Anyone know how to get cat urine odor out of carpets

hiitdogs

hiitdogs

Cathlete
I have a house for rent that the previous tenant left with an overwhelming cat odor. The tenant cleaned the carpet before they left so we don't know where exactly the stains are, it just takes your breath away when you walk in the house and I cannot locate where it actually is.

We had a professional carpet cleaner in, I sprayed Nature's Miracle and those Zeolite granules in Odorzout. Nothing works! I am afraid it may have seeped into the pad and/or concrete.

Does anyone have any experience with miracle products that we haven't considered yet.

Thanks
 
UGH.Cat urine is the absolute worst, it probably soaked through to the pad, it sounds like you should replace the whole thing. That smell just doesn't leave.x( or respond to anything...I know I had an apartment with the same problem long time ago...they had to rip up the carpet.
 
You can use a black light to find the areas. It may not be only on the carpet. One of the houses my mom rents out, the cats had sprayed their scent on the walls. We had to clean the walls, repaint and replace the carpet and pad (cleaned the cement floor putting in the new carpet) before we got rid of the scent.

Here's a site with a lot of suggestions. If you find something that works well let us know

www.faqs.org/qa/qa-7780.html

Jean
 
Eucalyptus OIl, Its a miracle product. Kills odours, disinfects, put a cap in the washing for freshness. Dilute it in loo, dilute for washing the bathroom, floors and more!!!!

Andrea.
 
I've tried every suggestions known to humankind including those mentioned above and none work. Ripping up and replacing the carpet was the only answer I have found to work. I am very fortunate to now have a cat who uses the box and not the carpet.
 
This is the reason DH will not allow me to get a kitty.:-( I am really a "closet" cat person, even though I adore pups too! I know females are better at not spraying, but well, you know how it goes...so I have my Newfie Georgie, and a fish named Pedro.:)
 
>I've tried every suggestions known to humankind including
>those mentioned above and none work. Ripping up and replacing
>the carpet was the only answer I have found to work. I am
>very fortunate to now have a cat who uses the box and not the
>carpet.

Yep, I agree. I had this issue with my kitty before we moved to Germany. He wanted to be an outside kitty and he expressed this desire by spraying all over our carpets! Zero Odor did help some (I imagine it would help in small areas that haven't had time to soak in) but mostly I think you may have to rip up the carpets and replace them. I don't think I'll ever live in another house with carpet.

Carolyn
 
RE: Anyone know how to get cat urine odor out of carpet...

Hi,

So sorry you're dealing with this. I rescue cats so I have several in my house and have had to deal with the occasional accident because a few our our "girls" have gotten UTIs. I will offer my opinion on the issues, and you pull what you want from it - K? :)

If your previous tenants had a cat that was ill, or they had more than one cat, chances are they were repeat offenders. I know you may not want to hear this but you will probably have to replace the carpet. Once it gets into the padding or worse, the concrete, you will have problems. Since the floor is concrete you will have to seal it with a paint or something. Concrete is porous - so it holds the odor.

The only other thing I recommend you trying is OUT. Walmart sells it in spray bottles and jugs. It helps if you know where the actual stain is though - otherwise you could be wasting it. It's not something you can just sprinkle over your carpets - it's got to be put on the actual urine spot and saturate the carpet. This stuff is especially formulated to break down the urine, but I've found it doesn't work as quickly on heavily saturated areas.

I have always heard that eucalyptus oil is great for a flea repellent, but not for eliminating cat odors...I would think that oil would just hold the scent in, but if it works for you then go for it.

Sorry - but my opinion is you're better off changing the carpet.
 
If your previous tenant was an ignorant person who had an UNNEUTERED male cat in the house, then what you might be smelling is not just urine, but the, let's say "special sauce" that unneutered males spray to mark their territory. It could be on any vertical surface (walls, curtains, etc.).

If it is urine in the carpets, most likely it soaked down into the pad and even into the wood floor. A superficial cleaning won't get rid of it. You need something that has enzymes that will destroy the odor (but that take a while to work, and often smell worse for a while). And you most likely will have to pull back the carpet and the padding to make sure to get at all the areas covered. (Someone above suggested a black light, which is a good way of finding all the spots).

One product that is supposed to get out all sorts of aweful odors (including 'dead body'--it says so right on the label!) is "Anti-Icky Poo." ( http://antiickypoo.com/ ) It's used by some cleaning companies (and if you can find one locally, I'd try them first) or you can buy it online. I used it on an area in my basement, and though it smelled worse for a short time (they say this may happen, as the bacteria start to multiply), it got rid of the problem.

The only problem is that if something like Lysol has been used on the area in an attempt to destroy the odor, it will also kill the friendly 'anti-icky poo' bacteria that eats the bad stuff. If you call the peeps at AIP, they are very knowleageable.

If that doesn't work, I'm afraid you'll have to remove the carpet and padding and then clean the floor.
 
Not sure about cats, but for dogs my vet suggested rubbing alcohol when one of my dogs was aging to the point she didn't know when she had to "go".

It worked for me, but again, you would have to find the spot(s) where the smell is coming from.
 
I totaly agree with tneah. I used to be a property manager and animal urine, the smell, no matter what I did would not come out. The carpet would be professionaly cleaned twice, but as someone else also mentioned once it gets into the padding it stays there. You could if you can isolate the spot just replace that portion of carpet with a peice in the closet or something. I used to keep extra carpet in storage for this reason. The carpet cleaners would isolate the spot cut it and the padding out and do a patch job. They would then replace the carpet in the closet with the newer carpet, same color of course but it is way to difficult to color match carpet in a high traffic area. This I would only do if the rest of the carpet was still new and in good shape. Otherwise I would just recarpet and make sure you put it in your lease that you can charge the tenant for replacing it.
 
My husband has a carpet cleaning business and unfortunately, if it's gotten into the pad it will "wick" back up to the surface eventually so you'll need to just replace. And, make sure you do some heavy duty cleaning (using a urine neutralizer also) of the concrete once the carpet is removed otherwise you'll eventually start smelling it again. Good luck
 
RE: Anyone know how to get cat urine odor out of carpet...

I have not tried this, but my sister had a cat that was always peeing on rugs, carpets, floors, and she used white vinegar to get out the smell. I didn't believe it, but she swears it works! You could try putting some in a spray bottle and spraying it on the carpet.

Good luck!

Mary
 
RE: Anyone know how to get cat urine odor out of carpet...

>I have not tried this, but my sister had a cat that was
>always peeing on rugs, carpets, floors, and she used white
>vinegar to get out the smell. I didn't believe it, but she
>swears it works!

White vinegar is an excellent killer of bacteria. In head-to-head tests, it was found to be more effective than chlorine bleach.
 
RE: Anyone know how to get cat urine odor out of carpet...

I did this too. You will end up with the lovely smell of cat pee and vinegar. x(
 
I have five cats and take care of two others. The two are great and well-behaved but mine... If you don't make a habit of looking for trouble and taking care of the spots as soon as you see them, the problem compounds. In your situation I agree with the poster who said the carpet and padding have to go. Since your tenants were clearly irresponsible pet owners (and tenants) the floor will probably have to be treated. If you have hardwood floors that have been soiled badly (the carpet/padding may have caught a lot of it) you might have to have the floors sanded and re-finished. I have learned that this sort of behavior can be seriously curtailed by, not only keeping the cat boxes scooped out daily (sometimes twice daily) but by also keeping the area around the boxes clean and free of stray kitty litter granules. Cats come in a wide variety of personalities but one thing 90% have in common is that they don't like doing their business in a smelly place. For a long time I worked insane hours and my housekeeping wasn't what it should be. After my serious cleaning vacation (8 days of non-stop housework) I got everything straightened out, cleaned up and smelling nice. The experience has helped me to figure out what pi**es off (pun intended) certain of my cats. I found out, for instance, if I simply sweep up the kitty litter that spills onto the linoleum in my bathroom floor twice daily, the pee spots that showed up on the carpet in another room magically stopped appearing. It's not the cats' fault. They're not punishing you. They get mad and urine is how they let you know they want you to fix the problem. Ignorant and irresponsible pet owners are unknowingly creating the situation. And if they're tenants, what can you do? I have a very strong sense of smell and once entered a cat owners house and was knocked out by the intensity of the odor. She told me she'd been taking in strays and didn't understand she needed litter boxes even though they went outside. Brother. And she LIVED in that stench. I guess you're learning about the hassles of tenants. When I pulled up the carpet in one of my rooms there were huge dog pee stains on the hardwood i never through tcould be fixed. But they were all gone with one swipe of a floor sander! Really, though. You won't know the full extent of the problem until the carpet and padding are out of your house.
 
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