Northbrook Pet Urine Treatment

Pet Urine Treatment in Northbrook – Safe For Everyone

The Pet Urine Treatment Facts & Process

The steps of our Northbrook, IL pet urine treatment process is as follows:

1. Use a black light and moisture detector to find and scope the entire situation of pet urine.
2. Treat all areas with enzymes to break down the salt crystals and urea allowing it to be flushed from carpet fibers and padding.
3. Using a subsurface extractor we flush and rinse out as much pet urine as possible ensuring it won’t return.
4. Clean all carpets according to our standard carpet cleaning procedures.
5. Deodorize all carpets to reduce odors.

This process above is the most common cleaning method that we employ, but it is not the only one and it may not always be the answer is your particular situation.  Every home, every pet, every carpet and padding, every situation is different.  In all our years of service, we have never seen the same situation twice.  Even in the same house with the same animal.  The location of the urine can tell a story.  Cats are territorial animals that drink less water, thus leaving a higher concentration of ammonia in the urine while they mark their territory around the perimeter of a room.  Most often getting the urine on baseboards and into the wooden tactless strips.  Dogs are different and drink more water in their diet, this creates more urine, but also urine that is less potent than a cat.  Female dogs squat and mark in the middle of a room, male dogs lift their leg and often mark a furniture leg.

To have a better understanding of pet urine treatment and removal see the image above.  This image shows a great example of how urine penetrates past the carpet fibers down into the carpet backing, padding, and even the subfloor.   Pet urine is much like an iceberg, what can be seen on the surface is only a fraction of what lies below.  And as mentioned above, no two situations are the same.  The larger the animal, likely the larger volume of liquid.  An animal that has had repeated accidents in a particular area the more likely it is for urine to fully soak the padding and reach the subfloor.

The first thing to know is that urine removal cannot be accomplished with carpet cleaning alone because carpet fibers are only a fraction of the problem.  In fact, wet cleaning the carpet and adding moisture can reconstitute dried urine salts and crystals and make things smell even worse.

As you can see in this photo, pet urine can soak into the backing of the carpeting, making it very difficult to remove with a top-down cleaning approach.  Adding water and detergents only will reconstitute all the urine salts and crystals, re-introducing your nose to all those horrible awful odors.

This picture shows how bad urine situations can become if left ignored or untreated.  Urine can reach and soak the wood subfloor.  The pink-looking rebond padding in the photo is very similar to a sponge, holding onto and soaking up all the pet urine.  This sponge then holds that urine and creates a warm dark area for bacteria and odors to flourish.

With these photos, you can now see how a simple carpet cleaning can often not solve or help in a pet urine situation.  There are few different treatment options explained below.

Self Treatment –  There are two options for self-treatment of pet urine situations.  Also, note that over-the-counter store-bought urine treatments are full of additives and chemicals you don’t need.  The manufactures want to cast a wide net to try and solve as many issues as possible for the consumer.  These products can leave a residue in your carpet attracting dirt and in some instances remove or damage the color of the carpet.

Option 1: Hydrogen Peroxide aka H2O2. 

If you remember from high school chemistry, Hydrogen Peroxide is one atom away from water, H2O, it has an extra oxygen atom.  When H2O2 is sprayed or poured from the bottle the extra oxygen atom seeks out organic material to oxidize or consume.  In this case, the organic material is the pet urine in your carpet.  After the oxygen atom consumes the urine deposits, all that remains in the H2O and this will evaporate leaving no residue to re-soil your carpet.   At around $1.00 a quart of hydrogen peroxide is a very cost-effective at-home solution.  However, there are few cautions to take when using hydrogen peroxide.  It is flammable, do not use it near any open flame.  It can remove the color from your carpet in some instances, especially if the area being treated is in direct sunlight.  Sunlight speeds up the oxidation process and can further negatively affect carpet color.  Lastly, it is irritating to bare skin and likely the same for animal paws as well.  Always wear gloves and keep pets away from this area until dry.

So now you know H2O2 will work, but you wonder ‘How do I use it?’  Never use H2O2 on natural fibers such as wool, silk, cotton, jute, sisal, viscose, etc.   Before you treat a given area try a small test spot, about the size of a quarter, in a closet or other inconspicuous area of that same carpet type.  Let it dry 100% so you can see the final results and make a safe determination to proceed.  If color is stable and the same you can proceed.  If not, this is not a safe option for treatment.  When using hydrogen peroxide to treat urine understand that it must touch and come into contact with the urine salts and crystals.  Plain and simple, the urine is deep in the carpet and backing.  Spraying it topically won’t work, you need to pour it on and soak it into the spots.  Pour some on then step on it with a shoe to work it into the fibers and backing.  Use enough to work, but not so much that the carpet becomes wet and soggy.  Wait until the area is fully dry before you evaluate.  When the time to evaluate get down to the floor and stick your nose to the carpet.  You want to be sure that you solved the issue.  Don’t be alarmed if you need multiple treatments.  Once you no longer smell pet urine and the odors are gone, it is now time to clean the carpet.

 Option 2: Woolzyme professional strength enzyme.

This product we offer costs $30 per quart + tax or $95 per gallon + tax.  This product is available by calling 8479519636 or email Paul@SupremeCleaningCo.com

Woolzyme is safe enough to use on wool and silk, yet still strong enough to solve the problems of urine odor.  Woolzyme is an enzyme that consumes organic materials like urine deposits.  And amazingly Woolzyme has none of the cautions of peroxide.  It will not discolor your rugs or carpet.  It will not harm a rug like regular water can in the instance of watermarks or dye bleed.  Please note that all enzymes must be kept at room temperature.  Below 50 and above 120 will begin the killing of the beneficial enzymes in Woolzyme.  Apply Woolzyme the same way you would hydrogen peroxide, however, no testing is needed.    

Professional Treatment Options –

Option 1 – We clean the carpet with enzymes to break down the urine and salt crystals in the face yarns of the carpet.  This option will remove urine deposits from the face yarns, but urine will remain in the backing and carpet padding.  In the best scenario, you will be about 30% better than you started off.

Option 2 – This option is a subsurface flush of the problem areas to remove as many urine deposits as possible from the carpet fibers, backing, and padding.  We thoroughly rinse and flush out the carpet, backing, and padding of all urine using a subsurface flood water extractor.  We then recreate the urine situation with enzymes to allow it to penetrate into the carpet, backing, and padding; getting the enzymes to the location as the urine.  We allow this to dwell for at least a minimum 45min, once complete we flush out the carpet, backing, and padding again.  We then proceed with a regular carpet cleaning and heavy-duty pet odor deodorizers.  The carpet is now 70-90% better than when we started.  The carpet and padding will be 100% dry in about 36hrs. 

Option 3 – Fully Guaranteed Odor Removal.  In this process, we remove all furniture from the room and closet.  The carpet is now disengaged from the tactless strips, we remove it from the home and clean it at our facility to be soaked and decontaminated.  The padding is removed and disposed of.  All contaminated tactless strips are removed.  The subfloor is then cleaned and sealed with an oil-based primer.  When the process is complete we will return to install new padding and any tactless strips.   We will then re-install the carpet according to industry standards.  When you choose this process we can 100% guarantee odor removal from carpet and subfloor.  If any baseboards or wallboard has been affected it will need to be replaced as well by a professional. 

Final Notes

A dog or cat has a much better sense of smell than any human. While we can guarantee odor removal and detection by humans, the same can not be said about animals.
The two self-treatment options are what we recommend for infrequent small minor accidents that are caught right away. The first professional option is when you have 1 or 2 small minor accidents from a small animal that does not release a large volume of urine.  The subsurface flush is recommended when the animal is no longer in the home, or the behavior has subsided and been stopped.  A fully guaranteed odor removal can be done, however, once the urine situation grows to a certain point, in all honesty, it may be best for carpet replacement. 
Questions, please call