Pet odor is not something that can usually be removed with “normal” cleaning. In fact, if you try to clean pet stains, and the odor, with regular carpet cleaning methods you can actually end up with the carpet smelling worse! Heating up dried urine with 215+ degree steam and water will not leave a pleasant smell behind!

Let’s take a look at some pet odor removal techniques. As we said before, pet odor removal is not normal cleaning. There are special techniques and cleaning agents that need to be used.

• Find the source of the pet urine and odor: Not all stains actually show up to the naked eye. Many times the urine spots cannot be seen, and this can lead to many failed attempts at removing the stains and odor. The proper equipment is needed to locate all urine sources such as a powerful black light and UV protection glasses which will light up the urine green like nuclear waste. If all urine sources are not found and eliminated you are almost guaranteed to have a bad end result. Always remember, the carpet pad is like a sponge soaking up the urine as it passes thru the carpet. The size of urine stain in the pad can be 4-6-8 times larger compared to the stain you see on the surface.
• Extract the urine from the carpet: Normal cleaning methods will RARELY get rid of the pet odor. Many times the urine is not only in the face fibers but also in the backing of the carpet, the pad, and the sub-floor. If a cleaner just tries to clean the face fibers they are missing most of the actual urine and will only end up making the carpet smell worse. If a home owner attempts to clean the urine themselves, most of the time this will also worsen the problem spreading the urine out further.

There are three types of pet odor removal categories and all three can be dealt with as long as you use the proper techniques. Below are the three types of pet odor issues you will usually have in your carpet.

• Face Fiber Contamination: This is when the face fibers ONLY are affected with urine. Rarely, especially with large dogs, will the face fibers be the only part of the carpet contaminated with urine. If this is what you have in your carpet the success rate for removing the odor is really high. But as we said, most of the time the face fibers are not the only part of the carpet affected.
• Face Fiber, Backing, and Padding Contamination: This category is probably the most common. In most cases the face fibers, the backing, and the padding of the carpet have urine in them. This is much more difficult to deal with than the first category, but in most cases it can be dealt with quite effectively. Special extraction tools called a water claw is needed in order to extract the urine out of the padding and out of the house. After all urine is removed using this procedure, traditional cleaning methods can then be done.
• Face Fiber, Backing, Padding, and Sub-Floor Contamination: This is the most serious type of pet odor contamination you can have. Not only does the carpet need to cleaned properly “front and back” but the padding needs to be replaced, the sub-floor needs to be cleaned and sealed before everything can be layed back down and restretched.  No matter how much you water claw the pad and clean the carpet, if the subfloor is soaked in urine you will never get rid of the smell.