Okay gals, I need some advice. What is the best way to clean up urine from carpet? Twice now my wife has walked to the bathroom doorway and just stood there and peed. I bought a set of Sham Wows because their commercial indicates that they actually wick up liquids. I thought this would be ideal but, alas, they don't do much better than paper towels. I did soak up as much as I could and then sprayed Urine Gone on the carpet. I don't notice a urine smell now, but my daughter-in-law says that she can smell it.
So, I'm sure that this is not the first time that this has happened to anyone. Any advice out there?
I've used cornstarch - sprinkle it on after you get the worst up and it draws out the rest. Then you have to vacuum up the cornstarch when it is dry. You might have to use and old toothbrush or some other brush to get it loose enough to vacuum up when it dries. Anyone else ever try that?
baltobob, If you go to the pet store they have a few products that will take the urine out. Or should I say, Kinda! It might be time to put her in depends. I know you hate to, but the time may be nearing. Rk
I second the pet store--they have products that really work. THe ones I have used are liquids--you blot up as much as you can then wet it with the liquid and let it dry. No smell or stain. I haven't bought one in nearly 10 years--dog is gone, husband isn't there yet, so I won't suggest a brand.
Baltobob, i guess you could say i am the one that deals with this daily.:) i have tried so many products. like others say you can get one of the de-odorizers from the pet store. but in my experience i am using the same method for some time now. i have white carpets and lots of them -not one has been spared:) after all the hoopla of cleaners, i find just blotting with an old towel first, then a light mixture and soft brush of just plain dishwashing liquide, i use joy any kind no bleach if carpets are darker. after a good brushing with lite mixture of this i blot again and leave towel over the area to dry it. almost dry i sprinkle arm and hammer odor eliminator box powder fresh country breeze smells good) (buy at grocery store) and let it sit under the towel for the rest of the day and then vacuum the dry powder up. its working for me so far and non of the expensive products that i have under my counter work as good. just dont use too much dishwasher soap it will make the carpet sticky, if its does just rescrub with more hot water...if the stain is where you can pull the carpet back and do the same for the underneath of it ( i do this in a small bathroom) its a sure deal to get the smell out. most of the smell will come from the underpadding. if nothing else sprinkle the arm/hammer powder under the carpet as well. so far so good here.. Divvi
Thanks, everyone. Next time I'll try both the dish soap and the corn starch. It's not a problem in the bathroom per se since there are throw rugs in there and they can be thrown in the washer. The problem is when she doesn't make it all the way in there. Then there is a beige wall to wall carpet. Yes, I will have to try to pull it up at that edge when things get bad.
ps BBob, be sure to lay a towel over the affected area and walk over it to start the wicking of the cotton from underneath- helps bunches to draw all the wet out from the padding..divvi
Would a shop vac work to get more of the liquid up. We had a major leak in our second bedroom last year. My son-in-law was visiting and he bought me a shop vac. We got as much up as we could. I got the builder's people in the next day because it was a warranty issue. The folks they hire to deal with this kind of problem said that because we had used the shop vac, we had saved the carpeting. The padding needed to be replaced anyway. I wasn't the only homeowner with the problem so they were already set up which is why the people who clean this stuff up arrived so quickly.
What I was dealing with was massively more extensive than someone losing control at the bathroom door. I lost the walls of the room half way up in addition to carpet padding. But the shop vac really did limit the extent of the problem. It might also work for these kinds of accidents.
starling good idea if its clean water you are sucking up.. i have an inexpensive plastic shop vac and i tried it a few times, then the shop vac AND my shampoo cleaner smelled of dried urine in the tubing! ugh! i had to take my shampoo cleaner apart and soak the parts to get the stench out once things dried and you will have to wash out the hoses of the shop vac as well. i had to work double ..so i went back to basics- i want the easy way out! divvi
For too many years my cats were having, excuse me, pissing contests. In particular our sweetest, dearest, most beloved cat, altered male, Fox, was sprinkling all over the place, then the altered females would stake their territory out elsewhere. All the usual feliway, de-smelling things would work on carpet, but not on the floors. I had to make plexiglass sheets (attached with velcro) to protect the bottom shelves of my bookcases; the flimsy storage cabinets turned to sawdust and collapsed. There wasn't real smell; they were all neutered, but the hardwood floors were pretty ruined. And in the winter, they'd dry out and be okay, but with spring dampness they'd turn damp, and smelly, again. I got some dry stuff from Home Depot - ABZORBIT - and just sprinkled it on the spots. It took a while, but now they don't show at any time of year. The problem stopped when Fox died (threw a lumbar clot). I was worried about getting more cats, but my new young'ns haven't shown any inclination to sprinkle. And the girls don't seem to remember about it either.
OK, no shop vacs. How about one of those spot carpet cleaning machines? My neighbor has one, and I borrowed it for some coffee stains. I don't like hers because it did not have a separate container to hold the wet that it pulled up, but all of the newer versions do have that. People in Amazon who have cats and young dogs swear by the things. They spot shampoo (the coffee drops came right up even with my neighbor's machine) and then pull the resulting wet spot up out of the carpet?
i have a hoover shampooer 2 compartments for separate, thats not the problem. the problem is pulling up smells thru the brushes and tubing. i use mine all the time and works well but you have to take it apart and clean it up good or it will stink...sigh...some may have more luck with these than me! thanks starling! divvi
I had a lot of clean up from dogs and cats before my husband started needing the clean up. I blot up the liquid really well...step on those paper towels and white towels until no liquid will come up. Then I put lots of water on it and blot that up really well. Then I put Natures Miracle (from the pet store) on it...lots of it to soak all the way to where the urine soaked. Then it just sits and dries up. It has enzymes that get rid of the bacteria that make the smell.
We've had good luck removing pet stains with a Hoover Steam Vac, it has two compartments but does work very well. Be careful and don't soak the carpet heavily as it can delaminate. I get as much out of the soil and liquid out as I can with paper towels an then shampoo with a pet stain type shampoo from Wallyworld that seems to work well. The cleaner is also good for picking up the excess liquid and the sudsy stuff like Joy.
I don't have the incontinence problem to deal with yet, but I think we are on our way. DW seeems to having more frequent small acidents. Both of our bathrooms have ceramic tile floors so it easy to mop with clorox or Mr Clean water. The last time we recarpeted I put ceramic tile in the entrance hall and all the way down the hall instead of carpet. I have been thinking about buying some of the hospital type pads to put in the chairs and also one or two to carry in the car. Sometimes she will volunteer to wear the Depends type pants.
I will look up Nature's Miracle at the pet store. The enzyme based products do seem to work well.
Here is a recipe for rug/urine cleaner that comes highly recommended by the dog/pet community - I got it from YorkieTalk ......
1cup hydrogen peroxide 1 tablespoon baking soda 1 tsp Dawn dish soap..
If using in carpet cleaner you'll have to make enough of the above recipe to clean the area you are wanting to clean.
Just make sure to rinse steam cleaner well after use. And you cannot save the formula. You have to make fresh each time. Make sure to saturate area so it gets down into the pad.
NOTE: If using on deep coloured carpet - test first for colour fastness.
I'll have to try that carpet cleaning recipe. I have a cat that wanted to be an "only". Too bad we found out the hard way sometime after we added more cats to the household. They all got along for a while and then the fighting started. So, I have a cat that will spray if he doesn't get his Prozac regularly.
We got a little sloppy with the meds and he was so much more loving, we stopped for a while. The spraying started again, so I am carpet cleaning again. We recently picked up a black light at the pet store, and it shows up the urine (and vomit). It came with some brand of spray also. The directions said that when urine (or any liquid) hits the carpet it creates a pyramid effect-what we see is the top and the liquid spreads out underneath, so make sure you treat a large area, not just the area you see is wet.
So far, DH has had a couple of nighttime bed accidents over the last few months and his aim is getting a little sloppy. A wipe a few times a day is keeps my feet dry for now. The house we bought last year has tile in entry, kitchen, baths and hallway. With 6 cats, it is wonderful. As you know, cats are always making messes. And, I knew DH would at some point. I am really giving thought to replacing the carpet in living room and our bedroom with something easier to clean.
PatB, I replaced all the (ugly) old carpenting in my house with ceramic tile. Never regretted it for a second. Much easier to keep clean (even before my cat developed kitty AD).
And an unexpected bonus -- it became next to impossible for fleas to get a toehold in the house! They need something like carpeting for one stage in their life cycles. Not so important for places where you have freezing cold temperatures in the winter, but for places where you have mild weather year-round, it is wonderful... Haven't had to bomb for fleas, or use flea treatments or repellants, at all, since I put the tile in.
I have no carpet in my home. When my "I'm allergic to cats" friends come over they usually don't have a problem. I can Swifter the entire house in 10 minutes. Found a product called WOW that is great on laminate floors
Sunshine, I am definitely thinking about the tile. We bought this house a little over a year ago, and I am not sure at this time how long we will be here. We moved here to help DS and get his help, but he is a grad student and may want a life of his own somewhere else when he is done with school. I have 2 other sons (and a 4 month old grandson) in other parts of the country. Not sure where the money will come for for the tile either, but you all know how that goes. I suspect after an accident or two from DH on the carpet, I'll get out the utility knife and go at it!
Pat, Sunshyne, I'm so glad to encounter others who don't automatically "get rid of" the cats when they are in that mode. It isn't fun, but like AD you learn to live with it. I can report that, after a year of no spraying on the hardwood floors, they've pretty much returned to normal looking.
Oh, no - get rid of my babies - never!!!! Replace carpet and repaint house - yes. Two houses. One only 2 years old even. But, we did have a kitty with kidney failure, that in hindsight, helped his big brother. We have another cat who had full xrays and ultrasound last year. And she had to be sedated of course. Big bucks. Dr. was ready to do a biopsy for more $$$$$ but we decided it was not worth more money. Diagnosis was either a cancer or kitty irritable bowel. She's still here, although skinnier. She did a round on the carpet also (can you say green bile....).
Oh, my. My beloved schizoid Siamese/tabby mix developed intestinal lymphoma when he was 18. (We did do the biopsy, and talk about big bucks!!!) The chemo plus the cancer, well, I do know ALL about green bile! You have my sympathy, Pat.
briegull, I can't imagine getting rid of a beloved cat just because they're trying to give you a message. You just have to figure out what message it is. And if it's due to kitty AD, well, of COURSE you take care of the sweet kitty that's loved you for so many years!
Now, I did return a cat to the rescue group one time. They'd assured me when I adopted her that she was an indoor cat. She wasn't. She got more and more upset with me when I wouldn't let her outdoors. (My house is on a canyon, and we have coyotes and foxes and HUGE raccoons, any of which are deadly to small kitties. Not to mention crazy drivers.) She started spraying, and eventually worked her way up to climbing into the bed (when I was in it) and whizzing and pooping, quite deliberately. I'd only had her a couple of weeks, and she and I agreed she'd be happier elsewhere. The rescue group apologized (their paperwork did show she was used to going outside), took her back (I'm sure they found her a good home where she could play outside, it's a great group), and in her place, gave me my beloved geri cat who just died.
I have a friend who crate trained her senior dog so that if he became incontinent he wouldn't feel punished for being crated when she was out. When my Dennis has a senior accident it is usually in the tub-couldn't be easier to clean up. The first time he pooped in the tub a visitor was just about to start her shower.
My DH is a Textile Engineer and spent 38 years with the company that developed the first continuous filament nylon carpet fiber. That being said, he also owned a major carpet company before retiring. He would literally BEG people not to use soap of any kind on carpet fibers. Compare it to putting shampoo on your hair, and not rinsing it thoroughly. It would feel dirty and get even dirtier quicker, right? Chem Dry has a product that is great for removing pet urine and pet stains from carpet, and I believe one of those products would work as well. He swore by a petroleum based product called Spot Shot and all of his service trucks carried that product along. (It removed spilled purple fingernail polish from my granddaughter's carpet - leaving NO TRACE whatsoever!)
The best home remedy to remove urine and the smell is vinegar and water, because the vinegar neutralizes the urine - followed by the stain remover if necessary. Be very careful about putting any soap on the rug. It works "up front" but the build up creates color problems and there will always be a dirty spot there! The carpet cleaner companies will all say the same thing. The best are the steamer companies that remove stains with hot water and steam.
Re; Delaminating the carpet. At the carpet mill, the basic woven carpet product feels like a chenille bedspread, - it is almost that flexible. It'srolled up into a roll,, and then stretched over a block long conveyor frame (upside down) and a mesh fabric backing is laid on top of it. As it moves along the conveyor belt, a glue product is sprayed back and forth along the backing, fusing it to the carpet and eventually, it is sent through a heat dryer to set. If your cleaning products remove glue or sticky tags off of anything, you should know that it WILL dissolve the glue that holds the backing onto carpet.
This may be too much information (TMI), but if we understand how carpet is put together, we can better understand what will make it come apart.
Always try Vinegar and Water on urine stains!!! I urge you to call your local CAR[ET CLEANING COMPANY for verification of this information!. They'll confirm. Most carpet salesmen do not know how to clean their products, unfortunately.
I will add that if you have a carpet problem that cannot be resolved, you can pull it up, have it cleaned and replace the PAD ONLY. Purchase a pad that has a membrane layer fused over the foam that prevents any water stains from penetrating into the pad. The old mottled grey pads will always soak up liquids and hold the smell. You cannot clean the carpet pad.
Ask for carpet padding that has a membrane skin on it that repells liquids.
and..now I'll get off my soap box! You can tell I was a good listener when my DH was preaching this lesson.
Thanks for the info, not to get anymore technical but do you use white vinegar or cider vinegar? I suppose I could add this mixture to the fluid container on my carpet cleaner.
Nancy, thank you so much!! The fact that we can discuss things other than those DIRECTLY related to omigod my mom has alzheimers and how can I cope!! makes this site special!!!
i have tried the white vinegar and water on carpets as well as my tile floors with mops and with my steam machine. my SIL swears also by vinegar for cleaning. i am not particularly fond of the smell even if it does disipate. plus my doggies feets padding was irritated from it walking over it for a couple of days while it dried. they lickd incessantly to get it off it may have burned their feet? not sure i never use it anymore- -just have to budget in new carpets every few yrs at some point! divvi
I don't have that probem yet, but I can tell you I spent 30 years cleaning up after dogs, and the last time I got new carpet, I was in SHOCK when they pulled up the old, and I saw not only the pad, but the hardwood floors underneath. What a disaster. New pads and carpet went down (over the horrendous hardwood), and when our dear, sweet Golden Retriever,Casey, developed bladder cancer, he was kind enough to have his accidents on the kitchen floor instead of the carpet.
This house in Florida has all tile floors, except for the den and bedrooms. Don't want to think about that right now.
Jimmy, use white vinegar. Cider vinegar has a color. Don't need that. If carpets are still wet after several days, the PAD is wet, and that means you used waaaay too much solution to begin with and you may have to pull the carpet back from the tack strips to dry it thoroughly. LESS is more. Remember, you are trying to EXTRACT the urine, not spread it further. Better to go over it lightly several times than soak it one time.
The pad is our culprit here. If your problem is primarily in one area, you may even consider having your local carpet store bring in a remnant of pad, and replacing the soiled part. The pad is just taped together so piecing it is no problem.
No carpet should be wet so much that it takes days to dry! That's not good for the carpet, the pad or the floor beneath. It also breeds MOLD and MILDEW. So, remember when you are cleaning... LESS is more. Try to extract every drop you put down before you finish. Did you ever notice that when carpet cleaning companies leave your home, the carpet is almost dry. That's the idea!
It's probably good to keep the dogs off of the carpet until it dries. You wouldn't want them to walk on the tile floor wet with your floor cleaning product. Incidentally, if you have ceramic tile or a quality no wax vinyl floor (NOT WOOD) ... you should go to Lowe's or Home Depot and try Armstrong's "Once and Done". It's an amazing tile cleaner! It is NOT in their cleaning aisle, but rather back in the area where the tile is sold. It has a little ammonia in it, so remember DO NOT use it on waxed floors or wood floors. It is called Once 'n Done, because you just mop and don't have to rinse the floor. I call it Once'n Done because once I tried it I was "done looking for another product for the rest of my life!" Remember, it is only available where ceramic tile is sold..and in Lowe's and Home Depot, it is in the Tile Section, not the Cleaning Section. (?)
I googled the spot shot and it is sold in Walgreens for $5.99. I also bought some shamwow from CVS so between the two and the white vinegar in the steam cleaner I should be good to go. Thanks for all the great inform.
Shellseeker..I usually pay $3.99 for Spot Shot at the grocery store. Remember to spray it on the stain, let it sit about a minute and then BLOT it up. DO NOT RUB around in circles, that will 'unwind" the twist in the carpet fiber. (Look closely at the individual fibers..they are wound around into little twists. When the twist is unwound, the carpet gets a fuzzy look in that spot.
NancyB. - I'm into information overload here. Sorry!.... Wish I could solve my DH's problem as easily as I can remove stains from carpet! (grin)
SpotShot is great. I get it at Walmart. Now comes in a spray bottle instead of the spray can-cheaper. I'm going to Home Depot and look for Once and Done for my tile. Thanks for the tip
You will LOVE "Once and Done". Absolutely LOVE LOVE LOVE it. Just can't understand why they don't keep it with the cleaning supplies. Remember, it's over in the Carpet/Tile Section.
I just went on line to check out Once N Done-seems just like the WOW system that I bought at WallMart. Comes with a swivel head mop with a washable fabric cover. I bought it for my laminate floors-just tried it on my ceramic tile and it really works. Why am I washing floors at 10:30 at night?
I mop my tile floors after my husband has gone to bed. He will ALWAYS need to walk across the floor when it is wet..and it's just easier that way. Besides, mopping floors is a little like therapy for me.. I know, Briegull, I TOO need to get a life! We find our fun wherever we can! :-)
got some shotspot today at biglots! 1dol a can! haha..plus tons of cleaning stuff for doing marble floors this weekend. yick. and yes keeping my doggies and DH off wet marble is challenging.. i even got some vinegar again to try.
The Spanish word for Vinegar is Acedo...with accent on the ACID. Don't get any vinegar on your beautiful marble! It will dull it in a New York second. (Voice of experience! duh!) I know lots about carpet fiber, but had to learn about the care of marble the hard way.
Same for Once n Done. NOT on marble. Excellent on ceramic tile. Do you mop at night, too? Works for ME! Avoids the risk of DH 'ice-skating' across the wet floor!
oh nancy, i wondered what happend to the shine in my marble..haha.. could be better! my SIL did talk me into vinegar a couple of tries ago! yipes! now what?? i use that repair topcoatliquid that coats it to a shine again after steammopping it ...it shines again very nicely but if you have other tips i am listening! divvi
If you live in a city, a marble cleaning company can repair it. When I goofed on mine, my house was new and the builder called in a marble cleaning/restorative company because the installer had not laid the marble evenly....it had some raised corners. Because of that, they had to re-grind it...but if your installation is OK, I believe (?) they can buff it with a special paste that brings back the shine. It can be rebuffed and made to look like new. Just google marble cleaners, (your city). Don't waste anymore money on products yourself. They use a high speed marble buffer with the commercial grade gritty paste. The more stuff you put on it, the more they have to take off. I'm so sorry! :-(