Have you ever seen these spot removers at your local store? STEER CLEAR!
Stay away from these products!
Have you seen these products at your local stores?
Maybe your dog had just used the bathroom on your carpet and you’re scrambling to find something that will remove it.
I’m here to tell you that these products are not going to help you remove that urine from your carpet, here’s why.
Tests have been done to prove that the area of urine you see on top of the carpet is just the tip of the iceberg. The actual area of contamination goes far beyond the top pile of your carpet. It goes deep down into the padding and sometimes even as far as the subfloor. A good rule of thumb is whatever you see on the surface is usually 4x the size in the padding!! YUCK!
These chemical manufacturers lead you to believe that by simply applying their spray onto the carpet and blotting with a towel you will be able to remove the urine from your carpet.
Let’s think about that for a second; You have an area of carpet that the dog urinated on ( approximately one cup worth ) the urine has penetrated through the carpet fibers and is in the padding, you rush to your cabinet and grab one of these pet urine removal products. After rushing back you spray a generous amount onto the spot in hopes that it will eliminate the spot and smell. What you have done is introduced more liquid to that area which in turn will create a larger volume of liquid in the padding. ( Instead of 1 cup you now have 2 cups ) You follow the instructions on the bottle and let it sit for a few minutes ( only allowing it to penetrate deeper ) and then attempt to blot the spot up with a towel. How much liquid did you pull up with the towel? I can assure you that it was not 2 cups worth. Let’s be generous and say that the towel was a magical and super absorbent one and got a cup of water pulled through the ½ inch thick padding and ¼ inch thick carpet pile, You’re still left with one cup of a chemical/pee slurry in your padding.
Some will claim that the product will fight the urine in the padding and eliminate the odor because it has an enzyme or oxidizer in it, but they are wrong. Enzymes only work at certain temperatures. Enzymes are living, enzymes require temps between 86-104 to work, they are finicky. ( that’s why ours are mixed with 100 degree water and used up within that same job ) Was that bottle stored at 86 degrees? Likely not. So while there may be enzymes in the bottle you are spraying they are denatured, inactive, useless.
We run into these problems day after day after day, literally every day we see these products and the homeowners say they tried to clean up the spot themselves and it didn’t work and it smells terrible and sometimes ( depending on the brand used ) the area is bleached out due to high PH, oxidizers or optical brighteners. I’m here to tell you, you won’t be satisfied with the results from these store bought solutions.
IF you prefer to attempt the removal of urine at home before having a professional come take care of it, follow these steps and I guarantee you’ll have great success.
Step 1 – Act Fast
Step 2 – Grab the wet/dry vac from your garage ( Shop Vac )
Step 3 – Plug it in and start extracting the spot ( the goal here is to remove as much of the contamination as possible before introducing more liquid to rinse the area out. )
Step 4 – Once you have extracted the area thoroughly, Get some water and apply it to the area, let it sit for 3-4 seconds and then extract it with the shop vac again. Repeat this as many times as needed until you feel the urine is completely rinsed out.
Step 5 – Keep going over the area with the shop vac until it is fairly dry.
Step 6 – Grab a towel and place it over the spot.. Stand on it, this will apply more pressure to the pad and squeeze water out.
Step 7 – Extract the area with shop vac again
Step 8 – Place a fan near the area to dry it up.
Follow these 8 steps BEFORE you attempt to apply any solution on the carpet, 9 times out of 10 this will take care of the issue if caught soon enough.
