Removing Urine Smell from Carpet
With pets in the house, accidents can happen any time and your well-behaved cat or dog may pee in the carpet. This incident occurs quite frequently when your pet is in its growing years. In such a case, you do not have any other option, rather than cleaning up the carpet to get rid of stains and odors. Any delay in carpet cleaning will cause the urine stains to penetrate deep in the fibers and padding, while creating a stinky atmosphere in the room. So, the best practical solution is removing urine smell from the carpet as soon as possible.
How to Remove Urine Smell from Carpet?
Remember, if you act promptly without delaying, only then you can actively eliminate urine odor. Otherwise, dried urine stain and odor in the carpet are difficult to remove. And the worst part is, the pet tends to return and urinate in the same carpet spot, if the smell remains persistent. In order to avoid such an annoying situation, you can follow the methods mentioned below for removing urine odor from carpet:
This step is applicable, if you notice the urine stain when it is still wet. Lay a few layers of newspaper or absorbent towel over the area and stand over it to blot up as much urine as possible. If required, repeat this step for maximum removal of urine from carpet. You can use old newspapers and throw away after your work is done, instead of laying towel and washing it again.
For dried urine stain, the first and foremost tip for removing urine smell from carpet is, wetting the stained portion. You can make use of a black light to locate the stain and consider outlining it with a chalk stick. Spray or sprinkle cool water over the stained portion in the carpet. After rinsing the area thoroughly, absorb water by placing newspapers or old towel over it.
Urine odor is mostly caused due to uric acid and bacteria feeding on the pet's urine. And the long-lasting foul smell is nothing but the uric acid crystals formed after evaporation of the water component. For fresh urine, alkaline based cleaning products are effective to remove offending odor; while for dried stain, you should exclusively use acidic products. Accordingly, you can use baking soda to remove fresh urine odor and vinegar for dried urine stains.
As you have already decided the appropriate cleaning agent (baking soda or vinegar) for urine smell removal, saturate the stain with it. For using vinegar, combine one part each of white vinegar and water; whereas for using baking soda, make a paste out of baking powder and water. Saturating the stains with any of agents will liquefy the uric acid crystals, making them easy to remove from within the carpet fibers. After application, scrub the area with a brush to loosen stains and remove odor. Then, absorb moisture from the carpet by using newspapers and/or towel.
Last but not the least, apply a urine smell neutralizer or deodorizer to eliminate any remaining foul odor from the carpet. You can also consider disinfecting with a correct product and sun drying the carpet. The overall effectiveness for removing urine smell from carpet depends on the type of fabric and extent of urine spotting. In case, you still smell the offending urine odor after following the above mentioned tips, consider hiring a professional for carpet cleaning.
