Gross filth cleaning is the removal and disinfection of human or animal waste, rodent droppings, rotting food and soaked materials from a home that a regular deep clean cannot safely handle. Emergency Cleanings handles these jobs for landlords and property owners with a free on-site assessment, one flat price locked before work starts, and a house left empty, sanitized and ready for the next trade.
Maybe a tenant left after an eviction. Maybe you inherited your uncle’s place and opened the door for the first time in a year. The smell hits on the porch. There’s waste on the floors, food rotting in a dead fridge, droppings along every baseboard. A maid service took one look and left. You need someone who will walk in, and you want to know what happens next.
Step 1: The Call and the Arrival Window
You call and describe what you’ve seen. You don’t need to be there in person. A lot of owners we work with live in another city or another state, and a lockbox code or a neighbor with a key is enough.
A technician gets a 2-hour arrival window, and you get a text with the ETA when they’re on the way. Same-day visits are common. Unmarked vehicles are available on request.
Step 2: The Walkthrough and Photos
The technician walks every room, the garage, the crawlspace access and the yard. They photograph it all. What they’re looking for is what decides how the job gets done:
- Human or pet waste on floors, in bags, in buckets or in tubs
- Rodent droppings, nests and dead animals
- Soaked carpet, pad and subfloor under urine-heavy areas
- Spoiled food, dead appliances and standing liquids
- Sharps or anything that looks blood-contaminated
- How much stuff is in the way, since a hoarded house adds removal volume
Those photos go into your file. If you’re selling, an agent or buyer may want to see the before.
Step 3: One Flat Price Before Anyone Starts
After the walkthrough, a Project Coordinator calls with the exact final price and the step-by-step plan. That number covers labor, disposal, transport, equipment and insurance. You approve it, and it stays put. When you’re counting margin on a sale or a re-rent, a price that won’t grow halfway through the job is the whole point. If the budget is tight, the work can be phased room by room at a fixed price per phase, and financing is available. A 20% deposit holds your slot.
Step 4: Making the House Safe to Work In
The crew suits up before touching anything. Waste and droppings get wet down first, never swept dry. The CDC’s rodent cleanup guidance says to open doors and windows for 30 minutes before cleaning, skip the broom and vacuum, and soak droppings with a bleach solution of 1 part bleach to 9 parts water for 5 minutes before wiping them up.
Here’s a detail owners ask about. OSHA’s bloodborne pathogens standard does not treat urine and feces as regulated material unless they are visibly contaminated with blood. That doesn’t make them safe. Bacteria and viruses live in human waste, so the crew wears protection the whole way through and handles anything bloody as its own category.
Step 5: Removal
Everything contaminated beyond saving goes out. Mattresses, upholstered furniture, soaked carpet and pad, bagged waste and spoiled food. If urine has gone through the pad into the subfloor, the crew pulls what’s needed to reach it.
Anything that looks like it matters to you or the family gets set aside before it hits a bag. Deeds, photos, jewelry, cash, mail. In an inherited house that pile is often the part people care about most.
Step 6: Cleaning and Disinfection
With the rooms empty, the crew scrubs and disinfects hard surfaces. Floors, walls, baseboards, cabinets, toilets, tubs. Surface mold that turns up gets cleaned as part of the work. Deep mold mitigation, water damage restoration, fire restoration, plumbing repair and rebuilding are separate trades that Emergency Cleanings does not perform. If the walkthrough shows rotted subfloor or a broken drain line, you’ll hear it then, so you can line up those trades.
Step 7: The Handoff
You get after photos to compare against the before set. Disposal records are available if you request them. The house is empty and sanitized, ready for a painter, a flooring crew, a listing agent or a new tenant.
If the job turns out to be a full hoarded house, our hoarding cleanup service covers the volume side. The feces cleanup service page has more on the waste side of these jobs.
Frequently Asked Questions
What counts as gross filth cleaning?
It covers homes with human or animal waste, rodent droppings, rotting food or soaked materials that make a standard cleaning crew unsafe or unwilling to work. The job includes removal of contaminated items, disinfection and sanitizing of hard surfaces.
Do I have to be at the property during the cleanup?
No. Many owners live out of state. A lockbox code or a trusted contact for access is enough, and you get photos before and after along with the price by phone.
Will the price change once the crew starts?
No. Emergency Cleanings sets one flat fee after the on-site walkthrough, covering labor, disposal, transport, equipment and insurance, and it is locked before work begins.
Does gross filth cleaning include repairs?
No. The work is cleanup, decontamination and removal. Plumbing repair, deep mold mitigation, water or fire restoration and rebuilding go to separate trades.
If you’re standing at the door of a rental or an inherited house you can’t walk into, call 888-560-8488. We offer same-day response and a free on-site assessment, and you get a written scope with one flat price locked before any work starts.
