My tenant moved out about 3 weeks ago and the house still reek of dog pee. The lease states no pets but you know how it goes. Anyway, I've already removed the carpet and pad but the odor won't go away. I have about 1,200 sq. ft. of particleboard underlayment so I couldn't use any liquid chemicals. What next, rip off all the underlayment?
Yes, rip it out. Particle board is great for sucking up any kind of liquid (and odor), acts like a sponge.
OUTDOOR POLYURETHANE !
Went thru this with my moms house.
Regular poly can soften if it gets wet in the future like by carpet scrubbing.
outdoor poly is 100% GUARANTEED .........
My moms floors were black in places from urine.
completely fixed the problem which is a realtive of fire restoration.
use kilz oil based on walls
Thanks, my moms home has same problem. I was going to replace it all....but will try this first!!
No problem glad to help!
The story goes my mom stepdad and some of their dogs were incontenient..... HOUSE STANK:( Step dad and dogs died, mom moved in with me and fiance..........
I had a realtor / investor walk thru the home and asked what do I do? He said outdoor poly floors and kilz on walls. reported he had done this recently to a apartment complex he had recently purchased with 20 smelly units, all floors chip board.
nice guy who wanted listing but I fixed up house and rented it for near
8 years, then sold it and paid off our mortage .......the odor trouble was completely cured and never returned in those 8 years, or the now ten years today.
the home buyer heard abourt the odor and had a special clause in the sales agreement I was on the hook if odor returned, wasnt concerned after 8 years it was GONE!
outdoor poly STINKS best to not be in area during project.......... summer with windows open is ideal or do while people are on vacation.........
I hope you had a decent sized security deposut, and kept it.
Jeff
If you're about to rip up the underlayment anyway, why not give one of those enzyme cleaners a try? If it screws up the pressboard, you're no worse off than before. If it does work, Shellac the floor before putting a new carpet and pad down, that will keep odor from working it's way back out on humid days, and will protect the floor a little from whatever the next tennant decides to pour on it.
(Hmm.. note to self. If ever buying rental property, seal the floors before letting tennants in..)
Check the baseboards and bottom few inches of drywall while you're there.
wayne wrote:
Wayne, no, KILZ will not seal anything. It is a water-based primer and therefore still permeable. I know from trying to seal the stink of 25 years' worth of tobacco smoke into the walls of a house we bought earlier this year.
If you go the painting route, Fred, use B.I.N. It is a tinted shellac, and therefore will seal the subfloor against the pee smell making it to the surface.
BUT, and this is a big but, you still have the possibility that the pee smell will penetrate the underside of the subfloor, which means a sensitive nose - attached to, say, a pregnant woman (like our recently departed tenants) - may still smell pee, especially if this is the first floor you're talking about and the subfloor is exposed in the basement.
I hate to say it, but the best bet and the most thorough way of dealing with this is to take up the subflooring where it's stained and replace it.
In my experience, the enzyme cleaners aren't effective because part of what you're fighting are crystal deposits in the wood which do not dissolve no matter what you use.
You should see what several years' worth of dog pee did to the hardwood floors in a house a friend of mine bought. We scrubbed, bleached, enzymed, stripped the floors, all to little avail. The crystals were deep in the fiber of the wood, and nothing was getting them out. Finally, we applied a couple coats of polyurethane, and the stains are still there and dark-ish but not too bad and there's no smell. The floor even looks like it has some character instead of looking like it was a dog's bathroom.
Good advice. See what is or is not going on that you wouldn't otherwise discover until it's too late.
Definitely. One should always take a careful, thorough, paranoid approach to investment properties. Oh, and remember: they're going to be your tenants, not your new friends.
What? That's just me? (sigh)
wayne wrote:
Wayne, no, KILZ will not seal anything. It is a water-based primer and therefore still permeable. I know from trying to seal the stink of 25 years' worth of tobacco smoke into the walls of a house we bought earlier this year.
If you go the painting route, Fred, use B.I.N. It is a tinted shellac, and therefore will seal the subfloor against the pee smell making it to the surface.
BUT, and this is a big but, you still have the possibility that the pee smell will penetrate the underside of the subfloor, which means a sensitive nose - attached to, say, a pregnant woman (like our recently departed tenants) - may still smell pee, especially if this is the first floor you're talking about and the subfloor is exposed in the basement.
I hate to say it, but the best bet and the most thorough way of dealing with this is to take up the subflooring where it's stained and replace it.
KILZ is a product line, not a product. Among the things with a Kilz label on them is this:
Thanks for the heads-up. I'd not seen this in the local big box store, and in a conversation I'd had here back in the late Spring I was told that Kilz had no such ability and only to use B.I.N. Good to know I can stick with the Kilz.
you can spray the underside of the subfloor and joists too if the smell is showing up on a lower level.
the big thing is dont cheap out, use generous amounts and multiple coats of outdoort poly or oil based kils.
water based products will get a little soft and allow the odor to reappear......
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