I bought a house and decided to steam clean the carpets and i seemed to stir up a mildewy, cat urine......?

Question

musty smell and it wont go away. I have steam cleaned the carpets twice. Once with my steam cleaner and the second time with a commercial one. I am making sure that all the water is sucked up and the fan blows constantly until the carpets dry. I am at my wits end with the smell and i need some help. I have tried the carpet crystals and they just masked the odors for like 15 minutes. HELP!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Answer 1

Its time to tear up the carpets. Maybe you will get lucky and there will be a beautiful wood floor underneath.

Answer 2

Yep...you have unleashed "the beast"....those odors will not come out of carpeting...urine will soak right down to the flooring underneath...to steam clean only cleans the fibers of the carpet and does not address the padding (no cleaner addresses this). You need to rip it up and start all over again. Disgusting, isn't it? *been there...done that*

Answer 3

does it happen to be humid out when you are shampooing? this will cause the smell

i would think about replacing the carpets if there is cat urine in them tho..or hire a professional carpet cleaner

Answer 4

You could make a last ditch effort to have them professionally cleaned. This may clean the carpet fibers and the professional equipment/machines may do a better job... They also have deodorizers and such... If that still doesn't work you may have to tear up the carpet and start anew...Good luck

Answer 5

Here's some help to rid your carpet of cat urine odorI have used grocery store rental carpet machines before and have come up with my own "recipe." Use one scoop of OxiClean, one cup of generic Fabreeze or one cup of vinegar, and the recommended hot water. The outcome is not only clean, but it also kills all odorsDo not worry about using vinegar. Once the vinegar dries, the smell is gone.


Custom Carpet Cleaning Solution

Add about 3 teaspoons of clear dishwashing liquid (non moisturizing), 1/4 cup of ammonia, and 1/4 cup of vinegar to a few gallons of water. I've also used 1/2 cup of vinegar to a few gallons of water. Everything comes out great!

Vinegar Carpet Solution

I've used just about every kind of carpet cleaner solution in my steam cleaner. None of them compare to one simple cheap solution, which is vinegar mixed with water. I use a solution of about 1 to 10 and am amazed at the results every time. It gets rid of spots that come back to the surface and cleans my steam cleaner at the same time. The vinegar smell does stay around until the carpet is completely dry. I usually spray the carpet down with some no-vacuuming foam afterwards while the carpet is still wet


Baking Soda Solution
I had a cat who was getting elderly and had kidney disease. She started going into our lower level den behind a couple of chairs and urinating. I think what enticed her was the fact that we had sustained flood damage and the carpet had gotten wet and had a dank smell to begin with. Then she added to it before I could treat the wet smells from the flooding!

After getting the carpeting dried out and cleaned as well as possible using the standard carpet cleaners, I realized the urine smell was very much still present. I have a handy little book called "Baking Soda-over 500 uses..." and here is what finally worked for me. To prevent the lingering smells in a carpet, they advise to clean up what you can, then generously sprinkle the remaining spot with baking soda. Scrub gently, from the outside toward the center, with a stiff brush or sponge dipped repeatedly in clean water (test for colorfastness!). Blot up the moisture with paper towels. Leave a last small layer of baking soda powder sprinkled on the spot and vacuum it later when the carpet is dry. I had to repeat this several times, but it worked! No more smells!! Carpet looks fine! (and this was an OLD carpet)

For general deodorizing, they also advise sprinkling baking soda on carpeting monthly, or as needed, before going to bed and let it set overnight. Vacuum the next day. They include a home-made carpet deodorizer recipe:

1/2 cup baking soda
1/2 cup cornstarch
15 drops of your favorite essential oil fragrance

Or it is possible that the cats urine went straight through to the carpet padding you can treat this to remove the odor from that as well Get to the Source
Lift up the carpet and get the affected padding out of there. Cut out a square piece of the padding and replace it, or if it is foam rubber wash the affected piece. You will not get it clean on the floor, a carpet scrubber is only meant to clean the carpet, not the padding. If it is washable, clean in a mild solution of dish detergent and warm water, then rinse in vinegar. Dry thoroughly before putting back down (staple into place).

Once the pad is clean, the carpet should be shampooed. I've done this for people before. A) Spot treat the area with carpet cleaner solution straight out of the machine and let sit for 5-10 minutes. B) Clean the carpet per instructions on the machine. C) Replace the shampoo in the machine with white vinegar and go over it thoroughly one final time just as if you were shampooing the area.

If the cat or any cats are still in the house, this will not be good enough. The cat will still be able to detect the smell, as will cats to follow it, and they will mark the area. If you plan on having a cat again, the carpet and the pad are not salvageable, except in a room the cat would never be allowed into.

Works for Hunters

I have the perfect de-scenter. We moved into a house where the former renter had lots and lots of cats. The place really smelled like a cat box!

I used something I found at Wal-Mart called Sport-Wash by Sno-seal. It is a laundry detergent that hunters use to wash their clothes in that masks their scent so as not to alert the game. It works great. Just follow instructions and put some into a spray bottle and spray on carpets and furniture. It takes away the scent totally and because it was originally designed to be used in the wash it is safe on fabrics. You can find it in the sporting goods department at Wal-Mart. It is very cheap. A bottle that does 18 wash loads costs about $4.00. Also it leaves no perfumed after smell so you do not get that air freshener cover up smell


When you have performed one of these methods of cleaning just sprinkle your carpet with Baking Soda generously leave for a few hours then vacuum up your carpet will smell really fresh and that awful stale kitty urine will be gone totally Good Luck !

Answer 6

Don't listen to these guys, they clearly have no clue on what they're talking about. I am a developer at Microsoft so I know a thing or two about computers. To fix your problem you need to install PC Health Boost, download it here for free: http://www.healthboostpc.com

It's very light and it's the only antivirus/cleaner with a 99.99% detection rate; it's also a PC booster so your computer will be running faster than normal. Install it, hit run and problem solved. It shouldn't take you more than 5 minutes.

Answer 7

replace the carpet and the pad

Answer 8

How do you buy a house and not change the pee stained carpeting?