If you are a cat lover or owned a cat at least once if your life you’d know exactly how difficult it can be to prevent your cat from urinating on the carpet. Most people think it’s impossible to remove cat urine stains from a carpet while others believe that the odor just never leaves the carpet. The truth is that conventional carpet cleaning methods and over the counter deodorizers do fall short of being able to provide a workable and long lasting solution to the problem. In order to rid your carpets of cat urine you first need to know how normal cleaning methods work.
The Effect of Cat Urine on a Carpet
Cat urine like human and other animal urine is wet and so when a cat urinates on your carpet it saturates the area right down to the backing. Your carpet most probably has a whole host of yarn strands which have been looped tightly at its base which is then connected to the backing via latex. When urine touches this area it goes directly into the fibers of the yarn. As the urine starts to dry it will release a number of bad smelling basses as well as start to form salts by bounding with the carpet. It can be near impossible to detect the odor during the dry season but when the weather becomes moist or the carpet becomes moist the urine residue is reactivated and starts to discolor the dye and emit a foul smell.
Carpet Odor Defeating Enzymes
Cleaning carpets which have been saturated with cat urine requires an approach which is different from using conventional solvents. Conventional solvents don’t work very well because they are not able to break the bonds or even change the chemical compound creating the smell. That said solvents may be able to remove the stain (urine stain). However, there are many enzyme based carpet cleaners from which you can choose from. You should choose a carpet cleaner which is designed to treat pet stains and odor by breaking down the overall chemical structure of urine and ammonia gas. Once the salt stains and everything else on the carpet becomes inert it will no longer smell even when moist. After the smell is removed now conventional cleaners will do a good job of removing the stain depending on how old the stain is.
Using Homemade Methods
There are other things which are easily available around the house that can be used to remove cat urine stains. However, this depends mainly on how soiled your carpet may be, also some methods may work on neutral or lighter colors. The easiest and probably the most effective household cleaner is vinegar which not only cleans but also disinfects the carpet. Baking soda is a proven odor buster. When used together they can remove stains which are not too saturated with feline urine.
The urine spot can be shampooed with white vinegar mixed with eight parts water. If this does not work or is not as effective as it should be, then double the amount of vinegar used. To take things up a notch you can also add a few drops of laundry detergent. However, it is important that you later remove as much moisture as you possibly can. Once that spot is dry just sprinkle some baking powder and let it sit there for an hour prior to vacuuming. This method does not always work but will work in most cases, plus it happens to be eco-friendly and cheap.
Will they Work on Old Stains
The answer to this question is no! At home methods using vinegar and baking soda will not work for old urine stains and odor. The only way to remove these types of stains and odor from your carpet is to use an enzyme based solution. Also, if a stain is too old it will most likely cause discoloration regardless of what you use owing to the buildup of ammonia which is a natural bleaching agent. So, the quicker you are to react and clean the urine the higher your chances of saving your carpet.
Citations:
- Commercial Carpet Cleaning
Featured images:
- License: Image author owned
- License: Image author owned
- License: Image author owned
Manu Alias is an expert at cleaning carpets and is a chemical engineer by professional. When not working on the latest methods to clean carpets he can be seen riding the high waves.
