Wednesday, July 29, 2009

cat urine odor in carpet -- I HAVE to erradicate it. How?

Please help -- I no longer have a cat, but there is fresh cat urine in the carpet. I blotted up the urine as much as possible before I totally soaked (and I mean SOAKED) the area with a very expensive cat-urine odor eliminator (Nature's Miracle). Luckily under the floor is a crawl space, so no biggie soaking the area. I waited a day and then I soaked the area with white vinegar (my mom's suggestion). THAT smell just about killed all of us, so I soaked that up with towels, and now that the carpet is somewhat dry again, I can again smell the cat urine. HELP!
Answers:
Go to a carpet cleaning supply place and ask them for a product that has a LIVE ENZYME for eating odors.

The little enzyme creatures will actually EAT the protiens in the urine that remain in the carpet -- that is what is smelling.

If they don't have a small bottle of it (the stuff is expensive), then try weaseling for a "sample" of it in a Dixie Cup or something. It should only take a teensy bit of it to do the job! They may have pity on you and just give you some! IF not, then it will be worth the price to get the smell removed!!
Change the carpet, or it wont go away.
It may have seeped into the floorboards..in which case you may have to replace several boards. Be prepared to be shocked and amazed if you pull up the carpet.
i once had a cat that was terretorial and i used baking soda that works for about 3 months but after that you have to do it again
At Petsmart they have special stuff you put on carpet or other soft surfaces. Its about $10 a bottle, it has a yellow and green label, just read the instructions, its the best stuff for the smell. I tried everything because I used to do cat foster and adoptions out of my condo.
You will not get rid of the smell, you need to replace the carpet and check the floor boards, it will usually soaks through. It does not matter what you use it will just cover it up for a little while, but then it will come back.
Bissel Pet and Odor carpet cleaning soap.
Take a big dump behind the furniture. The smell of that will overwhelm the cat pee smell.
Washing powder solution, has to be bio as it has the enzymes in it to kill the smell.
almost imposible,as bad as vomit or milk.best bet is remove the carpet and pad underneath
I can imagine the vinegar smell!! I use baking soda - it works for me. Good luck.
BURN IT! Then replace.
http://www.asseenontv.com/prod-pages/uri.

http://www.zeroodorstore.com/

hope this helps!
Vinegar is supposed to neutralize the smell of ammonia. while it's not the most pleasant smell on earth, it's definitely better than cat urine!
The best way to get rid of the smell is with urine destroyer. You'll have to go and ask for it a store that sells cleaning supplies for businesses. When we Had our live xmas tree the dog thought he had indoor pluming and the urine destroyer was the only thing that took the smell out of the carpet. I tried the vinegar thing, steamed the rug(which really just made the smell worse), used the store brought pet oder removers, nothing worked until the urine destroyer.
I'm not sure anything is gonna work great but I'd try an enzyme cleaner (you can get it from your vet) and then while it's still damp put a thick layer of baking soda on it and let it dry completely (a day or 2) and then vacuum. The carpet should act like a wick and draw all the moisture up. The fresher a urine stain is the easier it is to get rid of the smell. Hopefully the urine didn't soak into the sub flooring. If that happened the only thing that's gonna get rid of the odor is replacing the carpet, pad and the sub floor. Best of luck!!
You probably should have waited for the Nature's Miracle to dry before soaking the area again with vinegar. Sorry to say. Usually by the time NM has dried it has taken all the odor up with it, and soaking it with vinegar might have killed all those little good enzymes in the NM. Wait for the area to dry out again, and douse it with another round of Nature's Miracle. I have never had that stuff fail on me and I use it quite frequently due to having a cat that gets seizures. Sometimes it *does* take two rounds, but it works better than anything else I have tried.
NEVER USE VINEGAR! Saturate with hydrogen peroxide and let it dry. You may need more than one application, but peroxide is cheap and won't hurt your carpet.
I have tried that URINEGONE that is advertised on tv and found that it works better than anything i have tried..good luck
Don't ask why but I have to get rid of urine smells all the time. (no, not of myself.) The basic thing is to continue washing. If it doesn't work the first time, it will the fifth or the tenth.

So, if you think it is worth it, pick what product you want from the other posts, and just keep on washing it. However, it may not be worth so much work but if you really love that carpet, you will be taking the chance that you may wreck it by washing it so much but what other alternative do you have if you really want to keep the carpet?
There is something I saw on an infomertial called "urine be gone" it worked for my brother on a bed and comes with a light that when the lights are off will show you the stain and that way you can see when its gone
The purpose of vinegar is to keep cats away from the area. You don't use it if you no longer have a cat.

As the other responders stated, an enzymatic cleaner is key, and let is soak in and dry on its own. You have to saturate it enough to get any urine soaked into the subfloor. Always test any cleaner on a hidden area first to check for color changes.

In extreme cases, you may have to remove the carpet and the subfloor and reinstall fresh materials.
I hear ya. It stinks. We tried the same expensive stuff, vinegar, dishsoap, hydrogen peroxide, baking soda.it came back. We got a rug doctor with some pet stain remover and odor remover. We followed the directions and it is finally gone. Hope it works for you.
I bought a house that had 9 bullmastiffs, 21 cats, lizards,snakes, mice. every animal under the sun. we actually had a dead cat in the ceiling. When we walked into the house our eyes watered from the smell. These people let there animals go to the bathroom EVERYWHERE!! I am a investor and I buy houses all the time. We got the smell out. Believe it or not. But I swear by this product! We used everything. Even the products from Petsmart, and PetsPlus. Everything masked the smell but did not remove it. This product removed ALL smelles. Did not mask it. It is expensive But it really works. I have my house to prove it. It is called OdorXit. you get 16 fluid ounces for about 45.00. But you only use one cap full to a gallon. You can call 1-877- odorxit or go to www.odorxit.com. I do not sell this. I do not have any financial gain to this. But since it removed the smells in this house that we now live it. I swear buy it and will ALWAYS recommend it. It will permanently eleiminate oders caused by pet and human urine,feces vomit and pet scent markings. can be applied to color fast fabric, carpet,concrete, coolers, dirt,drywall, furniture,leather,plaster, plastic,skin and wood. I used this on EVERYTHING in this house. And we use it in everyhouse we buy. You Do have to follow the directions. Do not use more then what it says too. I did not think anything could get the smell out of this house. How people could live like that just blew me away.

2 comments:

  1. Vinegar is the only thing that works. And sure it stinks, but after a day, the vinegar smell fades as well as the cat pee smell.

    I used to have a backpack that my cat peed on. I washed it in EVERYTHING known to man. My cats kept peeing on it. You could see them smelling it from 5 feet away, then the next thing you knew, they'd pee on it. I finally soaked it in vinegar. Then I rinsed it really well and rewashed it with soap (to make it smell pretty). Cats never peed on it again.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Cat urine is one of the potent liquid that can make your carpet soaked in its pungent odor, and I had experienced that in my home, which is why I called for the guys who does carpet cleaning (Salem, Oregon based cleaners) to get rid of the stench and the stains on my carpet.

    Thankfully, they've managed to remove it with their tools. Due to that, I also recommended those carpet cleaning (Salem, Oregon) people to my friends who have pets in their home.

    ReplyDelete