How do I remove old pet smells from the carpet?

Question

My six-year-old female cat has a nasty habit of peeing under the piano in our front room. We have tried pretty much everything and the smell is still very powerful, especially now that it is summer. We've used baking soda, Petfresh stuff, sprays, fabric fresheners, steam cleaning, you name it. It is also difficult to get rid of because she comes back to mark it again. The piano is right by the front door and it is rather embarrassing to have guests walk into our house and the first thing they smell is cat pee. Any suggestions would be very appreciated! Thanks!

Answer 1

Urine Gone is a product that uses enzymes to get rid of urine. Seems to work well for my pet issues.

Answer 2

Blunt Honesty is right. If after all that has been done, you probably have cat pee down in the carpet padding and maybe the subfloor has soaked some of it up too. My suggestion is either pull up the carpet and replace it there, i.e., extend your entrance if it's tile or whatever. The reason your cat goes back there is because of the ammonia smell (FYI: the ammonia in the pee is what gives it that rancid smell), so maybe if you can saturate the area with something that neutralizes ammonia, she'll stop. But odds are that she won't, because we used to have a cat that did the same thing. We just kept cleaning it with the stuff called Kids'n'Pets that smelled like cherries and then steam cleaning it because we had a steam cleaner... and the cherry smell was stronger than the pee.

Answer 3

I have had the same problem. Our dog pees on everything, and my family has tried everything to get rid of it. We've tried pretty much every carpet cleaner out there, as well as odor removing products. Nothing works. It might cover the smell for a little while, but it always comes back and you can still smell the pee when you're close to it. The only thing that worked for us was to take up all the carpets and put down hardword and laminate floors.

Answer 4

I am a professional carpet cleaner and surprisingly enough, most everone in here has given good advise. Get rid of the carpet and pad, and seal the sub-floor.
I can tell you that you are wasting your money on any neutralizers / deodorizers at this point.
Take it from me, and these other ppl. you will NOT get rid of the odor aside from removing the carpet, pad, and sealing the floor.
Also, if the cat is still a problem, you got to do something about that. Not trying to be mean, but that is the true origin of the problem.

Answer 5

Pet urine is very hard to get out of carpets completely. You can't use a steam cleaner because it just sets the smell in. Humidity makes it stink too.
Your best bet is to replace the carpet =(

Answer 6

I'll tell you something else. The urine has soaked thru the carpet and padding into the wood. We had to remove the carpet and shellac the wood to finally kill the smell.

ps. We had hardwood installed once we ditched the carpet.
I guess shooting the cat is out, huh?? Just kidding

Answer 7

What Blunt Honesty said. Take up the carpet and padding, and either replace or refinish the floor with a sealant that will trap the odor.

Answer 8

The is a new product out on tv now called "Zero" pet oder remover, works awsome.

Answer 9

Replace the carpet.

Answer 10

cat urine is the worst and NOTHING will remove it. You need to replace the carpet, and then keep the cat containted to a certain area.