Carpet Cleaning Tricks

Cleaning dog urine from Carpet

Find old stains. You might have a general idea of where old stains might be from the odor. If you think there might be old stains in an area, explore using a sweeping motion, gradually moving farther away from the generally smelly location. The pet urine that you're looking for should show up as a yellow or greenish color. Try looking in the following areas:

• Bookshelves
• Furniture
• Cloth decorations
• Inside vents
• Objects that appear to have holes, such as inside portable heaters
• Clothing that your cat may be able to access
• Other small areas your cat could squeeze into

Consider using ultraviolet light to explore more thoroughly. If you want to be thorough, buy a UV or fluorescent black light of a portable size. Look for a long bulb so you can cover more ground at much, preferably longer than 12 inches (30cm). Cheap bulbs with the housing included can be found at most hardware stores. Although pet stores sell the lights as well, they're usually smaller and more expensive. They can also be purchased at a reasonable cost online, depending on how much time you have to wait around living with the odor.

Search at night or in complete darkness. Pet urine can be difficult to see, especially when old, so maximize your search efforts by taking advantage of darkness. Either wait for night, or make the room as dark as possible.

Mark each spot that you find. If you're on the stain-finding warpath, make sure don't get ahead of yourself and forget where all the stains are. Keep a roll of blue painter tape on you while you're looking around, and mark each spot that needs to be cleaned with a small strip of blue tape. When you've found all the stains you want to clean up, go back with your cleaning materials and find your stains easily.

Try an enzymatic cleaner to start. Wet the area with cool distilled water, pouring a small amount around the perimeter of the stain, moving from the outside of the stain toward the center. Spray an enzymatic cleaner on the wet spot, and allow it to sit overnight. If your carpet is wool, make sure you're using a wool-safe cleaner.

Wet paper or cloth towels with cool water, and lay them over the spot. Put a heavy object on top of the wet towels and leave the towels overnight. When you remove it in the morning, you can assess whether or not you need to take more extreme measures.

Steam-clean old stains. A rented cleaner can produce steam that's hot enough to sanitize the carpet, after which the water can be vacuumed up again. Alternatively, if the spot is particularly large or stained, you can hire a professional cleaner to manage it.

Try cleaning without detergent at first. If you find that you're still not pulling up the stain, ask the representatives at the rental center what they recommend, and try to use as little detergent as possible.

• Wool can be damaged by steam cleaners, much like a wool sweater shrinks if you wash it in hot water. If the stain is on wool carpet that you don't wish to damage, seriously consider hiring a pro.

Use oxidation if necessary. One alternative to using a steam cleaner on an old stain is oxidizing it. Products that release oxygen are effective odor removers, and you can make a solution yourself at home.

• Mix up ½ teaspoon (2.5 grams) of bleach with 1 quart (32 ounces/950ml) of distilled water. Do a patch test on a part of the carpet you don't usually see, and make sure you won't damage the color. Then saturate the area and allow the solution to soak into the carpet for at least 10 minutes.
• Use a shop vac or a towel (as described above) to pull up the solution. You might need to do oxidate the carpet several times to remove a stain. Let the carpet dry completely between treatments.
• Oxidizing products should never be used on wool or silk carpets. The treatment is only appropriate for synthetic fibers.