How to Remove the Smell of Pet Urine from your Home

There’s nothing worse than smelling the sharp ammonia smell of pet pee in your home, or worse, to find your foot wet from an unexpected puddle.

Whether you’re a feline or canine parent, your dog or cat is bound to occasionally have an accident (or two) in your home, leaving your carpets and upholstery covered in urine.

This guide will help you become a stain and smell removal expert by providing you with tips and tricks to save your upholstery, avoid stress, and even prevent pee accidents in the future.

Have you been struggling to remove the ammonia-scented pee stains from your carpet and upholstery? It can sometimes seem impossible to remove but with a few tricks, you’ll see that it’s easy to revive your homeware and have it looking fresh again.

Once you’ve found the source of your smell it’s best to tackle that puppy pee as soon as possible. This will ensure that the stain doesn’t set, linger, or potentially becoming harder to remove.

To remove fresh urine from your carpet you’ll need the following:

- Scott^® Paper Towels

- Cleaning solution. This can vary depending on whether you’re using a natural alternative that could be made from pantry items, or a store-bought cleaner. You can also use natural cleaner made from your pantry such as with baking soda, vinegar, and water.

- Additionally, your products should all are pet safe.

- A vacuum

Step 1: Use fast-absorbing paper towels to blot the pee-soaked area. Make sure to blot not rub as this will only make the carpet absorb more urine. It’s important to keep replacing the paper towel until barely any urine appears while blotting.

Step 2: Mix equal parts water and vinegar and apply this to the carpet. Scrub this solution vigorously into your carpet, making sure it soaks the pee-stained area completely. Allow this solution to soak in your carpet for at least 5-10 minutes. This solution will work wonders to remove the urine and any accompanying odor from your carpet.

Step 3: While the affected area on your carpet is still wet, sprinkle baking soda onto it as well as a little more of your vinegar and water solution. When you see the fizzing, you know it's working. While this solution is fizzing be sure to scrub the baking soda and the vinegar solution deep into the fibers of your carpet.

This will allow it to thoroughly penetrate your carpet, lifting the odor and stain. You want to leave this solution on your carpet until it's completely dry.

Step 4: Once your baking soda, vinegar, and water solution has dried into your carpet get out your vacuum and simply vacuum the stain and its odor away.

Pro tip 1: Avoid using steam cleaners on pet urine stains. The heat from the steam cleaner can cause the proteins in the urine to bond to the fibers in the carpet making it almost permanent.

If you’re tackling urine that has had time to set, then it might be time to bust out the stronger stuff. While you can use baking soda, store-bought cleaners might contain ingredients that work harder to remove urine smell from your carpet. Usually, these cleaners come in two categories:

- Enzymatic cleaners. Perfect for eliminating odor, enzymatic cleaners work by breaking down the proteins in pet urine into smaller molecules. This allows all odor-causing enzymes to be destroyed, leaving your carpet smelling as good as new.

- Carpet cleaners. These products usually come with odor and stain removal properties making it easier to remove from your carpet.

Just as with the previous method, when cleaning dried in pee the process is straightforward.

Step 1: Remove any solids that might exist in the stain, although this would mostly only happen if your pet has pooped too.

Step 2: Apply your cleaning solution of choice to the stain. Once applied, let the solution absorb and soak into the stain, giving it maximum time to break down the compounds in the urine and stain.

Step 3: After at least 15 minutes, soak up as much of the solution as possible with a paper towel and let dry.

Pro tip 2: If vinegar doesn’t seem to be working on your stain, you can up the ante by using hydrogen peroxide. By combining ¼ cup of 3% hydrogen peroxide with your 1:1 combination of vinegar and water (1 cup vinegar + 1 cup of water) you’ll create an even more powerful stain and odor-removing cleaner. Be sure to test this before using it in case of discoloration.

Your precious pets' pee can cause actual damage to your hardwood flooring but through fast action, you can save your floors from permanent damage.

While dog pee won’t damage the structural strength of your hardwood floors, it can cause damage to the subflooring underneath as well as discoloration of the wood. Unfortunately, whether it's sealed or not, pet pee can also damage the polyurethane layer of your hardwood flooring, resulting in expensive repairs for you.

To save your hardwood floor, act fast using the method below:

Step 1: Once you’ve cleaned up the urine. Spray 3% hydrogen peroxide on the area. Additionally, you also want to use a clean cloth sprayed with hydrogen peroxide to cover the stained area you initially sprayed.

Step 2: Let this sit for at least 15 minutes. If your stain or smell is really bad then allowing it to soak will help remove it. Once the smell and stains are gone you can remove the cloth.

Step 3: Clean your floor by blotting or dabbing the spot dry of all hydrogen peroxide. Once the area is dry you can clean your floor like you normally would. Make sure that all smell is removed to prevent your pet from urinating on the spot again.

If you’re afraid of the hydrogen peroxide potentially bleaching your floor then using the baking soda and vinegar solution mentioned earlier is also an appropriate cleaning option.

As mentioned earlier, when trying to remove pet urine odor from your carpeting and upholstery you want to use a product that’s going to break down the proteins in the urine.

Doing so is important as any remaining scent might draw your pet to urinate on the same spot repeatedly in the future. By using any of the cleaning solutions suggested earlier you’ll be able to successfully break down the proteins in the urine, allowing you to lift the odor from your floors, carpets, and furniture.

When it comes to keeping your furniture and flooring pristine one of the best approaches is prevention. To prevent your pets from staining your home in the future you might want to implement some of these tips.

- Use Scott^® Pet Dog Pads. Perfect for every room in your home, our fast-absorbing advanced dog pads provides you with 16 hours of absorbency power and a soft, inviting place for your pet to urinate. Our leak lock technology paired with the training scent and odor control technology make this the perfect way to protect your home and keep it pee-free.

- Consistently potty train your puppy. Consistency is key when it comes to having your pet adopt any habit. Consistently potty training your dog or puppy to urinate in the designated spots will help create a distinction between the appropriate places to pee in your home.

- Visit the vet. If you’ve been regularly potty training your pet and still have regular accidents around the house. This will help to rule out any medical issues.

With a few simple tricks and tools up your sleeve, you can make your home a pet-pee-free zone. Protect your furniture and flooring with these simple tricks while amplifying your game with Scott^® Pet Guard Dog Pads or the Scott^® Pet Guard Advanced Dog Pads.