Went to look at giving a quote today on a remodeling job. Most of the stuff was of the routine variety. However, the eighty something year old lady who lived there passed on and left the home to a distant relative out of state who now wants to put it on the market. Here is the problem. She kept 32 cats (27 live ones) in a back bedroom where she must have just opened the door and threw in food and water. When you first go into the house you can smell “cat” but when you open that back bedroom door the stech literally makes your eyes water and stomach churn (the cats are gone, by the way). I’ve deal with small cat or dog stained areas before with vinegar and then Kilz which seemed to work quite well. I’ve never dealt with a problem like this. Are we talking complete gutting all way down to the floor joist, wall studs and ceiling rafters in that room? It’s a small 3 bedroom rancher with full basement.
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Ozone generator plus everything else you can throw at it, then new paint all over. Dont close the windows.
I've never had to clean up after so many cats, but my instinct tells me that a complete gut of the room right down to the framing is required, and possibly more, depending on the condition of the floor joists.
"I am the master of my fate, I am the captain of my soul." Invictus, by Henley.
I'd budget replacing the joists also. That many cats is a lot of urine soaking thru into the joists. (had a friend deal with this one time)
Dog pee can be neutralized, but cat pee is really tough to and I have been told that it is easier to remove and replace.
Definitely ozone generator as well as already suggested.
Good Luck and make no promises
My parents bought a farmhouse similarly inhabited. (Plus they found a dead mouse between two of the 10 layers of linoleum in the kitchen.) They actually didn't gut the downstairs where the cats were kept, but of course redid all the floors. I don't recall that there was any noticeable cat odor remaining, though I'm sure there was a little.
Please report back on this issue if you have any success. My experience has been that if cat urine gets into the framing lumber then everything must go. It's nasty stuff that stinks for a long time. Demo time.
Thanks,
Scott.
Always remember those first immortal words that Adam said to Eve, “You’d better stand back, I don’t know how big this thing’s going to get.”
Having been in a similar situation, you really need to rip up the floor and subfloor as well as about the first 18-24" on the walls as they will not only squirt on the floor, but males will also mark the walls. Then wash the walls/ceiling down with apple cider vinegarIf you don't, any other cat entering the house will assume that room is the litter box. No matter how pee-free you think it is, close the door and windows (but let the sun get in) and check back in a couple days. If it still stinks scrub with more vinegar. Cat pee is very stubborn.Jason
Shellac does a pretty good job of sealing in smells. Used after a house fire to cover the smoke smell. I'd spray the spray the joists down after you got the subfloor out, with Duron T3, Zinser tinted shellac (forget what they call theirs), or even straight up nontinted shellac.
Nature's Miracle is the best stuff I have found for neutralizing the smell of cat pee. Far better than vinegar.
Good luck with a truly nasty task.
I would like to add one more thought to getting rid of the odor.
Any number of cleaning companies specializing in dealing with the janitorial trade sell enzyme solutions that actually degrade the urine and other organics. They are very safe to handle. You can also get smaller quantities from rug dealers (pets pee on the Persians!), but you will need industrial quantities.
Simply SATURATE the area with the solution. No need to rinse.
That said, it will still be less work to rip up the flooring. But if joists and studs are stinky, this will help.
Enzyme sprays specially formulated to get rid of cat urine are available at most pet stores They really work if you can find where it is and apply it directly.
Careful with the ozone generator. Ozone is a carcinogen. Our Workers Compensation Board won't let anyone enter a room where one has been used for a full hour to allow it to dissipate.
Thanks to all who replied. The HO has agreed to a complete tear down of the room, except for the ceiling. My only concern would be the subfloor left under the bottom plate. However, a liberal dose of cat urine disolver sprayed from the bottom and side should do it. I'm going to replace the floor joist and do one of the recomended varish/sealers on the studs in the walls.I'll let everyone know who it turns out. Thanks again....
Good luck. We look forward to the updates I'm sure you will be providing.
The odor treatment and sealing with white pigmented shellac should work.
"What's an Arkansas flush?......It's a small revolver and any five cards."
I'm surprised no one has yet mentioned the thread by madmadscientist regarding the house he recently bought...they had to deal with dead rats in the walls, and came up with some good solutions for getting rid of the smell.
http://forums.taunton.com/n/mb/message.asp?webtag=tp-breaktime&msg=86536.1
Also, check out their house blog at http://www.chezneumansky.blogspot.com/
my ears are burning my ears are burning,
I don't know how diffent cat urine is from rat urine but I do know that cat urine has a higher amonia content than most. I have used very successfully the natures miracle made for cats. You have to buy it by the gallon and soak everything with it a couple of times.
We went with a cleaning solution suggested here by another poster. Its 3 parts water, one part bleach and half part white vinegar with a good spash of pinesol. This solution is very cheap compared to the natures miracle and seemed to work fine. For the really soaked framing it took 2-3 good soakings with the stuff to clean it up. Though now I am noticing that some of the framing in the attic which didn't smell in march is smelling in July-when the wood gets hot it must be boiling it out of the wood. Buy a cheap hand pump garden sprayer and wear goggles and a real vapor respirator and a tyvek jumpsuit or some clothes that you don't care about. Cover up well as if this stuff gets on your skin you'll get a rash/chemical burn.
One good thing that I noticed about using the home-made solution is that it kinda foams up when its oxidizing the urine. So you can spray an area till it stops foaming and you should be done.
Daniel Neumansky
Restoring our second Victorian home this time in Alamdea CA. Check out the blog http://www.chezneumansky.blogspot.com/
Oakland CA
Crazy Homeowner-Victorian Restorer
Thanks, that is the kind of info I was looking for. My big fear is that once everything is cleaned, sealed, or replaced there may be some lingering smell that comes back this winter with the house closed up and the heater running. I put an addendum to my contract stating as such and the HO was fine with it.
Good replies.I bought an apartment in NYC where the tenant had holed up for several years with his pack of cats.Started with bleach and the enzyme-based products. Lots of it, several flooding and drying cycles. Also had an O3 generator. Worked well, but not well enough.Ended up having to tear out the flooring and repeating the bleach/enzyme treatment, then used an encapsulant and refloored.On the walls I removed the plaster below chair rail height, did the same treatment to the wall structure, then I added wainscotting to disguise the new work. No odor.Mongo
Ozone will also attack rubber and some other things and oxidize them. As mentioned, it is not at all good for your lungs.
Edit--sorry, should have posted this to the original poster!
Edited 7/26/2007 7:24 pm ET by Danno
I had the exact same experience once years ago, in fact I think I posted the story here once. Other contractors would not even enter the house, there were over 65 cats and most of them were diseased. The old lady finally died about a year after I was there, a couple bought the house and had it completely razed. Too bad because it was very old, about 275 years.
Indeed the stench was unbelievable. I'm in complete sympathy.
We have two cats that like to piss all over new pieces of furniture. They pretty much ruined a couch we bought, but my wife found something at the PetSmart that worked pretty well at getting the smell out. Unfortunately, she can't remember the name, but she thinks it was a white spray bottle with red letters. It will take multiple applications, however, and is likely to be expensive for this job.
My wife also recommends that you talk with a vet, since this is a fairly common complaint.
It's probably natures miracle. Most pet stores have that or a similar product.
For something a severe as what you describe, I would talk to the local cleaning companies or their suppliers for something. Every locale has companies that clean up hommicides, untimely deaths were the person is not found for weeks or months, etc. They deal with the most vile odors and filth and use special products that degrade and break down what causes the odors. The products will probably cost more than something from the pet store but it will be stronger and definitely work. If it were small spots in an area, then the pet store stuff would be fine.