Pet Urine on Hard Wood Floors

Scully

I'm replacing the carpet in my newly acquired house, and I discovered that there is quite a bit of pet urine stains that seeped through the carpet and onto the underneath hardwood floors. I have a feeling that these urine stains have been here forever.

I still want carpeting in the room, but I don't know if I should replace the hardwood floors with something dirt cheap because the odor is very noticeable. What would you do?

oh'mike

Unless they are really awful---clean and then seal in the odor with a product like Kilz---

If it's beyond that---cut out the bad sections and add 3/4" plywood to replace the missing hardwood--

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h82diet

I ripped up my old carpeting only to find black dog urine stains all over the hardwood floors. I did want to keep the floors exposed so I rented a drum sander (keep moving or you'll make a trough) and, to my surprise, the black stain did not go down very far. I then sealed the floor and it looked great and the smell was gone. There was ONE spot where the black did go down far but I just accepted it. If you're going to recover with carpet you can do one of two things. You can use an odor-ban product (my chemist friend said it's meat tenderizer... the enzyme neutralizes the urine smell) or you can just seal the floor as was suggested above. Honestly, I had a rental where the woman was breeding dogs in the basement where she let them urinate on the concrete and I tried eveeything to get the odor out and the ONLY thing that worked was painting the floor and walls... Fast and cheap and it WORKS!

Scully

my floors in question have these dimensions:

18"x13"
12 1/2" x 12"
12 1/2" x 9 1/2"

if i replaced these floors with the cheapest stuff out there (because i still want carpet), what costs am i looking at?

oh'mike

Are they so bad that the must be totally removed?

If so--the subfloor under the hardwood might be all that is needed for carpet--or you could add a layer of new BC grade plywood over the top of the subfloor---(after the old hardwood is removed)

If you go the route of removing the old hardwood---let us know --someone here will help walk you through that process---

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Scully

hi oh'mike,

i don't believe the entire flooring needs replacing. like you said, i might need to replace sections of it with the stains.

if i go the route of replacing entire floor with BC grade plywood, how much would it cost for my rooms with these dimensions?

18"x13"
12 1/2" x 12"
12 1/2" x 9 1/2"

oh'mike

There are 32 square feet to a sheet(4x8)

Each sheet (1/2") costs about $20 ---plus the staples or nails or screws needed---

I haven't got the head for math this morning--but 10% waste is about normal--figure out the square foot and you can devide the cost of a sheet by 32--then multiply that times your sf add 10% and be close--

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RhodesHardwood

If you must use carpet, just prime the floor with killz prior to the installation of the carpet. However, I would sand and refinish the floors and stain them a dark color to hide the stains. This will be cheape then good carpet and installation costs.