Need to Get Rid of Awfaul Cat Pee Smell

We bought a farmhouse with the same problem. I used several big boxes of Arm and Hammer bicarbonate of soda spreading it dry over the floor. I vaccummed it up and the smell was gone. Did the same on the baseboards.

I have rental also and have had this problem and I use Basic G from Shaklee. Never had a problem getting rid of the odor and it stops mold and mildew.

If interested, go to hppt://nontoxiccleaners.myshaklee.com

e-mail me if you want this product and I will send you directions on how to use this product. It is extremely cost effective because you use very little of it.

N.
SAH mom, nana, wellness coach

Nature's miracle works great. We have a cat with stress (spraying) issues and it really does a great job of removing residue and odor, which would be important if you ever decide to allow cats into that rental property again(as the new cats will try and mark their own territory over the old residue). If you can rule out pee in the sub floor, I would look at the base board molding and ducts, our cat peed in the duct and it took us a couple of day to figure out where the smell was coming from. Luckily ducts are fairly easy (as compared to floor or molding) to replace and kind of hard to clean. I would also check your dry wall when/if you pry off any molding- just to see if had soaked up into the drywall. It seems if it was pooling around the molding it would be possible for it to have been absorbed by the dry wall. Good luck this sounds like a terrible experience!

I am also a landlord and am sorry to hear about your problem because it is not usually an easy fix.

Based on what you have explained it is not likely a small problem that you can resolve with cleaning products since you have already primed/painted and even refinished the hardwood floors. I hope you held their security deposit. You will need to notify them of the problem per OR code (look it up on web). You likely have the issue with urine penetrating the wood floors, or since cats sometimes also "mark" you may have urine penetrated into the wallboard or around doorways, etc. Cats usually pee in the same places or they "mark" walls, doorways, etc. I would recommend you ask the prior tenants as much as you can about where the cats' litterbox was located, if they sprayed (marking behavior), etc. You will need to try to find the local areas where the urine is concentrated. Hopefully there are one or two areas, and it is not extensive. Depending on your findings, you will likely need professional cleanup services - there are a number of companies that do professional clean-up, for example, Chem Dry has a PURT product, but these are primarily for carpet issues. You may call them to get some ideas as well as a referral for a local business that deals with odor on hard flooring or walls, or you can call your insurance agent and ask them for a reference. So sorry...

Chem dry has a special chemical they use to get the smell out...PURIT...I think is what its called..they don't sell it, anywhere! So you may try them! We had to just replace the carpet in our old place...or just to avoid this in the future..no pets allowed may work better =) best of luck!

The Natures maricle doesn't work well, it's too diluted. Go to a vet and get FON spray, its the pure enzymes, my vet told me that when you get the over the counter stuff, its the bottle plus a gallon of water. The spray worked instantly. I spent 12 years and a lot of money, then I found this, (the spraying cat died too).

The black light idea is great but note, anything with any form of protein in it that has splashed on the walls or floor will show up too. I can tell every spot where my cats threw up a hairball, or we had a potty training accident, or spilled milk in the last 6 years. If you are OCD about cleaning be careful! My vet said to use the black light, get down and sniff and where you smell spray. Wait another day and do again.

I have not heard about the ozone machine, I am not sure how it will rid of any urine smell but wonder if it works.

Good luck you should post an update with what worked for you

Re-read Wendy B's answer. An Ozone machine is simple to operate and does the job. You don't have to clean, vaccum, dust, spread, wash or do anything but set it up and let it run. We did it in our rental house after cats, and it really worked.

Nature's Miracle works wonderful. I know that it is available at many pet stores (including Pet-Co) and online. Here is the website so you can learn more: www.naturemakesitwork.com Have you been able to pinpoint a specific area of the home where the smell is the strongest? If so I would pull up the floor in that area (check the walls & the baseboards too) to see if the subfloor was damaged & that might need to be replaced as well. I also hope that you were able to keep the deposit from the renters that left. It is never easy working with renters, some times you get lucky & others not. Hopefully you will be able to get some good advice from other Mamas to help with it too. I do know from using the Nature's Miracle that it works, my animals (and kids too) have had accidents & the smell is gone. Good luck!

Since this is an income property, you may be able to afford to have a service come and treat the place for you. I understand avoiding heavy chemicals, but in this case it seems justified. My friend used to run a business (now closed, but surely there are similar ones) for Fire, Smoke, Water restoration; they would clean up the damage. Anyway apparently smoke smells are just incredibly difficult to remove, and they have special chemicals that do it. My friend used the chemicals to treat his smelly fishing gear that nothing would deoderize, and he said it worked magically. I would try to find a company who can treat the house, get some bids. Who knows where the stuff seeped into that woudl be hard to reach.

My neighbors were dealing with this upon buying their home. Inside, the cats/ dogs had urinated in the AIR DUCTS, thus the smell was everywhere, regardless of what they did. You might wanna check out the ducts, and pay attention to if it gets better or worse when running the A/C or the Heat. The only solution they could come up with was pulling it all out and starting over, however, I'm sure if it IS in the ducts, you might be able to use some enzyme cleaner (like Nature's miracle) to clean them thoroughly. Good Luck

Sorry to hear about the cat pee issue. I used to work in real estate and there were several houses with this problem that weren't "marketable" in such condition. Rent an Ozone machine, basically a commercial grade air purifier with Ozone. Some houses were treated quickly and one other I can think of needed a 48 hour constate purification, but the house sold and the owners have had no problem with re-occuring smell.

From everything I've heard, you'll probably have to get new flooring and maybe even dry-wall. You can sue the previous tenants for the cost, not that you'll ever get it.. Sorry, pet urine is really nasty!

Chances are that the pee seeped in the hardwood, possibly down to the sub floor. Also, check the mouldings, because if they sprayed it'll be on that, as well. There is a primer designed to block the smell, although I can't remember what it's called. My parents had to use it on their floor when they had the carpets replaced. Worst case, you may have to replace the hardwood.

You have recieved alot of good responses. I'm also a landlord and I never allow cats. I love kitties, but their urine is one of the most insideous and difficult to remove, especially male cat urine. Some kind of hormone in it. My guess is that it has indeed soaked to your sub-flooring. The sub-floor will need to be either cleaned and re-sealed, or replaced all together. Also, use a black light with all the lights turned off, (no sun light outside either) to find the most heavily soiled areas. The urine will glow under the black light. You'll have to do it at night to get the best effect. Good luck. I'm sorry to hear about that. I've dealt with pet messes too, in my rentals. Pets, though I have them and I love them, trash houses and i have found most tenants don't care and don't bother to clean up after them and CHOOSE to live with the filth. I'm getting out of landlording as soon as the market turns!!! Best of luck to you!

If refinishing the floors has not helped there is a good chance that the urine soaked thru to the sub-floor. I would suggest having someone crawl under the house to look up at the subfloor and see if it is stained. There could be trapped moisture, and where there's moisture there's smell and further damage will happen. Unfortunately, it may end up being a very expensive problem to remedy. You may also want to fully replace the baseboard moulding as priming/painting won't get rid of trapped moisture. Also be sure to check/clean/replace all of the kitchen and bathroom cabinets. There are restoration companies that may have special products I'm not aware of. They commonly clean homes after fire damage, etc and have things that get the smell out, so you may want to check with some places like that. I'm sure you are not the only one this has happened to, so there has to be someone out there with experience who can help.

my parents purchased a house with the same problem -- although it had been well disguised for the walk throughs. Once they moved in and things settled it was HORRIBLE!!! nothing took that smell away. they finally had to rip out all the carpeting, padding, etc, completely BLEACH, disenfect, deodorize, scrub, etc the floorboards underneath and then replace all the padding,carpet, linoleum, etc with new. it was disgusting underneath that carpet! all the way through to the floorboards was just crusted with yellow and brown stains - the floor boards beneath the carpet padding were sticky with urine. they took pictures just so people would be able to believe what they found underneath that carpeting. everything is fine now that they've done all that. also, growing up in the military we lived in a lot of houses that had previously been lived in by people with pets. those that had cats never recovered. no matter how long we lived in the house or what we did to it to clean it up you could always smell it. anyway, that is my suggestion. completely rip out all floor coverings, deal with whatever you find on the floorboards underneath and replace it all with new clean stuff. my parents house is great now. hope that helps.

It looks like you have already received good advice. My cats also urinated in the heat ducts. I spray Natures Miracle inside the ducts and wipe as far as my arm can reach. I wait a day to dry, and respray and sometimes use a wet vacuum with a long hose to reach down further and remove pooled liquid. Or a long flexible fabric duster to soak up as much as possible. Since in your case, it is long dried, I think you will have to re-wet it to use this method. I would also suggest a good professional service. One tool I did not see mentioned is a black light. The urine stains will show under a black light. So will lots of other things, but spray marks on the wall for example are fairly distinct. It sort of looks like a tadpole, with a thicker spot where the urine hits, then a "tail" as it drips down. Good luck!!!!! This is a terrible problem.