Old apartment smell in a rented place
We’re renting an old apartment where an elderly person lived for a very long time. The place definitely hasn’t had a proper renovation in 30+ years.
When we moved in, we did some cosmetic updates:
- painted the walls,
- got rid of most of the old furniture,
- replaced almost everything with modern furniture/decor.
There are still maybe 1–2 vintage pieces left from the previous owner, but overall the apartment looks pretty modern now.
However, we never touched the old wooden floors. They creak, turned gray over time, and are clearly very old.
When guests first walk in, they usually mention that it smells like an elderly person’s apartment. We’ve mostly gotten used to it ourselves, so we don’t notice it as much anymore, but it’s still noticeable to people coming in from outside.
We suspect the smell is coming from the floors since everything else was updated.
Is there any realistic way to reduce or remove this smell without replacing the floors? Has anyone had success with ozone generators/ozonators for this kind of issue?
Replacing the floors is unfortunately not an option because it’s way too expensive for a rental.