I just bought a condo. I love it. I adore it. Every corner and wall and closet of it is just right for me.
But.
The previous renter kept the litter box in the closet. I didn’t worry about it, because I knew that the owner was going to change all the carpeting before I moved in.
I have brand new carpeting, and that corner of the closet still reeks of cat piss. I guess it must be in the floor.
What can I do?
I feel your pain. We have two cats and a …urine problem…
We found a nice product called “Petzyme” - we got it at the local Pet Superstore™ (okay, PetSmart).
It’s technically called: “Petzyme cat stain & odor remover - enzyme action works on cat spray, urine, vomit, hairballs and more” if you want to do a search.
Label says: Safe for carpets, safe for use around pets and children.
Spray and let it eat up the cat piss. It seems to work for us. YMMV. Good luck.
When they replaced the carpet did they also replace the pad? The pad will retain cat odors far better than the carpet.
To replace the pad, pull up the carpet at the problem corner, and cut out any part of the pad that looks or smells suspecious. It’s better to err on the side of excess pad removal since padding is so cheap.
While you have everything pulled up smell the subfloor and baseboards to see if the odor has saturated that also. If so try one of the enzyme based deodorants, and once again be overly generous with it.
Not just the padding, but the wood “tackstrip” along the edges is quite porous. If they look like they got wet, pry up the pieces and go to Home Depot or wherever near you that sells carpet. Get new tackstrip and padding. Both are cheap enough that it’s not worth messing with trying to clean them. The tackstrip has a bejillion points that will be pointing at the wall when it’s in properly. It simply nails down - the nails are usually already in it.
For a small corner in the closet, you don’t need to worry about stapling or gluing the pad in place.
Before you re-assemble everything, soak, and I mean SOAK, the under flooring with the enzymatic cleaner. Don’t use so much that it pours through the floor into the downstairs neighbor, but make sure everything that looks like it got cat pee is thoroughly wet. Cover it with plastic wrap so it doesn’t dry out and let it marinate for a few days, replenishing as needed.
You may also want to pick up either a plain ol’ black light bulb or a specialized black light unit. I’ve got one named “Stink Finder” - the smelly spots will glow under black (ultraviolet) light. It cost about ten bucks and was easier to use than carrying around a shade-less lamp with a black bulb.
Thanks! I pulled up the carpet today, and the padding and tackstrip both LOOKED like they’d been newly installed, so I opted not to rip them out just yet. Under them, on the concrete, was the Big Brown Stain.
This, I thought, just might be my problem.
So I got a full gallon of PenZyme and dumped it liberally on the Big Brown Stain. I dumped some on the pad, too, for good measure. It is currently sitting there doing whatever it does, where it’s going to stay for a while. I’ll check it out tomorrow and decide whether I need to dump more on.
I’ve worked in the pet industry for many years, and have accumulated probably a hundred owner-cat years in my day. Nowadays I’m dealing with the lovely situation of 2 neighborhood cats who come into my house and spray whenever I leave a door open.
Anyway, I’ve tried the ALL.
Hands down, I recommend Odormute. Not only is the most effective, it’s also the cheapest. These two factors are actually related: you often need more than one application, and many brands are so expensive that it’s painful to use them as liberally as you sometimes need to do. Odormute is so cheap and so effective that zoos use it to hose down lion cages with.
It’s safe enough to drink, though I can’t vouch for that personally. But it’s safe for plants anyway: I had a cat once who insisted on peeing in a big flowerpot, so I just watered that plant with odormute. Plant thrived, and didn’t stink.
One last thing: I urge you to find an independent pet store to buy it from. PLEASE don’t support the big superstores.