Getting rid of Spot's spots

By badbadivy

Anybody who has ever potty trained a dog can tell you it is extremely important to thoroughly clean a spot on the carpet where the puppy has had an accident. If you don't get the smell up entirely, the dog will go back to the same area over and over, and eventually you will have a major mess on your hands.

So, that's what happened when we had a puppy in the house. He kept going on the same spot, sometimes it wouldn't be found until much later, and eventually, it soaked through the carpet pad into the subflooring. Ack. Pet odors are the worst.

When the urine soaks into the subflooring, you have no choice but to rip up the carpet and treat the subflooring. Observe:

The offending spot.

Once you have gotten the carpeting up, you must clean the spot with an enzymatic cleaning product that will get rid of the odor entirely. Through much trial and error (mostly error!) I have found that Kids N Pets works wonderfully to get rid of the smell. Completely clean the area, then use a fan to dry the area. Make sure it is completely dry.

The orange hallway of doom!

Once you have done that, you will need to seal the subflooring. I've heard people have great results with Zinsser B-I-N Primer-Sealer, and I have also heard Kilz works just as well. I happened to have Kilz on hand, so that's what I used.

Make sure you completely cover the affected area. Once it has dried completely, you will be able to lay down the flooring materials of your choice over it.

Tagged:
pet odor sealing subflooring