Today

An unattended death. This is a job for a trauma cleanup crew, not family

Body fluids soak into flooring and subfloor, odor spreads through the home, and hepatitis B remains infectious on surfaces for at least seven days.

Keep the room closed. Do not try to clean it yourself.

What is probably happening

When a death goes undiscovered for days, fluids move into carpet, padding, subfloor and sometimes the joists below. What you can see is a fraction of what has to come out.
A proper job removes and disposes of affected materials, disinfects, and treats the odor. Surface cleaning does not do it.
Structural repair (new subfloor, drywall, flooring) is a separate trade and should be quoted separately.

Do this in the next five minutes

Keep the door closed and turn off central heat or air to that room if you can, so the odor does not spread through the ducts.
Keep children and pets out.
Take photos from the doorway for the insurance claim. Do not go in to do it.
Call your homeowners insurer and open a claim. Ask if trauma cleanup is a covered loss on your policy.
Call two trauma cleanup companies and ask the questions below. Both should come out and look before quoting.

Do not

Do not clean, mop or shampoo. It spreads contamination and destroys the chance of a clean insurance claim photo record.
Do not pull up carpet or flooring yourself. That is where the exposure is.
Do not accept a quote that bundles structural repair into the cleanup. That is on the site's red flag list for this trade, and it makes the bill impossible to check.

Who to call

A trauma scene cleanup company

A restoration or carpet firm can dry and rebuild, but the removal and disposal of blood and body fluid waste needs a crew trained under OSHA's bloodborne pathogens standard and a permitted disposal route.

Get a free shortlist The seven questions for this trade

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What it should cost

$3,000 to $5,000 for a typical scene, up to $10,000 for an unattended death

Fixr typical range and $200 to $300 per hour for unattended death; HomeGuide upper figure

Source: Fixr, biohazard cleanup cost, 2025, and HomeGuide. View source

National published range, not a quote for your job. The full cost table for this trade is on the biohazard page.

Ask this contractor, on the phone, before anyone comes out

Tap each one as you ask it.

Are your technicians trained under OSHA 29 CFR 1910.1030, and is that documented?
Who is your permitted medical waste transporter, and will I get the disposal record?
Does the quote list what will be removed, what will be disinfected, and how odor is treated?
Is any structural repair in this quote? If so, itemize it separately.
Do you hold an ABRA or IICRC trauma certification, and can I see it?

End the call if

The company will not say how or where the waste is disposed of.
Cash only, or a large deposit before a written scope.
A quote given over the phone without seeing the room.

Insurance. Many homeowners policies can cover trauma cleanup when the cause is a covered peril; coverage turns on the cause of loss and the policy wording, so check with your insurer first (National Crime Scene Cleanup Association).

Where this comes from

Not my problem, tap through instead Every biohazard answer