How did you get cat smell out of a house?

[Liz CA]

We are in the middle of moving, sort of half here, half there. The new house has a peculiar smell inside. Someone plugged an air freshener in but it just smells as if *someone went behind a tree* kwim? I suspect it was a cat.

There is no carpet, only wood floor and linoleum - both pretty old.

I have left windows open and it seemed to help a little but perhaps my nose just got used to it as I was in the house. Will it go away when I scrub everything with Meyers Lemon cleanser - my favorite? :001_smile:

[justamouse]

OK, bizarre, but I swear it works like a charm-homemade laundry detergent. Totally neutralizes it.

 

I had a cat I rescued and before I was able to get him fixed, he sprayed. A lot. :glare: The detergent worked wonders.

[Audrey]

Quite honestly.... unless you can find the source of the odor, you will probably be chasing it forever. Cat urine is a powerful odor and will not go away unless you can attack the source. There are enzyme cleaners you can purchase at most pet stores. These work very well when you soak the soiled area with them and simply stand back and let them work.

 

Chances are your previous residents had a cat that soiled some floor covering and it soaked through to the boards, or the cat may have sprayed a wall which may have absorbed some odor.

 

If you cannot find the source of the odor, you might have a faint hope of catching it if you clean every surface (especially floors and lower half of walls) with a strong vinegar solution. The vinegar will smell, of course, but that odor fades and it is usually fairly good at neutralizing offending odors with it.

[Liz CA]

OK, bizarre, but I swear it works like a charm-homemade laundry detergent. Totally neutralizes it.

 

I had a cat I rescued and before I was able to get him fixed, he sprayed. A lot. :glare: The detergent worked wonders.

 

Can you post the *recipe* for the homemade laundry detergent, please?

[Susan C.]

Our house before this came with a cat pee smell. Shampoo'd the carpet. Still there. It did not go away until we ripped out all of the carpet, the pad, and painted the "spots" with oil based paint (then got new carpet and pad). The cat seemed to favor the floor vents, so we replaced them too.

[Tohru]

We lived in an old house that smelled bad. The urine smell had soaked through the wood floors and trim boards, the smell was even coming from the drywall. After years of living there, painting the walls, sealing the wood floors, replacing the linoleum, the smell diminished substantially, but never completely left.

[Sun]

I've heard that cat pee will fluoresce under a black light. Perhaps that will help you pinpoint the source of the odor? Once you've found it, I've heard that enzyme-based cleaners are what you want. Nature's Miracle is one, and Bac-Out is another. You want to look for the word enzymes on the bottle. That being said, when my cat peed in an inappropriate spot, it was the plywood floor of a closet, and I made DH rip out and replace the plywood. We stored clothes in that closet, and I did not want to smell like cat pee!

[Myra]

And.....how do you get an indoor 7 year old male cat to stop spraying!!

 

Help!

[calandalsmom]

a couple things to try for inappropriate cats:

 

complete check up to make sure kitty is well and healthy

felliway spray or diffuser

different litters

more boxes/ different boxes

fix the cat

cat behaviorist

 

 

For getting rid of cat pee nothing beats nature's miracle in the RED bottle. It works but you have to locate the area.

[smallsteps]

We just moved to a new home where the previous owners had four or five cats. Thankfully there was no carpet in the main house, but the partially finished basement where the cats lived was putrid. We first used a product called Nature's Miracle from the pet store which we used in the past to get rid of spoiled milk in my car, and the stuff really works. However, for this case it wasn't enough. We decided to rip out the finished portion of the basement completely because these cats had obviously crawled into and messed all the framework and insulation as well. For you I'd recommend starting with Nature's Miracle, applying 2 or 3 times before tearing out. However, if urine seeped underneath the flooring Nature's Miracle will not get all of it there, unless you tear out, clean and replace.

 

Best of luck!

[SailorMom]

There is a cleaner/deodorizer called "KnockOut" - worked great.

[justamouse]

Can you post the *recipe* for the homemade laundry detergent, please?

 

this is from the Duggar site-the exact way I do it.

 

4 Cups - hot tap water

1 Fels-Naptha soap bar

1 Cup - Arm & Hammer Super Washing Soda*

½ Cup Borax

- Grate bar of soap and add to saucepan with water. Stir continually over medium-low heat until soap dissolves and is melted.

-Fill a 5 gallon bucket half full of hot tap water. Add melted soap, washing soda and Borax. Stir well until all powder is dissolved. Fill bucket to top with more hot water. Stir, cover and let sit overnight to thicken.

-Stir and fill a used, clean, laundry soap dispenser half full with soap and then fill rest of way with water. Shake before each use. (will gel)

-Optional: You can add 10-15 drops of essential oil per 2 gallons. Add once soap has cooled. Ideas: lavender, rosemary, tea tree oil.

-Yield: Liquid soap recipe makes 10 gallons.

-Top Load Machine- 5/8 Cup per load (Approx. 180 loads)

-Front Load Machines- ¼ Cup per load (Approx. 640 loads)

*Arm & Hammer "Super Washing Soda" - in some stores or may be purchased online here (at Meijer.com). Baking Soda will not work, nor will Arm & Hammer Detergent - It must be sodium carbonate!!

 

 

And I put some right on the rag and crawled around the floor sniffing to find *exactly* where he sprayed.

[StephanieZ]

Nature's Miracle is great for any surfaces it can soak into (carpet, upholstery, cushions . . .) but I've never tried it on solid surfaces. . .

 

If Nature's Miracle isn't appropriate (dry wall, etc.), then I'd paint with Kilz oil based primer, following up with normal paint. That will likely solve problems from dry wall (or any other surface that is solid enough to paint). Be sure to get the Kilz OIL BASED primer. They now make a Kilz brand latex primer as well, but that's NOT what you want.

 

If there is anything that can be ripped out and replaced, and you can isolate the location, then you can do that, too. . . but that will obviously be very expensive if you're talking about hard wood flooring. Yikes. If the hw flooring has gaps, you can experiment with drenching the area in the nature's miracle, letting it soak in between boards. . . but that is risky, of course, as hw doesn't like moisture. I guess you can try that if you are considering the alternative of trashing the floors.

 

What a pain. Cat pee stink is deadly. . .