’s response with a heavy emphasis on the Odoban product. It’s a miracle cleaner & disinfectant.

Amen to all who suggested Odoban. Have used it for my Dad (aged 94) for a long while and it works great. Just a small amount of the concentrate in the wash cycle each time I wash (along with his regular detergent) and the odor is gone.

Have you complained to the manager? Who is cleaning his room? I can understand if you want to put a freshener in the room but shouldn't the cleaning of the room be the responsibility of the place he is at? They need to use products to help keep the room smelling fresh.

Try odorants available by the gallon at Sam’s club or Family Dollar has spray bottles just a few sprays and the odor is gone

agreed when items just routinely are soaked in urine this is a loosing battle.

how about Under the nose products to try:
Good ole’ Vicks vapor rub
StinkBalm Odor blocker
Essential oils such as lavender or peppermint

I would first bring it to the attention of the director of nursing and the director of the facility.

Ask the facility if they have an ozonator and request they use it in his room bi weekly.

Buy the blue washable blue protection pads for his bed.
https://www.northshorecare.com/incontinence-products/incontinence-bed-pads/washable-bed-pads/northshore-champion-xd-washable-underpads/northshore-champion-xd-washable-underpad-x-large-35x47-in-4pack

Remove any urine stained furniture.

If the carpet stinks of urine tell the facility to replace it.

Make sure they are changing him regularly. Facilities can lax in this area.

Buy a good diaper https://www.carewell.com/product/tena-stretch-ultra-briefs/

Aging92: Sadly, if your father is soaking through bedding including sheets, blankets, bedspreads and even pillows and other items, no product is totally going to get rid of the malodor. However, you could try some charcoal bags. Best of luck.

If all these things worked then nursing homes wouldn't smell like urine. Obviously if a paid facility cant find a solution I doubt anyone can. Is this really how the elderly want to live and be remembered?

Try the ZORBX Unscented Odor Eliminator. This can be found on Amazon. Someone urinated on my car passenger seat. After having it professionally cleaned, I could still smell the urine. I tried the Zorbx and it worked like a miracle. The odor has not returned.

Odoban. An environmentally friendly non toxic to humans and pets. Eucalyptus or lavender. Fantastic stuff!!!! Takes fecal smells and urine from carpeted room!

Popted below. Odoban. Non toxic to humans and pets. Environmentally friendly. Eucalyptus and lavender. Takes urine and fecal smells from my dad's carpeted room!!! Fantastic and non harmful. I add it to laundry. Sooo soft, non cling. Use it for carpet cleaning, stains... Can't say enough good about it. ODOBAN!

Why don’t you educate yourself first? The “pee” smell is often mistaken as urine however it is most likely 2 nonenal, not piss. Please don’t insult the elderly anymore.

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0022202X15411984

When u visit ur father open the window there’s no air circulating. If there are no windows I hope he’s getting enough oxygen . U can take a mop a some medium size bottle of bleach mixed with water not to much Andy’s little pinch of pines a tad bit of dish washing liquid just mop the floor. Got buy some poppurri get nice vase or small bowl that leaves a nice scent buy a lite smell nothing to strong. Make sure his close and covers are being washed.

Odor Ban is a good product. However, if he is incontinent, the pee smell is probably in the chair that he sits in most often. That has to be remedied. Have chair professionally cleaned or get him a new one with zippered seat cushion so you can wrap the foam rubber in plastic and place it back in the covering.

Get rubber backing mattress covers, too.

None of the odor eaters are going to work if the pee is still in the furniture. Will just mask odor and will return

Orange scented plug-in if possible for the facility, and sometimes if the patient can just wear perfume, that can be a great help. The bathing and cleaning has to be ongoing but sometimes due to the delicacy of elderly skin it's not unusual for them to be bathed only two or three times a week, and even if cleaning is done daily, if there are bodily functions being done in the room, the odors will keep happening. Taking trash out frequently when incontinence supplies are changed helps. So even if there is adequate cleaning and bathing going on, the "masking odors" products can be a big help if allowed at the facility and not harmful to the elderly person due to allergies, breathing issues, or other factors.