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Being owners of several dogs, we are somewhat experienced with
animals and their bad habits. I understand that cat urine is
quite a bit stinkier than dog urine, but hey, who's going to
do a side-by-side comparison?
For a long time I have simply
washed urine puddles with some sort of ammonia-containing
liquid, either household ammonia or (believe it or not)
ordinary Windex. Then I use several dry paper towels to absorb
the liquid. Supposedly most animals hate the smell of ammonia.
I know that our dogs stay away from spots treated with
ammonia. Part of the idea of using ammonia as a cleaner for
urine stains is to prevent the animal from repeatedly
urinating on that spot. It's always worked for us.
But... I've never needed to
deal with a large urine stain like what you described.
It seems that there are two
situations - replacing the carpet or keeping the carpet.
1. Keeping the carpet:
I would saturate the stain in
household ammonia, let it soak for a few minutes, and vaccum
it up with a wet/dry vacuum. I would repeat this a few times,
and then pour a bucket of water on the stained area to rinse
the ammonia away. After the final vacuuming I would direct a
couple of large fans on the area to dry the carpet before
mildew starts to grow.
Of course, this wash and
rinse treatment could be done just before shampooing the
entire carpet.
It might even be worthwhile
to peel back part of the carpet to clean the wood
underlayment, then re-attach the carpet. But re-attaching the
carpet properly means using a carpet kicker, which you can
rent (ouch... my knee hurts just thinking about those
machines), or you can hire a carpet installer to re-install
the carpet.
2. Replacing the carpet:
I would splash some ammonia
on the stained wooden underlayment, let it soak in, and then
mop/vacuum it up. I suppose a quick rinse wouldn't hurt. When
the wood was dry I would apply a coating of Zinsser B-I-N
Primer/Sealer, which is a shellac-based primer that is
very good at covering up odors such as smoke caused by fires.
Their product literature mentions a long list of stains that
B-I-N sealer covers, but they don't mention animal urine. But
I'll bet that it works. I would seriously consider priming ALL
the wood underlayment, to prevent future stains from being
absorbed into the wood. A gallon will cover about 400 square
feet. You can but B-I-N sealer at Home Depot and most paint
retailers.
Also, I have known people
that have used a special "enzyme" spot treatment for
urine stains. It supposedly works very well, but I have not
used it. This product can be found at pet stores such as
Petsmart.
Bruce W. Maki, Editor.
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