Pet Urine is typically considered by professionals and consumers alike to be one of the most difficult problems in carpet cleaning.
Since Urine is not removed by simply cleaning the carpet, regardless of they type of cleaning agent, machine or method. It is critical to understand the factors that make removing pet urine odor and stains effective.
First, it needs to be understood that treating the carpet fiber alone is usually not enough to remove pet urine odor from the carpet. As shown in the picture to the left, in most cased the pet urine has penetrated all 4 layers of the flooring, which are the fibers, backing, padding and sub-floor. When removing pet urine odor and stains it is imperative that all layers which have been infected by the pet urine are treated with both the correct cleaning products as well as the correct cleaning process. If any of the 4-layers do not get treated properly, the pet urine odor may continue to persist, thus wasting both time and money.
When treating pet urine odor it is also very important to understand how much of the carpet to treat. This is one of the main reasons for failure during the pet odor removal process. Typically when you see a pet urine spot on the top of the carpet, it is likely that it has soaked into the other 3 layers as well. As the pet urine continues its way through the layers, it expands in size and shape. Therefore when treating for the pet urine odor, it is vital that you treat enough of the area that all infected areas on all 4 layers are treated. A general rule of thumb is that however large the area is on top of the carpet that you can physically see, you should treat an area about 3-5 times that size around the stain. Also, the larger the animal the more pet urine there will be in the carpet and therefore the larger area you should treat