Effective Odor Removal for the Professional
Professionally removing odors, especially odors from pet urine can be difficult if you are serious about removing the odor, you need to break down the odors into three different categories.
Mild, Medium and Severe.
If you’ve had trouble effectively removing pet urine odor effectively in the past, chances are that you may be using methods and chemicals made for light odor on the odor that needs medium or severe odor removal.
Just for the “little stuff”
Mild odor treatment means odor that is likely on the surface of the carpet. Above the primary and secondary backing.
Enzyme (beneficial bacteria) treatments like Stinky Winky and other similar brands that use active bacteria to digest the odor work well. Say the urine was in a few spots created by a Chihuahua, you can apply the enzyme-based treatment to the spots giving them a burst of enzymes that digests the odor-causing bacteria, thus removing the smell. For this method to work well on medium to heavy odor jobs, you would have to keep the surface wet for days – usually more than three days. Thus making this method not feasible.
When it has penetrated the padding
Medium odor is a lot more difficult and plain enzymes that work under light restoration treatment don’t work well. The odor has permeated through the primary and secondary backing. A burst of bacteria is just not enough. The bacteria will work a little and then dry up. So, what you need to do is lift the carpet from the tack strip and inspect the cushion. If the urine is merely on the surface of the carpet backing, you can treat that as a medium odor problem. To treat this well, you need to replace the cushion and install a new cushion. Clean both sides of the rug first, then soak it with OSR (Odor and Stain Remover). Let it sit for about 25 minutes and then dry vacuum using a tool that concentrates your suction (like an upholstery tool). This will not only remove the odor, but also the stain. See Medium Odor Removal Video Below:
What makes OSR different is that not only does it contain bacteria, but it also contains oxygen. The oxygen helps the bacteria mass-produce thus doing the work in a few minutes that would otherwise have taken several days. Educating yourself about bacteria in your OSR is also important. If the directions say to mix with hot water, then you know that the enzymes are synthetic. Synthetic enzymes don’t work as well as natural.
When it has spread to other materials through the heating and ventilation system
Severe odor removal is more of a restoration job than it is a cleaning job. We treat it like the medium odor, except as explained below.
After removing the padding we sand the subfloor. Apply a sealer like Odor Barrier to seal the odor. Clean the carpet if it has not de-laminated already. If it has de-laminated or shows severe damage, then it should be replaced. Replace the tack-less strips and baseboards if they were affected as well. What about all the molecules of odor that have spread throughout the building. Sitting in ducts and small crevices everywhere? Ozone machines add another molecule of oxygen that explodes the odor-causing molecules to remove the smell.
Now you know how to professionally handle pet odor removal.