What makes cat urine odor so hard to remove?

Ask any carpet cleaner which odor is harder to
remove: cat urine odor or dog urine odor.

We can almost guarantee that 99% of carpet cleaners are going to say cat urine odor - and for a good reason!

While we are not totally sure of EVERYTHING that is contained in cat urine, what we do know, and have experienced, is that cat urine is much more concentrated.

On top of that, cats almost always urinate in corners and against walls, which not only affects the carpet, pad, and sub-floor but also the walls and baseboards themselves.

In most cases dogs will urinate against a piece of furniture or in the more open areas of a room.

As we said before, cats like to urinate in more private areas and this can lead to problems in finding the urine deposits.

But the biggest issue with dealing with cat urine in carpet is the concentration of the urine.

And because the concentration of the urine is so strong there needs to be extra steps taken to remove cat urine.

While these steps are very similar to the removal of dog urine they
are not exactly the same.

How We Remove Cat Urine In Carpet

The first step in any cat urine odor removal is finding the source, and with cats this can be a bit tricky because of where cats want to do their business.

It is always important to look at the entire room, from wall to wall, to find any type of urine, but in the case of cats you can almost always start along the walls, especially in the corners.

The way to go about finding urine is to use three urine detection devices. One is a  black light. One is a moisture detector. And one is - your nose!

Black Light To Help Find Cat Urine In Your Carpet 

In the photo above you see a small black light that can be used for finding cat urine deposits in a carpet. As you can see, on the left there are no visible signs of cat urine. But once the room is darkened and the black light is turned on the urine deposit glows under the black light.

While these smaller black lights can work very well, at Linton's Carpet Cleaning we use much more powerful black lights that allow us to see even fainter signs of a urine deposit, which gives us an advantage in finding and eventually getting rid of the cat odor in your carpet.

Under a black light cat urine will glow because the phosphorous and proteins
in cat urine show up under the black lights wavelength. So a black light is
a very good starting point in detecting cat urine, but it cannot solely be
depended on.

Why?

Beause there are numerous contaminants that can glow when put under a black light. So the glowing spot you see might be cat urine -  and might not be cat urine.

Moisture Detector For Finding Cat Urine Deposits

In the above photo you see a moisture detector. While this moisture detector is not made specifically for finding cat urine, it is widely used by professionals to do just that.

A moisture detector is exactly what it sounds like - it detects moisture. Moisture detectors not only can find fresh cat urine contamination but also old urine deposits that do not feel wet.

How is that?

The urine crystals remain after all other moisture has evaporated or been cleaned up.  These urine crystals absorb moisture from the humidity in the room, and will set off the moisture detector alerting you that there MIGHT be urine in the carpet in that spot.

The third device is the most important. YOUR NOSE! After all, if your nose did not work properly you would not even be smelling the urine odor.

But the reason your nose is so important for finding cat urine deposits is that a black light, and moisture detector, can give you a heads up for urine not visible to the naked eye - but your nose has to confirm it.

Yep, you gotta get down on the carpet and use the old sniffer to really know for sure.

Ok, you found the odor and your nose is still burning - now what do you need to do?

The third device is the most important. YOUR NOSE! After all, if your nose did not work properly you would not even be smelling the urine odor.

But the reason your nose is so important for finding cat urine deposits is that a black light, and moisture detector, can give you a heads up for urine not visible to the naked eye - but your nose has to confirm it.

Yep, you gotta get down on the carpet and use the old sniffer to really know for sure.

Ok, you found the odor and your nose is still burning - now what do you need to do?

The second step is removing as much of that odor source as you can. And this step is super important, especially when dealing with cat urine deposits.

At Linton's Carpet Cleaning we use special cleaning agents that break down and remove most, sometimes all, of the actual odor source. This is why our odor control treatments are so successful.

We flood extract the contaminated area (take a look at the video directly below) with cleaning agents designed to break down and loosen up the actual urine.

We are not just covering up the odor for a few days and taking your money - we are removing large amounts of the urine and sometimes all of it.

This type of flood extraction technique is much more successful in removing urine deposits deep down because of the ability to thoroughly rinse the area without over-wetting. This type of tool is used for water flood extraction but works super good for the removal of cat urine in carpets.

Counteracting The Cat Urine That Might Remain

And we do that by using the absolute best odor counteractant's in the world. These counteractant's continue to work on the odor source and/or eliminate the odor source immediately by altering the odor molecule.

We are not going to get into the science of how this works, but it works extremely well and why we are so confident of our pet odor control services.

There will be many cases where the cat urine has reached the sub-floors but do not despair.

While treating the sub-floor can be problematic it can be successfully done from the top of the carpet down, but not in all cases.

If the sub-floor cannot be treated properly from the top down then the carpet and pad are going to have to be pulled up, the pad replaced, the sub-floor cleaned and sealed, and then the carpet treated properly. This can be, to be honest, a nightmare.

So it is extremely important to always be on the lookout for cat urine deposits and limit them as much as possible.

In most cases a cat peeing on one spot, one time, is not going to reach the sub-floor. It could, especially if the cat goes right up against the wall. The urine then finds it way to the tackless strip and the gulley between the tackless strip and the wall.

But where you really run into problems with any type of urine is when the animal has urinated in the same spot over and over. In this case we can almost guarantee the urine has reached the sub-floor and, as mentioned earlier, this can be a nightmare to remove - and expensive.

We are not going to tell you how to take care of your cats, but one thing we will mention is that if your cats are indoor cats you really need to have a good liter box and cleanup schedule. If a cat is not comfortable doing their business in a liter box, they are going to go somewhere else and that is usually on your carpet or other flooring surfaces.

Finally, if you have cat urine odor in your home do not despair. In most cases it can be dealt with very effectively. But you need to hire a professional that deals with these types of problems on a daily basis and has the knowledge, tools, and cleaning agents to get rid of the odor.

And never EVER get a phone quote when it comes to odor removal in your carpet. There is absolutely no way any carpet cleaner can accurately quote a pet odor removal job without first seeing, and smelling, the carpet.