Smoke, pet,
and mildew odours
cleared out.

Car Mould and Mildew Removal

Mould in a car almost always means water got in and never fully dried — a leaking sunroof drain, a windshield or door seal that's past its life, a spill that soaked into the carpet padding, or snow carried in on boots all winter and left to sit under the mats. That's why spraying an air freshener or running an ozone machine on its own never fixes it. The smell is a symptom; the colony under the carpet is the cause, and it grows back within weeks if the moisture source is still there.

We work the problem in that order. First we find the water — lifting mats and seats where needed, checking the sunroof drains, the door membranes, and the footwell corners where water pools out of sight. Then the affected material gets cleaned and sanitised: hot-water extraction pulls the contamination out of the carpet and padding rather than pushing it deeper, and hard surfaces and vents are steam-cleaned. Only then does the vehicle go into a sealed bay for ozone treatment, which oxidises the airborne and fabric-bound spores and residual musty smell that cleaning alone can't reach. The car is fully ventilated before it comes back to you. Doing ozone first, or instead, is the shortcut that leaves customers with a car that smells clean for a fortnight and musty again by the next humid week.

Mould is worth treating quickly for reasons beyond the smell — spores circulating through the HVAC system are a genuine irritant for anyone in the car with asthma or allergies, and mould left in the padding permanently stains and degrades the foam. If your car has been sitting unused, took on water, or spent the winter in a damp garage near the Bluffs or the Highland Creek valley, that musty smell on first start-up is worth a look sooner rather than later.

Smoke, Pet, and Persistent Odours

Cigarette and cannabis smoke are the hardest smells to shift because tar residue coats every surface in the cabin, including the headliner and the inside of the ventilation ducts — places a normal interior clean never touches. Pet odour and urine are a different problem: they're protein-based and soak through the seat fabric into the foam, so surface cleaning masks them for a few days until warmth and humidity bring them back. Food spills, spoiled groceries, milk, and rideshare scent buildup all behave the same way. In every case the fix is the same principle as mould — physically remove the source material first with extraction and enzyme cleaners, then neutralise what's left in the air and fabric with ozone in a sealed bay.

A full odour-removal service runs a complete day, typically 6–8 hours, because it includes a deep interior detail before the ozone cycle and a proper ventilation period after it. Standalone odour removal starts at $149. If you're already booking an interior or full detail, ozone deodorising is available as an add-on for $50–$100 depending on severity. Either way, we'll tell you honestly what we expect to achieve after seeing the vehicle — a heavy long-term smoker's car with a fabric headliner is a different job from a single spilled coffee, and we'd rather set the expectation than oversell the result.