Just moved into a house that has been vacant for years.

Felicia
by Felicia
musty smelling wall to wall carpet throughout house, and about a foot in a half of dead leaves coving acre. underneath leaves is bear ground and moss in spots!!! want green grass and colorful flowers!!
  4 answers
  • So what is your question here Felicia? How to? or ideas on what to do?. As far as inside, remove all old carpets and clean the floors well to help rid odors. Wash walls and all hardwood trims etc. A fresh coat of paint after cleaning using a good quality primer as well will help rid the house of that closed up stuffy and mildew odor your experiencing in the home.
  • Douglas Hunt Douglas Hunt on Apr 11, 2013
    Those dead leaves may have doing a great job of improving your soil, Felicia. If you have moss in spots, it sounds like you have shade and moisture. So you should know that unless your acre gets good strong sun for at least six hours a day, it's unlikely that grass will do well there. You have to embrace the conditions you have. Turn those leaves into the soil in areas where you want to establish flower beds and you'll be well on your way to having happy flowers.
  • Cyndi Moore Tippett Cyndi Moore Tippett on Apr 11, 2013
    We did the same things about 14 months ago. Our house was a very distressed house and the yard had not be taken care of in at least a decade. We also have 66 pine trees so we have some sun but more shade. In the front yard I raked up all the pine straw and put down lime on all my moss and it took about six months but all the moss is gone. We then planted tall fescue sod (cool season grass and doesn't need much sunlight) around the pine trees in the front yard. It has now been six weeks with the sod and my front yard is beautiful. We have a sod farm about fifteen minutes from us, So we were able to get them to cut us 1/2 of the sod we needed one day and then we waited over the weekend and had them cut us the rest of what we needed. You just have to keep the sod watered (about two weeks) if no rain until the roots get established. You can lay out your flower beds before you lay the sod. If your yard has alot of sun chose a warm season sod. Hope this helps....
  • Mary Law Mary Law on May 09, 2016
    When you take up the carpet, Polyeurothane (sp) the floor underneath. That will kill ANY odor,even cat urine. I've seen it work many times!