Pet Urine Stains on Hardwood Floors

By Kathy from MN

Archives: Request: Pet Urine Stains on Hardwood Floors Archived on 10/27/2009 How do I get black urine stains, from my dog, off a hardwood floor? By Olwynnel from Alna, ME Feedback: RE: Pet Urine Stains on Hardwood Floors I seriously doubt it's entirely redeemable, but for starters, I'd go to a pet or janitorial supply place and get the enzyme odor stuff. It dissolves organic residues, so it might remove some of the stain. I'd apply once, leave and observe for a few days. If it helps, see how far it will take the process of removing the stain. After a few weeks, if the stain is better, try a q-tip with bleach water in a tiny spot. Sometimes bleach water removes stains from wood. Then wood needs to be sanded as the grain will be raised. Then it will need to be re-stained to match the rest of floor and varnished. That's if it is an old floor. If it's a new floor, maybe just buy some replacement pieces, skip all of the above, and replace the damaged pieces. (08/25/2009) By PIKKA Report Spam or Abuse Request: Pet Urine Stains on Hardwood Floors Archived on 08/25/2009 How do I get black urine spots from my dogs out of my hardwood floor? By Betty1234 Feedback: RE: Pet Urine Stains on Hardwood Floors I'm sorry, you'll have to sand them. But you could try "OUT!". It has an enzyme that "eats" the urine. But I'm pretty sure the dark stain is permanent. (07/14/2009) By Cyinda RE: Pet Urine Stains on Hardwood Floors I had the same issue, wherein I removed carpet in an older home to find nasty black last-owners' animal urine stains marring the gorgeous hardwood floors. After frustratingly sanding with an orbital sander, I was unable to remove them hardly at all. I then covered the entire black-stained area with paper towels, and next soaked them with Hydrogen Peroxide. I covered the entire affected area with a couple of garbage bags to seal it in, and let stand for about an hour. Repeated 2x, since it was really bad. I pulled the stuff off, and wiped semi-dry with more paper towels, and covered the entire area with extra sanding-dust from the dust collector of the sander, to sop up the remaining moisture. I vacuumed the moist dust up, let it dry fully in the air, left for a couple of hours, and came home to see that the stain was completely gone! Amazing super-cheap solution! (08/13/2009) By richieoliver Report Spam or Abuse Request: Pet Urine Stains On Hardwood Floors Archived on 01/14/2009 How do I remove pet urine stains from my hardwood floor? Lisa from Rockford Answer: RE: Pet Urine Stains On Hardwood Floors Regular old cat litter, piled on the stain. I used the clumping kind, you could literally see the litter turn yellow as it soaked it up. I had to do it a couple of times, but it worked for me. Anything liquid is just going to make the wood wetter, defeating the purpose. (11/07/2008) By Brooke Report Spam or Abuse Request: Pet Urine Stains On Hardwood Floors Archived on 11/06/2008 How can I get pet urine stains up from a hardwood floor? Betty Lou from Arkansas Answers: RE: Pet Urine Stains On Hardwood Floors I've been trying soaking rags in the hydrogen peroxide and leaving them on the stains. They don't smell very good, but when I change them they do have brownish stains on them. I'm hoping that's the urine coming out of the wood. I only see slight improvement after doing this for several days and am wondering how long this process should take and when I should just give up and call in the pros. How much of an improvement is it realistic for me to hope for? These stains are a couple of weeks old (that's how long we've had our puppy) but in some areas they are pretty dark. Thanks everybody! (08/25/2007) By Laura RE: Pet Urine Stains On Hardwood Floors Follow-up to my earlier post; my floors are looking MUCH better! The spots are still visible but nowhere near as bad as before. There are no more black spots, they're just a bit darker than the rest of the wood. I'm hoping that with more soaking they'll lighten up even more. At least if I re-do the floors some day they should turn out okay. So if you're trying the hydrogen peroxide, don't give up too soon. Good luck! (08/31/2007) By Laura RE: Pet Urine Stains On Hardwood Floors I have a large blackened area that I started using peroxide on yesterday. After about 36 hours, I can see a noticeable improvement. I have been using rags soaked in peroxide, covered by plastic wrap, and have used weights to hold them in place. (10/01/2007) By jan632 RE: Pet Urine Stains On Hardwood Floors Check out this link for great information on how to bleach stains on wood floors. http://www.oldhouseweb.com/stories/Detailed/214.shtml We found the solution here to a problem area on an oak floor with a very large blackened area due to an older dogs incontinence.(b)(/b) We did have to try most of the suggested treatments, til we found the one that worked for us. We did not want to stain the oak after sanding, just seal it with clear sealer. The treatment lifted the stain after multiple applications, and it looks beautiful. We found the Oxalic Acid mixture worked the best. (10/14/2007) By Peke Mamma RE: Pet Urine Stains On Hardwood Floors We just moved into an old house and the guy before us had a few indoor dogs and cats. When we pulled up the old nasty carpet, we found old nasty, worn out wood floors. He lived there for 12 years and just about every corner and surface of floor next to a wall is just saturated and stained from all those years of the animals peeing on the carpet and it soaking into the wood! Are these floors salvageable? Will peroxide work? It's almost the entire house that's affected. Any suggestions? Editor's Note: If you are going to re carpet, get some shellac like Bin or Kilz and paint the floors where it is discolored. It will seal in the smells. If you are trying to use the floors, you could try peroxide and see if it works to bring the floors somewhere back to the normal color. (10/31/2007) By kelly RE: Pet Urine Stains On Hardwood Floors Peroxide may do more damage than good for your floor and may actually bleach the area. I suggest that you use ammonia to strip the area and then follow up with Murphy's oil soap. If the smell is still there, then put a dish of vinegar in the room and this should absorb the smell in the room. (11/19/2007) By cantmissamy RE: Pet Urine Stains On Hardwood Floors I am so glad I found this website. I went out today and bought some peroxide and a spray bottle. I took up my carpets two days ago and found several pet stains left from the previous owners dog as well as my own, peeing on the same spot. The peroxide is doing the trick. Instead of covering it with a rag and plastic, I decided to cover it with Baking Soda. The baking soda does two things, it absorbs the moisture and stain and also gets rid of the odor. I have repeated this method about 4 times, first I spray the spot with peroxide and let it sit for about ten minutes, then cover the dampened area with a layer of baking soda. I wait another ten minutes then go back and gently scrape up the now almost solid baking soda. (09/07/2008) By Melissa RE: Pet Urine Stains On Hardwood Floors Thanks for all the feedback that everyone has posted. Will try out the ideas here very soon. (10/09/2008) By Kelly RE: Pet Urine Stains On Hardwood Floors There is no way to get the stains out. Sand your floors and stain it to a dark stain, and no one will be able to tell. Remember, a DARK STAIN. I re-do homes and that always works for me and looks really great. Good luck. (10/10/2008) By drew Report Spam or Abuse Request: Pet Urine Stains On Hardwood Floors Archived on 09/18/2006 Can anyone help me with cat urine stains and smell on hardwood floors? I plan on refinishing them so anything will help. Ginny from Quincy, MA Answers: RE: Pet Urine Stains On Hardwood Floors I tried the hydrogen peroxide and covered it with clear plastic wrap to hold the moisture in longer and when I woke up the next morning (approx. 9hrs later), almost all the dark black was gone. Now the stain is a faint green hue. Repeating to see if the rest will come out. (07/02/2006) By GRL RE: Pet Urine Stains On Hardwood Floors Try the urine remover here - http://www.furnitureclinic.co.uk/Urine_Remover.htm It will remove any staining and kill the odor (07/13/2006) By ben123 RE: Using bleach/water solution to damp mop old hardwood floor Can't you use a bleach/water solution to clean/sterilize old hardwood floors, before going over them with a dust mop and liquid gold? (07/14/2006) By Kia RE: Pet Urine Stains On Hardwood Floors We are getting ready to sell our condo, which has the "pre-finished" (meaning not enough varnish to matter) oak floors and we had a couple pet urine stains and a couple places where someone put a damp mop and left it (our son did it-not me!!). I tried just bleach and it helped some, but dark stains along the cracks still showed, so I tried one further step: I poured some hydrogen peroxide on the stain and let it sit for a couple minutes, then I poured full strength bleach over it, combining the two liquids. It REALLY foams! Be careful and don't wear good clothes, or they might get bleached! I left the foamy stuff on for about 5-10 minutes, then took my string mop and mopped most of it off, leaving it slightly damp. It looked better right away, but by the next morning (I did it in the evening), the stains were gone. I don't know if the combination is doing the job, or just one or the other worked, but I'm not complaining. A long time ago, I bought a commercial wood bleaching kit, and it was a solution of lye, which you sprayed on the wood to soften it, and then some strong peroxide, which caused MAJOR foaming, and did the bleaching. I thought that maybe this might work too, being two strong oxidizing solutions. (07/17/2006) By Susan H Report Spam or Abuse Request: Pet Urine Stains On Hardwood Floors Archived on 04/11/2005 Does anyone know how to remove set in pet stains (urine) from oak hardwood floors? The stains are dark, almost black. They are in a rental property and may be up to a year old. Thank you. Thriftyone Answers: Urine Stains - Hardwood floors 05/29/2005 While finding this site, checking with wood flooring stores, and the local PetSmart, We accidentally found a solution to the urine stain problem: Fill a squirt bottle with full strength Hydrogen Peroxide from the drug store. (The solution is about 3.5% out of the bottle). Squirt the stain and let rest for about 1 minute. You will now be able to easily scrape off the varnish. Apply the solution again liberally. Let it react for at least 2 hours. Depending on how old and how dense the stain, you may have to sand the spot and reapply the peroxide several times. Then it will be necessary of course to refinish the spot. We have just sanded and refinished a large hardwood floor that has been under a wall to wall carpet for 14 years. Imagine our delight to see blackened urine stains fade away with this process... By Mary from Denver - - 06/07/2005 they said PEROXIDE, not bleach. Peroxide bleaches your hair, but it's not CHLORINE bleach, which gets your whites clean. By la escritora - - 06/25/2005 I gave hydrogen peroxide a try and to my shock it works! It is slow going and I am not finished yet but so far have had good results. :-) By Autumn - - 10/29/2005 Tried the hydrogen peroxide. It works! I used it on oak cabinets that the little guy got into and peed in. By Ann Report Spam or Abuse