I am not sure where to start. We have a 4 bedroom hardwood floor house,. We rented it to this couple and they rescued cats (which we did not know) and now the house smells of cat pee. I can not rent it out or sell it becasue of the smell. I am a bit overwhelmed. Where do i start to get rid of the smell
Ahh....the non-joys of rental property. If there is carpet and pad anywhere? Rip it out (seal the lightly damaged subfloor with Kilz or polyurethane) and replace with new carpet/pad. (if there is a lot of damaged/saturated areas, plan on replacing the subfloor too) A urine area will glow under an inexpensive, hand held black light, when the lights are out. This will give you a clue as to what areas need treatment or replacement. Cats will spray to mark territory, so do look for areas on lower walls, baseboards, cupboards, doors, etc. Even upper areas, if they were left to climb on counters.
Enzyme treatments can work, but can be expensive and time consuming when dealing with an entire house (they need to saturate down to where ever the urine seeped and stay wet for hours to work). Anytime you can remove areas or clean and then repaint with a stain blocking paint, this will also help with sealing off the odor. So sorry for your dilemma.
When I did this I was told to use an oil based shellac as the sealer on the subfloor. I removed and discarded the carpet, bleached the subfloor - had to let that dry so it was under 12% moisture level- and then used the shellac to seal the subfloor up. After that I put down laminate flooring but you can replace with whatever you want. If you use carpet again at least if it happens again you can clean it off the subfloor if it gets that far. I also used the shellac to seal the half way up the walls. The shellac was tinted white and matched the walls. This 100% ended the odor problem. I tried every other remedy. Enzyme cleaners had no effect. Nothing will get thru the shellac. I applied it with all the windows open and the odors were minimal and it dried very quickly.This message has been edited. Last edited by: llazy1,
What you want to do is make sure that you thoroughly clean any carpets. The fibers in carpet trap smells, so getting those deep cleaned is a must. You want to use a vacuum cleaner with a central vacuum system like a canister, for example. Then, using a disinfecting powder, vacuum all the carpets. That should help you get started.
ooh, look, a spammer. have fun cleaning the mess out of your central vac, spamking!
we do well by shampooing the carpets, then running a power rinse with the same steam vac but pouring a healthy dollop of AtmosKlear odor eliminator into the rinse water. I cite without any internal information that pouring some good ol' borax into the rinse water will do the job as well.
sig: if this is a new economy, how come they still want my old-fashioned money?
Posts: 4693 | Location: North Burbs, MN | Registered: Mar 14, 2007
i would and have used bleach let it soak in real good,pour it on the floor at 100% strength. it will ruin your floor finish. the floor will have to be sanded and refinished but it works
Posts: 3278 | Location: I live in southern mississippi | Registered: Jun 01, 2008
A match can work too. Burn the place down and collect the insurance...shhh..but don't get caught!
Sorry, but I bet Kamala is long gone, this was the one and only post. Probably solved the issue one way or another. (THIS original post was August of 2011!)
burn da ouse down da roof da roof da roof is on fir-a dats ok we dont need no water let the mother %^$#(* burn...burn mo%&^#*(&%6 burn i remember that song from somewhere....hummm.wher was i...oh yea. like it was the 80s we were still buzzed from the 70s we dont need n.......... burn m..... da de da dad da This message has been edited. Last edited by: Frodo,
Posts: 3278 | Location: I live in southern mississippi | Registered: Jun 01, 2008
oil based shellac ?????????? Ain't no such animal. Shellac is a substance that is secreted by some type of bug, it is harvested cleaned, dried, made, usually, into flakes then held until it is disolved in ethyl alcohol ( denatured alcohol ) Once it is mixed it has a limited shelf life of about 1 year. After that, it wont harden and stays gummy. manufacturers put a date on their containers, so make sure that it isn't a year old It is an excellent sealer for covering stains, cat urine , and other uses. It used to be used as a final finish, but because it would turn cloudy if it got wet, othe finishs replaced it and shellac is usually used as a sealer. but there are those who want what is called a french finish, then shellac is used along with buffing it down with very, very fine abrasives OK, school is out
I have had this problem before also. A good enzyme treatment is a product called ODOBAN. It comes in a concentrated form. A gallon will make up to 32 gallons of spray once mixed with water. I got mine at Sams Club, but I think it is also available in a smaller bottle of concentrate at LOWES. I've used it on Cat Urine as well as dog Urine. I had a friend use it on her couch. It got rid of the odor and she was able to sell her couch with no trouble. I've only used it on floors with alot of success. Hope this helps!
I wash the entire area with detergent soap, water and Clorox to disinfect. Then air dry and/or sun dry for days. I place my sofa and carpet outside the house where the sun directly hits them. Do that for 1 week.
This message has been edited. Last edited by: Frodo, 
