Help me get rid of cat odor in house or Im done :(

[Johnv713]

I’ve been taking in animals of all sort off the street over the years. As a result, my house smells like Armageddon x 5 from pet urine. I’ve tried everything under the sun and nothing worked. Only thing that masks the smell is burning candels but it gets expensive and could potentially burn down the house someday. I’m at my wits end PLEASEEEE someone help or imma throw in the towel. Really dont want that to happen bc that woukd be the end of me helping animals in need.

Tried 4-5 Enzyme cleaners- waste of money.
Vinegar and Baking soda- Didnt do anything.
Hydrogen peroxide or bleach- Made the smell worst.
Mopping floor with diffrent typewith a dozen different cleaners including fabric freshener- Didnt work.

 

[Katie M]

Is the smell coming from the litter box, or are the cats peeing around the house?

 

[FeebysOwner]

For carpeting, at this point, I would recommend professional steam cleaning and ask them about what they use for pet urine. Most of the companies have specific products they use to remove the smell. You could do the steam cleaning yourself, but see if you can find out what kinds of products the professionals use first. Toss throw rugs and replace them. Ditto with pillows, blankets, towels.

For hard surfaces, including wood, try Fizzion or SCOE10x. There are a couple of members on this site who swear they work without fail. Although, most of these surfaces can be steamed cleaned as well.

You might consider getting all new litter boxes, especially if the ones you have are older/plastic. You can get 'trays' that can serve as litter boxes which are stainless steel - not going to hold urine smell as plastic ultimately does.

 

[kittenmittens84]

You gotta be more specific here - where is the pee? Is it in carpets, on wood floors, furniture...? How old are the stains? Why are so many animals peeing around your house? What kind of flooring do you have? How did you use the enzymatic cleaner?

The number one thing for getting rid of cat pee smells and stains is going to be cleaning it up as quickly as possibly unfortunately. obviously that doesn’t help for old stains, but going forward you should clean up accident ASAP to prevent more smells down the road.

If anything smelly is washable, like bedspreads or slipcovers or towels, I would pre-treat them with something like oxiclean and then wash everything with white vinegar to remove smells.

As far as enzymatic cleaned goes, you really have to follow the directions to a T for it to work, and you have to really soak the area with the cleaner rather than just spraying it. For a fresh stain on a rug you should apply the cleaner until it’s basically dripping from the area around the pee and then wait 15 minutes before blotting so the enzyme can work. With old stains you may have to do it twice. A wet vac is also really helpful for stain removal in general (especially on carpets) since you can skip the blotting and just vacuum out the cleaner + water and then repeat.

If animals have peed on your floor/baseboards and it wasn’t properly cleaned the first time or the smell won’t go away you’re probably screwed as far as surface stain removal goes. You’ll have to replace the carpet and padding underneath since it probably soaked through, or if you have hard flooring the pee most likely seeped through and ruined part of the floor. Mopping the floor won’t help. Be careful with steam cleaning, I’ve found it can “set” some stains since it uses heat, and if the pee is under the carpet too then steam cleaning probably won’t get it all.

 

[PushPurrCatPaws]

If animals have peed on your floor/baseboards and it wasn’t properly cleaned the first time or the smell won’t go away you’re probably screwed as far as surface stain removal goes. You’ll have to replace the carpet and padding underneath since it probably soaked through, or if you have hard flooring the pee most likely seeped through and ruined part of the floor. ...

Agree. If it is a hardwood floor that has experienced repetitive "pee episodes", especially if in the same location, the wood floor surface is likely ruined. Years ago, one of the fellow tenants in the building I live in had a cat that peed over and over again in the same spot behind a couch, and the urine/ ammonia/ et cetera, ruined the floor. The tenant had to pay for getting the floor refinished -- and that ruined area needed quite a bit of sanding.

 

[golondrina]

I have always used Super Mix clumping cat litter with Long Lasting Odor Control imported from Canada. I have never had any odor in my home.

 

[susanm9006]

The thing is, if you are going to have cats continue to urinate outside the litterbox your home is going to continue to smell. So first a plan for your rescues. Can you isolate them to a single room with easily washable floors and walls until you know they are consistently using their litterbox and or are no longer spraying?

Then there is cleanup. It is entirely possible that you have missed some of the places where cats have urinated, especially if there was spraying . You might want to try getting a black light and going from room to room with it to locate any areas you have missed cleaning . I would do that first and then decide which items can simply be tossed and then use a heavy dose of enzyme cleaner on the remaining.

 

[Johnv713]

I meant to say most of my cat go outside to do their bussiness but occasionally i find a puddle on my woodfloor. Some of the areas are few month old.

I tried steam mop and it made the smell 2x worse. I also used a few enzyme cleaners. Followed the instruction to the T but that didnt help much. So depressing to know you have the stinkiest house on the block

 

[Willowy]

If you know where the spots are, I've heard soaking the area very well with Febreze will do the job, after it dries all the way. You do need a fan or something on it to help it dry. It really needs to soak into the underflooring, so get a lot. You can buy a half-gallon at Walmart for around $8, don't buy the little spray bottles or you'll go broke, lol.

 

[kittenmittens84]

...do they have litter boxes at all?

I hate to break it to you but if your house smells that much like pee and these floor stains are more than a few weeks old, you are not getting rid of the smell unless you get rid of the floor and possibly what’s underneath too, depending on how your floor is constructed. I highly doubt pouring air freshener over it will get rid of the smell for good, and idk if I’d want to soak my hardwood in febreze anyway. There’s a reason landlords charge pet deposits, cat pee smells can be an immense pain in butt to get rid of.

Also enzymatic cleaner won’t really work well for wood flooring if the pee has seeped in. It works far better on more porous stuff like carpet or fabric. The liquid has to physically come in contact with the pee/pee remnants in order for the enzymes to break it down.

 

[Willowy]

I highly doubt pouring air freshener over it will get rid of the smell for good, and idk if I’d want to soak my hardwood in febreze anyway.

Febreze isn't just air freshener. There's something in it that actually gets rid of odors. And I think the point of it is that the floors are already pretty well wrecked---they just want to get rid of the odor. Anyway, I've heard several convincing testimonies that it's the only thing that really works once the odor is in the subfloor.

But, yes, for long-term odor control you have to prevent it from happening again. How many cats do you have? Are there any litterboxes? If so, how often are they cleaned? Are all of the cats spayed/neutered?

 

[kittenmittens84]

Febreze isn't just air freshener. There's something in it that actually gets rid of odors. And I think the point of it is that the floors are already pretty well wrecked---they just want to get rid of the odor. Anyway, I've heard several convincing testimonies that it's the only thing that really works once the odor is in the subfloor.

But, yes, for long-term odor control you have to prevent it from happening again. How many cats do you have? Are there any litterboxes? If so, how often are they cleaned? Are all of the cats spayed/neutered?

Oh ok, I just looked at mine and i guess I’ve only ever had the aerosol air freshener kind not the fabric spray kind. I’d still be wary of pouring it all over my floor, if only because I don’t have a subfloor so the wood flooring is nailed directly to the joists and I’m pretty sure there are wires under there, but with a subfloor it might be worth a try!

Also OP even if your cats usually go outside you should get them some litter boxes inside, it will probably cut down on the accidents and everyone will be happier.

 

[Johnv713]

I have a couple of Fabreeze spray bottles sitting around. Which one are you referring to that may work? I havent tried any bc i thought they would only mask the smell.

I do have 3 litter boxes that i scoop at least 3x a day. Most of the time i let the little rascals roam the subdivision until it’s time for them to come in at night. I took in 6 cats and 3 dogs. The number go up depending on how cold it gets outdoor.

 

[Willowy]

The usual Febreze fabric refresher in the manual spray bottle, not the air freshener in the aerosol can. Don't spray it (it will damage whatever finish is left), try to pour it in the cracks.

Are all of the cats fixed? Tomcat odor is extremely strong and obnoxious, if everyone is neutered it will help the odor situation.

 

[Johnv713]

I found out the culprit is my female cat( fixed) that i found in the woods behind a hair salon 11 years ago. It’s kinda strange but I noticed the smell already there before i wet mop but it gets funkier after i mopped. Weird, i know.

If you think the urine is bad wait til you get a whiff of the poops. It’ll knock you out cold

 

[Jem]

One thing that might help with repeated inappropriate peeing is to get more litter boxes. Only 3 litter boxes with 6 cats may not be enough for your girl. You mention you clean them regularly, but it might not be enough for the little princess...
Try getting 2-3 more litter boxes. They say the rule of thumb is one box per cat plus one. So technically that would mean 7 in total, but you could try with adding 2 for now and see if that makes a difference.
And as others have mentioned, it could just be that the floors are ruined. You may need to consider refinishing or replacing them, although I would not replace the floors until your girl is using the litter box properly, no sense in ruining new ones too!
Now that you know who the culprit is, you should consider taking her to the vet to make sure she does not have a UTI or anything more serious.

 

[Johnv713]

i do t think adding kore boxes would help. My gal likes to pee on the floor for spite

 

[FeebysOwner]

If what you mean by 'spite' is that she hates the litter boxes being too messy/full, and then goes outside of them, well, OK - but that is not really out of spite. There are just some cats that are 'neat freaks' and hate to use a box that is not relatively cleaned out. Some won't use them unless they are completely cleaned out!!