Pet Odor Removal Advice for Frustrated Homeowners
All year we live with our pets and their odors without a second thought. Our dogs and cats pee, throw up and do their business on a daily basis and we give in to those cute little faces and clean up the messes the best we can. It is only when our Mother-in-law is visiting for the Holidays or if we are chosen to host the office party that we notice that particular pet odor that emanates from our carpets. What can we do? Here is some pet odor removal advice:
How Bad Is It?
The first thing we must consider is how bad is the problem and how deeply has the pet urine penetrated into our carpets. Has it found its way into our subfloor or our cement slab? If it has we need to clean and seal the urine at its deepest level. Every other effort will be futile unless we address the collected urine that has migrated to the subfloor. Bleach is a cheap cleaner that does a great job for destroying odor on concrete but don’t let it get onto the carpet or it will be ruined. After cleaning the subfloor we must seal it with Kilz or Bins to prevent it from escaping and off gassing. The carpet pad is the next level of contamination that needs to be addressed. Just cut it out and replace it with new pad. Pad is cheap and not worth the effort necessary to rid it of pet odors.
Attack Them Above and Below
We must attack the pet odors in the carpet from both the carpet backing and the carpet fibers. Spray the backing heavily with an odor enzyme like Natures Miracle. You leave this chemical alone and let the enzymes eat the urine and the bacteria will keep reproducing enzymes as long as there is moisture. You may need to spray the backing and face yarns several times to remove the odors. You need to use as much odor neutralizer as there is pet urine in the carpet. Leave the odor neutralizer alone and let it do its job, don’t scrub or rinse.
Act Promptly and Clean Carpets Regularly
I had a carpet cleaning job in Erie last week which had a landing covered in cat urine. The cat urine was on the baseboards, carpet, pad and subfloor. The client was hoping that a simple carpet cleaning would do the trick. Bummer. If you keep up on pet stains and spray them with enzymes as they occur you can keep them in check as long as you clean the carpets on a regular basis. Using regular soap will only set the pet stains and not break down the pet odor molecules.
