Clear up after death

DailyGeek said:
For your own sanity, make a couple of febreeze bombs (air freshner cans with a zip tie over them, neutradol or oust would be best) and chuck them through the letterbox. Get a cooker hood filter with activated charcoal in it and tape it over the letterbox and any gaps around the door. Then tell the local authority you can hear a lot of flies to speed them up a bit.

Pretty shocking that nothing is being done quicker, but that is councils for you.

E: Don't use vicks, it will just open your airways more and let more of that stench in!
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What do morticians use? Some of that, unless they are proper hard core and use nothing.

I'm no expert, but I'm not sure air fresheners bombs are the answer, creating a cloud of flammable gas when they likely have a fridge turned on might not be the best idea. :D
 
R0B75 said:
What do morticians use? Some of that, unless they are proper hard core and use nothing.

I'm no expert, but I'm not sure air fresheners bombs are the answer, creating a cloud of flammable gas when they likely have a fridge turned on might not be the best idea. :D
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In all fairness, if it did explode it probably would sort that specific smell.
 
This is the second time this year I've had issues with the local authority being a bit crap.

Earlier this year scaffolding was put up on the side of the building which went all the way to the roof. Because of this grey squirrels got in the loft space above our flat (we're at the top of 3 floors and can I access the loft space) but the council (Pest control) and the housing department did nothing. they said I'd have to pay to have the squirrels removed, lol wut?! I can tell you they make a hell of a racket.

I used to go up there with a torch and catch them running around up there. Despite weeks of complaining and arguing and building inspectors coming to look at where they might have got in (externally, inspectors never once visited me) they never once sent pest control out with traps to catch and remove them.

The hilarious part of it was there was no record of why the scaffolding was put up in the first place or by whom (it was there for at last 2 months before we complained) and it took them another 2 months to remove it because they didn't know who the scaffolding belonged to. When they eventually removed it they left a notice to whomever came to claim it. In the end, I bought a squirrel trap and caught both the squirrels in it. I had to kill them (as you're supposed to legally) but I shouldn't have had to do it at all.

The final insult was they finally found where they thought the squirrels got in....They only put scaffolding back up and bricked up my tumble drier exhaust hole that leads into my KITCHEN! :rolleyes: It took them another 2 months to come and unblock it again so I could use my tumble drier.
 
arknor said:
will it really? in carbon filters it's a specific type of charcoal and the air is puled directly through about 1feet of carbon, the molecules of smell are to big and get trapped within the carbon.




simply putting charcoal near a smell will do nothing?
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Ok. I've edited for more accuracy to activated charcoal should absorb some of the smell. Onion supposedly absorbs odour too, although that may just mask the smell not absorb it.
 
R0B75 said:
What do morticians use? Some of that, unless they are proper hard core and use nothing.
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Well I start next week, so my experience is limited but basically apart from a bit of ventilation, they don't use anything :p Certainly not vicks
 
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At this rate, whoever does eventually come to clean up is going to find a very interesting pile of aerosols, mouldy onions and BBQ fuel underneath the letterbox!
 
I don't get the problem. Why the hell didn't it get done when the place was opened up for the body to be removed? As far as I'm concerned they haven't finished the job if fluids are left behind. There may even still be some solid matter.
 
Well that was my initial thought but clearly it's not part of their process. I said to the missus that leaving that sort of mess for the next of kin (though not in this case) is just awful. There has to be a better way.
 
Dis86 said:
I don't get the problem. Why the hell didn't it get done when the place was opened up for the body to be removed? As far as I'm concerned they haven't finished the job if fluids are left behind. There may even still be some solid matter.
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That's not the job of either the police or undertaker, who are likely to be the only people who went into the property.
 
Burnsy2023 said:
That's not the job of either the police or undertaker, who are likely to be the only people who went into the property.
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I wonder who would be responsible for instigating a forensic cleanup? As above, surely it's not down to the family in instances like this, I mean it can't be a particularly rare occurrence either, sadly.
 
If the door needs to be broken down to gain entry again, why not properly seal it with silicone, expanding foam or something similar?

Also, can anything be easily lobbed through the window? Like a waterbomb filled with something or as mentioned previously, some sort of deodorising "bomb".
 
Burnsy2023 said:
That's not the job of either the police or undertaker, who are likely to be the only people who went into the property.
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I didn't say it was. However there's nothing stopping a clean up team attending and billing the local authority who then claim it back as required from the property owner, family or the estate.
 
Burned_Alive said:
If the door needs to be broken down to gain entry again, why not properly seal it with silicone, expanding foam or something similar?

Also, can anything be easily lobbed through the window? Like a waterbomb filled with something or as mentioned previously, some sort of deodorising "bomb".
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Well you'd have to be a really good shot to get something through the window 3 floors up :D

Ideally I'd want to avoid damaging anything or leaving a mess that also needs to be cleaned for which I can potentially be billed, but still deal with the issue in the interim.

Edit: Also, these flats have smoke alarms and I know from experience they go off using aerosols and deodorising bombs. I had to call the fire brigade earlier this year because a neighbour downstairs used several bug bombs (for fleas), set them off and left the house for the night. :rolleyes:

Fire brigade arrived. Smashed down the door and got rid of them. I wasn't to know they weren't on fire :o:D
 
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Dis86 said:
I didn't say it was. However there's nothing stopping a clean up team attending and billing the local authority who then claim it back as required from the property owner, family or the estate.
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I'm not sure the council should be paying for those quite substantial fees and administration costs, especially when essential services are being cut.
 
Burned_Alive said:
If the door needs to be broken down to gain entry again, why not properly seal it with silicone, expanding foam or something similar?

Also, can anything be easily lobbed through the window? Like a waterbomb filled with something or as mentioned previously, some sort of deodorising "bomb".
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Actually that's not a bad idea - will cost the OP a few £, but some silicon sealant around the edges of the door and expanding foam in the letterbox would possibly block the worst of the smell?

Burnsy2023 said:
I'm not sure the council should be paying for those quite substantial fees and administration costs, especially when essential services are being cut.
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So who would normally pay for the cleanup in a situation like this where there is no estate/next of kin? Or would things just be left for nature to take its course?
 
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Haggisman said:
Actually that's not a bad idea - will cost the OP a few £, but some silicon sealant around the edges of the door and expanding foam in the letterbox would possibly block the worst of the smell?
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If you're going to go the non-legal route then you may as well force entry and get it cleaned properly.
 
Haggisman said:
So who would normally pay for the cleanup in a situation like this where there is no estate/next of kin? Or would things just be left for nature to take its course?
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If the house it owned by the occupant there will be an estate. If it's rented then the landlord would be liable.
 
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