Effective Odor Control Systems For Parking Garage Facilities

Smell is far more than just a simple biological experience. The sweet fragrance of spring flowers and freshly cut grass are always welcome company to the human nose, but at the same time malodors and the ability to control them have been the bane of civilization since the dawn of time. 

And of all the odors in our modern world, some of the worst emanate from parking garage facilities, which are often mingled with oil, metal, rubber, gas from exhausts and, even worse, urine from homeless vagrants and drunks seeking shelter or places to relieve themselves.

With warmer temperatures, malodorous conditions within stairwells, elevators and other areas within parking garages become even more intense and can represent some of the most offensive situations for those parking within these structures while attending stadium events, offices spaces and other commercial environments.

So how do owners, managers or those that clean and maintain parking garage facilities eliminate these malodorous conditions and ensure a fresher, clean-smelling parking experience? This article delves into this universally stinky problem and presents a detailed overview of the most effective system to both eliminate these vaporous odors as well as their source.

Public Urination: A Short, Smelly History

Public urination didn’t always carry the stigma it does today. As far back as 2,400 BC (obviously many centuries before parking garages) public bathrooms existed in ancient Mesopotamia. Archaeologists have also uncovered the remains of public baths and toilets in ancient Rome, Greece and other cultures. 

The modern public restroom did not become reality until many centuries later when in 1775 Alexander Cumming invented the double-curved, odor-blocking drainage pipe (aka the u-bend). In 1820, Paris introduced public restrooms known as ‘pissoirs,’ along its most popular boulevards. This line of urinals had a privacy-protecting screen running behind the users. By 1930, there were 1,230 of them in Paris to serve a population of about seven million people.

Down through time, society’s attitude toward public urination has ranged from ambivalence to concern and everything in between. At times, civic leaders recognized the problem and advocated solutions, and at others the smell of urine in public spaces remained a malodorous situation. 

In the modern world of rapidly-growing cities, public urination in parking garages and other places has become an even greater problem than it ever was before. 

Drunks and homeless people seek public places for living quarters, as in many cases, they have nowhere else to go. Various American cities have come up with potential solutions to solve the matter of public urination, which at a high volume becomes a health hazard, erodes buildings and lampposts. This is easily proven by a summer stroll in downtown Manhattan where the stink of pee is both overwhelming and debilitating.

Some Cities Take Action Against Public Urination

Charleston, South Carolina, has a considerable homeless community which is likely to be greatly affected by a new ordinance that will ban this population from housing or camping in city-owned parking garages. 

It officially states that it would “prevent the use of garage structures in ways they were not intended to be used. This includes: sitting, standing, lying, kneeling, skating, or skateboarding.” It is believed that this is the most recent example of a city dealing with homelessness by reducing the legal uses of public space.

Other cities, such as Hamburg, Germany, and San Francisco, California, have taken drastic and unusual stopgap measures. Both cities utilize a highly water-resistant (hydrophobic) paint at a cost of $100 per wall that sprays pee back onto the person’s shoe and pants.

If only there were a fan button in every elevator.

While this won’t stop an offender from simply finding another available wall, it does prevent the erosion of street lamps, such as the one in San Francisco that was so weakened by urine that it finally broke and crashed onto the hood of car, nearly killing a driver who had stopped for a traffic light.

A company in Portland, Oregon, has manufactured a stainless steel latrine that is easily assembled, but permanent. Known as the “Portland Loo,” starting costs are set at $90,000. It is clean, private and durable, but discourages loitering because it does not offer an overly inviting feel to the user. It is, however, as its marketers claim, “a unique solution to a universal problem.” The company that makes the Portland Loo has sold models to municipalities in Oregon, California, Washington, Alaska and Ohio.

Health Issues Arising From Parking Garage Facility Smells

There are many requirements in terms of ventilation and sensors that must be implemented whenever a new parking garage is put into operation. This is to keep visitors and workers out of harm’s way from the exhaust fumes from cars and Carbon Monoxide (CO) particularly, which is deadly and odorless. 

According to one California attorney, carbon monoxide poisoning kills over 5,000 people and injures 10,000 annually. This deadly chemical has been known to seep into housing and businesses above underground parking garages and it can also permeate through walls.

Air-Scent And The Two-Step Approach To Killing Odors

Ever since Bob Surloff, founder of Air-Scent International, invented the world’s first fan operated air freshener dispenser in the mid 1940’s and named it Air-Scent,  the advanced science of controlling bad odors in commercial interiors has been our one and only passion.

We are a family-run business is dedicated to odor eradication and ambient air-care, and has been in continuous operation since 1948. Our researchers and chemists are always at work perfecting their skills, expanding the boundaries of industrial science and augmenting their knowledge via testing and on-site experience.

Both a leader and a pioneer within the industry, we have developed and produced some of the most effective vaporous, odor neutralizing products in the marketplace. True odor control almost always occurs at the source of the smell, and today’s world requires modern tools to accommodate the growing sophistication of our cultures and the increasing complexity of our malodors. 

We are the world’s leading authority on the subject of fan air fresheners, cutting edge linear scent diffusion technologies, fragrance development, molecular odor-control and top-of-the-line small and large-area air diffusion systems.

Enz-O-Matic and Mega-Fresh Odor Control Systems

Our methodology for the destruction of malodors pervading public garages involves an approach known as the two step. Unlike the Texas country dance of the same name, this solution requires the employment of two superior products, Mega Fresh and Enz-O-Matic. When used in tandem, they kill lingering air-borne odors and eliminate them at their source of origin in diverse ways. No odor can survive their joint application.

Mega Fresh diffusers control intense, vaporous malodors lingering in the air, especially in garbage areas, stairwells, storage areas, hallways and elevator shafts. Known for its patented Flow Science capillary technology, it works for up to 30 days insuring that fragrance flows into narrow spaces without the aid of gravity or other external forces.

These diffusers are both attractive and energy-efficient, as they require no batteries or electricity of any kind. Their power is compounded by the use of fragrances that are laced with the molecular odor neutralizer known as Metazene.

The Enz-O-Matic Organic Waste Degrader And Odor Neutralizer annihilator is a concentrate that contains over 200 billion non-pathogenic, multi-strain, live bacterial cultures per gallon. It produces a unique enzyme action that attacks and degrades organic wastes, which are defined as any materials that originate from living organisms. 

This degrader and odor-neutralizer is well known for its ability to digest malodorous organic residue surrounding urinals, toilets and sinks, and for its ability to remove uric acid salts and stains.

Enz-O-Matic is applied to surface areas where odors originate such as: concrete and painted floors. It freshens the air via a unique amalgam of surficants, which are compounds that are known to lower the surface tension of any liquid into which they are dissolved.

Our Powerful Odor Control Edge Is Metazene

The two-step approach to combatting stinky smells in public garages is highly dependent on the inclusion of this colorless, odorless neutralizer that attacks odors on a molecular level and eradicates them. It is this factor that sets Metazene apart from others of its ilk. Although it has has been around since the late 1940s, its preparation was difficult because it was a highly volatile concentrate. It took many years to infuse stability and purity to this additive.

It is a matter of weight and chemical reaction, as the Metazene particles bond with the heavier malodorous molecules, which in turn alters their electron patterns, and renders bad smells odorless. This occurs because very low vapor pressure causes the smelly molecules to sink and evaporate over time. 

Metazene acts as an excellent fragrant fixative, and for this reason in addition to the fact that it contains no formaldehyde which is toxic to humans, animals and the environment, it is a versatile and intensely powerful weapon against combating persistent odors.

Using conventional perfume sprays within parking garages and other commercial spaces, such as: offices, industrial buildings and apartment complexes, only serves to temporarily mask bad smells from smoking, stale food and vehicle exhausts, but they cannot eliminate them permanently. The idea of neutralizing and destroying malodors forever is becoming more and more appealing to commercial and industrial environments.

In conclusion

If you are the owner or manager of a parking garage and have been unable to rid your commercial space of malodors, call our team today. Take advantage of our expertise and try our 2-step odor-control solution. It is certain to transform any parking garage into a much cleaner and sweeter smelling environment for both your workers and your customers.

Final thought about odors and parking garages: Sign on a parking garage door reads: For those who enter, leave all sweet smelling hope behind. ~ Anonymous