Pets and young children may occasionally have accidents that will leave your carpet soaked with urine. Urine stains are unlike many other types of stains. Ink, coffee or sauce will leave a mark on your carpet that you may have to scrub out. However, a urine stain, whether from a dog, cat or baby, will leave a smell that could remain even after you have scrubbed the surface of your carpet.

For this reason, you should not treat urine like other substances. Treating the smell is as important as removing any visible evidence of the accident.

Here are five tips for removing the smell of urine from your carpet.

1. Use a baking soda and water mixture

Baking soda can help remove all types of odors. Some people keep an open baking soda box in their kitchen as a kind of makeshift air freshener. You can make a paste with water and baking soda and then apply it to the urine stain. When this paste dries, you can use a spray bottle filled with distilled vinegar to spray over the stain. The carpet may bubble a little bit. That is fine. Rinse the entire stain area with water to remove the baking soda and vinegar. You can repeat this process up to two more times for difficult stains.

2. You can also use non-toxic, enzyme-based cleaners to handle the smell

These are sometimes available at pet supply stores. The thing to remember with these cleaners is that they do not require rinsing or blotting. You simply follow the directions on the container and apply the cleaner directly to the stain (usually via a spray bottle). Unlike more-toxic solvents, these natural cleaners may need to be left on the stain overnight in order to remove the smell.

3. Use a wet vacuum

So-called “wet-vacs” are especially made for getting odors and stains out of carpets. Unless your pet urinates on the carpet frequently, you may not want to get a wet vac just to deal with the urine smell. However, if you want to give your carpet a regular deep cleaning, a basic wet vac, costing about $200 or so, could be a good investment. Unlike regular vacuum cleaners, wet vacs do a good job at dealing with all types of odors and stains.

4. Hire a professional

Professional cleaners will use an industrial-strength version of a wet vac. They may also apply an enzymatic cleaner to the stains beforehand. Hiring a professional carpet or furniture cleaner is the best way to make sure you benefit from the best equipment and techniques.

5. Make certain that the urine has not seeped under the carpet

This may not be a problem if you catch the urine while it is still wet and use a towel to soak it up. However, urine can also seep under the carpet padding. It is much harder to remove the smell that has gotten under the padding on the underside of the carpet. If possible, lift up the carpet to see if any urine has seeped underneath. If it has, then you should clean this before treating the carpet itself.

For professional services, contact Royal Nettoyage!