After more than 56 years in business, we have serviced thousands of customers who called us because of pet stains and pet odors in their carpets. Occasionally, the problem has also involved upholstery or draperies.
After all those years and all those jobs, one of the biggest conclusions I have reached is that approximately 98% of the pet stains we have encountered that involved urine came from small- to medium-sized dogs or cats.
Interestingly, only a relatively small percentage of the problems we have seen involved cats.
Cats Are Usually Very Clean Animals
In my experience, cats are generally very clean and well-trained animals. When an indoor cat begins using the carpet instead of its litter box, I have often found that the problem was not necessarily the cat’s fault.
One of the most common reasons is neglect of the litter box.
Think of it this way: If you walked into a public restroom and it was filthy and disgusting, you probably wouldn’t want to use it either. Cats can feel much the same way about an unclean litter box.
Of course, there are other situations.
Cats may also urinate outside the litter box when they are marking their territory. Any cat can do this, but unneutered male cats are among the most notorious offenders.
Although cats usually produce a much smaller volume of urine than a dog, that does not necessarily mean their urine is easier to remove.
Whether a cat is spraying to mark its territory or simply using the carpet as a bathroom, even a relatively small amount of urine can create an extremely difficult odor problem.
Dogs Can Create a Very Different Problem
Dogs, particularly medium-sized dogs, often create a completely different type of contamination problem.
When a medium-sized dog urinates on a carpet, the volume can be substantial enough to penetrate through the carpet fibers and backing, into the carpet padding, and sometimes even into the subfloor.
I have personally seen homes where repeated pet urine contamination underneath an area rug caused the wood flooring beneath it to turn black.
Once urine has penetrated beyond the surface of the carpet, it should be obvious why simply cleaning the carpet is often not enough to permanently eliminate the odor.
You may clean the carpet fibers perfectly while much of the urine remains trapped underneath them.
Where the Urine Goes Makes All the Difference
Some carpets have backings designed with a moisture barrier. These backings can help prevent urine from passing completely through the carpet and into the padding or floor beneath it.
That may sound like a good thing—and in many ways, it is—but it can create another challenge.
The urine may remain contained within the carpet itself, including the backing.
Professional cleaning is generally very effective at removing soil and contaminants from the carpet fibers. However, once urine has penetrated deeply into the backing of the carpet, removing it becomes much more difficult.
And that brings us to one of the main reasons pet odors can disappear temporarily and then seem to return.
Why Does the Pet Odor Come Back?
Over time, the moisture in urine can evaporate, leaving deposits behind.
In practical terms, one of the biggest challenges I have encountered over more than 56 years of cleaning carpets is that you may no longer see or feel moisture in the carpet, yet odor-causing residues can still remain deep inside the carpet, backing, padding, or floor beneath it.
Those residues can react when conditions change.
Humidity can be one of the biggest problems. A carpet may seem perfectly fine for weeks or even months, and then on a humid day, the familiar pet odor suddenly returns.
That is why homeowners sometimes tell me:
“We had the carpet cleaned, and the smell was gone. Then a few weeks later, it came back.”
In many cases, the odor didn’t really come back.
The source of the odor was never completely removed in the first place.
Why Can’t You Just Flush the Urine Out?
Professional carpet cleaners have specialized tools, sometimes referred to as water claws or flood extractors, designed to flood a relatively small contaminated area with water and then immediately extract as much moisture as possible.
The purpose is to flush contaminants from deep within the carpet and remove as much of the urine residue as possible.
In theory, this sounds like an excellent solution.
In reality, there can be serious limitations.
Carpet backings were not necessarily designed to become heavily saturated repeatedly.
Some carpets contain materials such as jute or cotton in their construction. Excessive saturation can cause problems including color bleeding, browning, wicking, shrinkage, and rippling or distortion of the carpet.
In certain situations, aggressive flooding and flushing can potentially create more problems than the original pet stain.
I have also heard of situations where excessive saturation during the cleaning of an area rug caused damage to the wood flooring underneath.
So while flushing can sometimes be helpful, it is not a universal solution.
The Real Challenge: Removing the Residue
From my experience, permanently eliminating a pet urine odor means addressing the residue left behind by the urine—not simply making the room smell better.
Unfortunately, in severe cases, removing every trace of contamination can be extremely difficult.
The deeper the urine has penetrated, the more difficult the problem becomes.
If the contamination is primarily within the carpet fibers and backing, the chances of successful removal are generally much better than if the urine has penetrated into the padding and subfloor.
This is one reason I have found that smaller dogs can sometimes create easier odor problems to solve than larger dogs.
A smaller dog generally produces less urine at one time. In many cases, much of that contamination remains closer to the carpet itself rather than penetrating deeply into the padding and floor beneath it.
That can make professional removal considerably easier.
Do Deodorizers Really Eliminate Pet Odors?
Many carpet cleaners use deodorizers.
A deodorizer may make the carpet or room smell pleasant for a period of time, but in my opinion, a pleasant fragrance is not the same thing as permanently removing the source of a pet odor.
Masking an odor may provide temporary improvement, but it does not necessarily solve the underlying contamination problem.
And that brings us to another popular treatment: enzyme-based products.
What About Enzyme Treatments?
There are countless pet odor products sold online and in retail stores that promise to permanently eliminate pet odors.
Many even offer money-back guarantees.
Personally, after seeing the number of products sold and the number of homeowners who still call professional carpet cleaners because the odor remains, I have always been skeptical of how well many of these promises hold up in real-world situations.
Enzyme treatments can be effective under the right conditions. However, in my experience, the reality is often much more complicated than the advertising suggests.
The treatment must reach the contamination.
It must be applied in sufficient quantity.
It must remain in contact with the contamination long enough.
And the conditions have to be appropriate for the treatment to work as intended.
After more than 56 years of experience, I can tell you that I have used professional-grade treatments, allowed proper dwell time, and performed repeated treatments on difficult pet odor problems—yet odors sometimes remained.
That is because treating the surface of a carpet cannot always reach contamination that has penetrated deeply into the backing, padding, or subfloor.
Why Area Rug Washing Can Sometimes Work Better
With certain types of area rugs, particularly some Oriental and hand-woven rugs, professional rug washing can provide an advantage that wall-to-wall carpet cleaning simply cannot.
A properly constructed rug may be washed using a process that allows it to be thoroughly flushed repeatedly.
The goal is to remove as much of the urine contamination and residue as possible.
However, rug washing also has limitations.
Not every rug can safely be submerged and aggressively washed.
Depending on the construction and materials, there may be risks involving color bleeding, shrinkage, distortion, and other damage.
Rugs with secondary backings or other construction materials can present an entirely different set of problems.
So while washing can sometimes be one of the best solutions for pet urine contamination in certain area rugs, it cannot automatically be applied to every rug—and it certainly is not an option for wall-to-wall carpeting.
So, Can Pet Odors Really Be Removed Permanently?
Sometimes, yes. But I believe homeowners deserve an honest answer: there are situations where completely eliminating a pet urine odor is extremely difficult.
The success of treatment depends largely on:
- How much urine was deposited
- How long the contamination has been present
- How many times the pet used the same area
- Whether the urine remained primarily in the carpet
- Whether it penetrated into the padding
- Whether it reached the wood or concrete subfloor
- The construction and materials of the carpet or rug
The sooner the problem is addressed, the better the chances are of successfully removing the contamination before it travels deeper into the materials below the surface.
After more than 56 years in business, one thing I have learned is that there is no single miracle product that works perfectly on every pet odor problem.
The best approach is to first determine where the contamination is located and how deeply it has penetrated.
Only then can you make an honest decision about whether the problem can realistically be treated—or whether additional measures may eventually be necessary.
If you have a pet odor problem in your carpet, upholstery, or area rug and would like experienced advice, call Alec’s Carpet & Upholstery Cleaning at 781-871-1415.
For more information on this subjest please contact us or visit our website at www.Alecscarpetcleaning.com