How to of the Day: How to Remove Pet Urine from Carpet

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How to Remove Pet Urine from Carpet Feb 4th 2013, 20:00 Fido or Kitty left you a present again? Or maybe you found an old surprise when you went to rearrange the furniture? Regardless of when the deed was done, you can restore your carpet or surface to its former glory. Here's how to clean both new and old pet urine stains. Edit Steps Cleaning New Stains Apply a poultice. Wet towels or paper towels layered and topped by a heavy weight can quickly absorb fresh puddles. Run the towels under cool water, place them over the stain so that it's covered completely, and put something heavy on top. The moisture will help soak up the urine, while the weight presses the towels down into the carpet. Leave it on for at least 10 minutes. If you want to use heavy books for your poultice, put a layer of plastic wrap or aluminum foil on top of the wet towels first, to avoid wetting and staining the paper of the book. If the spot has been wet for more than 10 minutes, it's probably soaked into the carpet pad. Make the poultice 50% wider than the area of visible stain, as well as using more towels, more water, and a heavier weight. Re-wet the spot with water. After you've lifted up the poultice, pour cold water over the spot again. Start pouring small amounts just outside the perimeter of the stain, slowly moving toward the center. (Moving outside to the center like this will prevent the water from spreading the urine into an even wider circle.) Allow the water to work through the stain for about a minute. Spray an enzymatic cleaner over the area. An enzymatic cleaner can help break down the proteins left over from the urine, thus removing the smell as well as the impulse for the pet to urinate in the same spot again. Most enzymatic cleaners need to be kept on a wet area for several hours. However, some might use a different process, so be sure to read the instructions on the label. If you're cleaning wool carpet, make sure the cleaner is wool-safe. Apply another poultice. Follow the same procedure as the first poultice, and put it over the enzymatic cleaner. Allow the poultice to sit overnight. When you pull it up in the morning, the visible stain should be gone, as well as the smell. Clean or dispose of the towels. Because the towels you used in the poultices will have faint traces of your pet's urine on them, it's important to keep your pet from "marking" them again. If you used paper towels in your poultices, be sure to seal them in a garbage bag and get rid of them as soon as possible, so that your pet doesn't try urinating on them. If you used cloth towels, put them into the washer immediately and run with hot water. Get the carpet steam cleaned (optional). If the enzymatic cleaner didn't remove the stain completely, consider renting a steam cleaner or hiring a professional; make sure to ask if they have a product to add into their solution designed for pet stains. Stains are a lot easier to remove when they're fresh, so try to decide quickly if this is what you need to do. There are a few reasons why you might need a professional for serious staining. First, there is a large volume of concentrated alkaline salts from the urine. Second, there is a strong odor that comes from bacteria feeding on the waste products contained in the urine. Third, if the carpet in question is a typical home carpet, that is nylon tufted into a primary backing with a secondary backing latexed in place, then the treatment is somewhat more difficult. If the rug is wool, silk, or rayon, then dye instability is a real concern. The alkaline salts can create a very high pH environment (10 - 10.4) and destabilize normally stable dyes causing bleeding. Professional cleaning by someone who really understands how to prevent and correct dye bleeding would be the best course of action. Cleaning Old Stains Buy a UV or "fluorescent black" light of a decent size. Look for a long bulb (preferably longer than 12 inches/30cm) so you can cover more ground at once. Cheap bulbs with the housing included can be found at most hardware stores. Although pet stores sell the lights as well, they're usually smaller and more expensive. They can also be purchased at a reasonable cost online, depending on how much time you have to wait around living with the odor. Search at night or in complete darkness. Pet urine can be difficult to see, especially when old, so maximize your search efforts by taking advantage of darkness. Either wait for night, or make the room as dark as possible. Use a sweeping motion and gradually move farther away from the generally smelly location. The pet urine that you're looking for should show up as a yellow/greenish color. You may be surprised to find a stain farther away than you thought. Don't just check the floor; cats are inventive! Try the following areas: Bookshelves Furniture Cloth decorations Inside vents Objects that appear to have "holes," such as inside portable heaters Clothing that your cat may be able to access Other small areas your cat could squeeze into Anywhere else you can think of––if you can see it, it could be the source. Take a look at these examples to know what you're looking for. The first image shows what your stained carpet might look like under normal lighting. The second image shows how fresher urine stains usually show up like this under the blacklight. The third image shows how older urine stains appear fainter under the blacklight. Clean the stains as you check. If you can, clean the spots when you find them. If you prefer, you can mark the spots using tape, item placement, etc., and clean once you've found them all. Try an enzymatic cleaner with a poultice. This method might not remove as much of the stain as you want, but it's a good start. Wet the area with cool distilled water. Do so in small pours, moving from the outside of the stain toward the center. Spray an enzymatic cleaner on the wet spot. Follow the directions on how long to leave the solution. If your carpet is wool, make sure you're using a wool-safe cleaner. Wet paper or cloth towels with cool water, and lay them over the spot. Put a heavy object on top of the wet towels. Leave the poultice overnight. When you remove it in the morning, you can assess whether or not you need to take more extreme measures. Rent a steam cleaner, or hire a professional (optional). A rented cleaner can produce steam that's hot enough to sanitize the carpet, after which the water can be vacuumed up again. Alternatively, if the spot is particularly large or stained, you can hire a professional cleaner to manage it. Try cleaning without detergent at first. If you find that you're still not pulling up the stain, ask the representatives at the rental center what they recommend, and try to use as little detergent as possible. Wool can be damaged by steam cleaners, much like a wool sweater shrinks if you wash it in hot water. If the stain is on wool carpet that you don't wish to damage, seriously consider hiring a pro. Use oxidation (optional). One alternative to using a steam cleaner on an old stain is oxidizing it. Products that release oxygen are effective odor removers, and you can make a solution yourself at home. Oxidizing products should never be used on wool or silk carpets. The treatment is only appropriate for synthetic fibers. Do a patch test on a part of the carpet you don't usually see, and make sure you won't damage the color. Mix up ½ teaspoon of bleach with 1 quart (32 ounces/950ml) of distilled water. Saturate the area, and allow the solution to soak into the carpet for 10 minutes. Use a shop vac or a poultice (as described above) to pull up the solution. You might need to do oxidate the carpet several times to remove a stain. Let the carpet dry completely between treatments. Resist the urge to use "Oxy-clean" like products. They work by making hydrogen peroxide which has more available oxygen and can last longer than chlorine which can cause damage to carpets. Edit Tips Patience is the key. It's better to do any process a few times and let it dry in between than to try to do everything at one time. Clean an area that's a bit wider than the actual stain. As you can see in the diagram below, the urine can soak into the carpet pad at a wider diameter. Follow label directions on the enzyme digesters. Always test for color fastness before using any oxidation deodorization method. Household chemicals generally won't get rid of urine stains and smells. Buy an enzyme cleaner made specifically for this task. Purchase a repellent spray if your pet keeps urinating in the same area. There are a variety of sprays available for different types of pets, such as dogs and cats. Search for one that fits your household needs (such as being safe for use in houses with children) and won't damage your particular type of carpet. Some pets hate the smell of vinegar, even after it is has dried.[1] Vinegar can also help to mask odor for your own nose, so a few drops of this over the affected area may help to deter future use by the pet. Edit Related wikiHows How to Clean Your Carpets How to Clean a Rug How to Clean Kool Aid out of Carpet How to Get Salt Stains out of Your Car's Carpet How to Stop Carpet Stains from Resurfacing How to Remove Urine Smells from a Pet Edit Sources and Citations Removing Pet Stains and Odors, by the Humane Society of the United States: http://www.humanesociety.org/animals/resources/tips/removing_pet_stains_odors.html – research source Removing Cat Stains and Odors, by The Cat Pee Diaries: http://caturineodor.com/removing-cat-urine-odors/ – research source Article Tools Read on wikiHow Email this Article Edit Discuss

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