Odors in Leather

Odors in Leather Clothing and Furniture

OdorXit Concentrate

Organic source odors in leather products of all kinds are a challenge for a number of reasons. Not the least of which is the thickness of the leather. In the case of urine contamination, Leather can harbor a large amount of urine residue which translates to: Normal cleaning methods do not work. Because OdorXit is a contact chemistry product and is intended to neutralize the urine residue rather than remove it, OdorXit Concentrate is uniquely qualified to work on urine contaminated leather.

There is one issue regarding treating contaminated leather that must not be ignored. The texture and flexibility of leather can be radically altered by simply getting leather wet much less treating it with detergent, urine, or OdorXit. We at OdorXit have gotten feedback from customers and taxidermists who have treated hide rugs successfully with OdorXit. This is a long way from treating glove leather.

What we have found that works best is to have the leather cleaned professionally to remove the bulk of urine, and whatever else you have applied to the contaminated area. Do not have the leather treated with softeners at this point. Spray the area front and back (if you can get to the back) with OdorXit mixed 1:30 with water, and let it dry slowly. You may have to treat the area more than once over a period of several days to neutralize all of the residue. When you think all of the odor is gone, spray the area with water and sniff. When the odor is completely removed, the water will generate no odor at all.

Mold on Leather Clothing and Furniture

OdorXit® CLO2

Removing the odor from moldy leather is a very different from removing regular organic odors. The mold fungus and spores need to be killed and the resulting dead mold and spore dust removed to eliminate the odor and prevent further damage to the leather. Eliminating mold fungus from leather can be started by simply washing the surface of the leather with detergent and water, rinsing and drying. This will remove most of the visible mold fungus and spores but will not kill the remaining mold which is where the odor is coming from.

Using the OdorXit® CLO2 product, which produces chlorine dioxide gas, to further treat the leather and kill the remaining mold fungus and spores is extremely effective. If the leather item being treated is small enough to be put in a closet or similar closed space, use a 5 or 10 gram Slow Release packet of CLO2 to treat the item(s) placed in the closet or hung from a cloths hanger for several days. The closet does not have to be emptied but there does need to be air space around the item being treated.

Furniture can also be treated right where it sits as well given that a large enough packet is used to treat the entire room. This incidentally is probably the best way to treat the furniture because if there is mold on the furniture there is mold in the rest of the room. Use of a ceiling fan or small desk fan will improve the performance considerably.

With all of the odor removed, treat or have the area treated with leather softener to restore the original texture and flexibility.

There are many web sites that have information, products and services directed specifically toward leather products, repair and recovery. They include but are not limited to The National Furniture Restoration Hot line, Tandy Leather Corp., Leather Medic, and many others.

There are products that you can put on leather that will permanently alter the texture, flexibility and finish of leather. OdorXit is not one of them.