Getting out dog urine smell from red oak flooring ?

[Todd Burch]

The house I am redoing has fairly nice red oak floors. House was built in 1960 and the floors have never been refinished. I bought the house this last January as a foreclosure.

Previous owner had a dog or two that went pee a lot in the house. Two particular areas, in the dining room no less, have been, in the past, quite saturated.

Under the red oak there is 3/4" pine 1X8 shiplap. Under that, joists and beams and piers, and then dirt in the crawlspace.

After we gutted the house, the mold and it's smells have gone away completely, but now that the weather is starting to warm up, when I go into the house in the late afternoon, I can still smell the urine quite well. (House is still down to the studs in the interior, but the plumbing has been completed, along with the HVAC, and the electric and siding will commence shortly.)

I've read on the 'net some about this, and most people seem to be concerned with pet stains on the floor. I really don't care about the stains, since I'll be refinishing anyway, but I do care 100% about the lingering odor.

I know red oak is porous, so I'm certain the urine fully permeated both the red oak and sub floor. I'm cautious to assume that merely refinishing the floors will guarantee the smell will go away (or be locked in).

Anyone ever go through this? If so, what did you do to fully remedy it? One area is probably 3' x 3', while the other might be 5' x 6'. These are both in a dining room (opposite corners) that is 12' x 13.5'.

Thanks, Todd

[Curt Harms]

Supposedly some of the products that are enzyme based work quite well to get rid of the smell. No experience though. Treat, seal with shellac then finish?

[Mel Fulks]

De waxed shellac will stop it since you don't care about the look.We had some neighbors with the same situation and they coated all the black spots with the
BIN white pigmented shellac and then painted.

[Jim Matthews]

Petzyme works on porous carpet, but may not penetrate wood.
I've used it to stop my now two year old dog from marking.

I can't say if its effective on older stains.

http://www.amazon.com/s/?ie=UTF8&keywords=petzyme&tag=googhydr-20&index=aps&hvadid=30894767421&hvpos=1t1&hvexid=&hvnetw=g&hvrand=1641050212191566801&hvpone=&hvptwo=&hvqmt=e&hvdev=c&ref=pd_sl_6pzwltnmek_e


It does have an odor of its own.
Can't hurt to try it.

[Todd Burch]

I think I wasn't clear. I don't (I don't think I) have any stains. I don't that I can tell. There are certainly no black spots. That's why I didn't care about removing a stain - I don't see any. But, the "area" is stinky. And, while my floor still has remnants of the original 54-year old finish on it, the color mostly remains. It's a red/brown color. So, maybe I'm just not seeing any stains right now.

As far as shellac goes, yes, that is a great finish for sealing out stains from bleeding through, but I'm not sure how just sealing a portion of the floor would affect the new stain application between the sealed and unsealed portions, but I know it would affect how the stain is absorbed. I'm not too keen on shellacking 800+ sf of floor either.

I want to go back with a stain and clear finish. The previous owner had painted some portions of the floor, but we've determined that was because they were hiding the water damage from a leaky bathtub.

I'm leaning towards cutting out the stinky areas, bleaching the subfloor and having the flooring guy replace the boards I remove. That is, unless I can get a solid "To remove the smell, do this…." type of solution.

[paul cottingham]

I used natures miracle when my aging kitties had a few accidents. It worked great. I can't imagine that the dog product wouldn't be as good.

[Judson Green]

Shellac can also be used to keep the stink in, meaning you won't smell it. You could use it on your subfloor. I'd be very liberal with it.

[Rich Engelhardt]

I'm leaning towards cutting out the stinky areas, bleaching the subfloor and having the flooring guy replace the boards I remove. That is, unless I can get a solid "To remove the smell, do this…." type of solution.
We paid a "surprise" visit to a tenant and walked in to find this.
She was behind in her rent and informed us she was not going to pay up because she needed the money for a down payment on a house.
(long, long, long, story and it involves our mistake of renting to a relative and trying to "be nice".)

Anyhow - to repair this ( the dining room where the dog cage is located), I had to tear up all the old damaged boards, bleach and clean the sub floor, then prime the sub floor with B*I*N. I gave the sub floor three coats of B*I*N.
The other picture, of the black spot, was at located just inside the front door.
Obviously, the poor dog tried to hold it until it could go out - but - no one cared and the dog did what it had to do.

For that area, and for the rest of the ~ 800 sq. feet of floors, I rented a U-Sand from Home Depot and sanded the floors down to bare wood.
Next step, I applied a coat of MinWax oil based stain.
I let that dry for 24 hours, then applied three coats of Varathane oil based polyurethane floor finish.
The picture of the living room shows the front door area.
It looks much better in person than the picture does. It's nearly impossible to tell the floor was damaged once there's furniture in the room and it's not so stark.


An oil based product will seal in mild pet odors.
If there's not much in the way of visual signs, then an oil based stain/top coat is probably all you need.

However - if you decide to go with a water borne poly for the floor finish, then you'll have to give it a generous coat of Zinsser Seal coat.
Flood the surface with the Seal Coat so it seeps down in between the cracks in the floor.

Personally, I like to use two coats of Seal Coat - sanding it after the second coat with a ROS and 220 grit paper.
I find it easier to sand the floor smooth than it is trying to brush or roll a smooth coat of Seal Coat on.
Seal Coat is so thin and dries so fast it's not a lot of fun doing a large surface like a floor.

After I'd given the floors shown three coats of oil based Varathane, there was no odor left in the house.
Well - there was the basement, but, once that was dealt with the house was odor free.
They had kept one of the dogs in the basement and seldom if ever took it outside.

I had to give the basement floor a good coat of B*I*N to seal in the smell and the stains.
Then I gave it a couple coats of latex floor paint.

After all that - the house was 100% odor free - even when left closed up for a week in the Summer heat (90* w/high humidity).

[Chuck Wintle]

The house I am redoing has fairly nice red oak floors. House was built in 1960 and the floors have never been refinished. I bought the house this last January as a foreclosure.

Previous owner had a dog or two that went pee a lot in the house. Two particular areas, in the dining room no less, have been, in the past, quite saturated.

Under the red oak there is 3/4" pine 1X8 shiplap. Under that, joists and beams and piers, and then dirt in the crawlspace.

After we gutted the house, the mold and it's smells have gone away completely, but now that the weather is starting to warm up, when I go into the house in the late afternoon, I can still smell the urine quite well. (House is still down to the studs in the interior, but the plumbing has been completed, along with the HVAC, and the electric and siding will commence shortly.)

I've read on the 'net some about this, and most people seem to be concerned with pet stains on the floor. I really don't care about the stains, since I'll be refinishing anyway, but I do care 100% about the lingering odor.

I know red oak is porous, so I'm certain the urine fully permeated both the red oak and sub floor. I'm cautious to assume that merely refinishing the floors will guarantee the smell will go away (or be locked in).

Anyone ever go through this? If so, what did you do to fully remedy it? One area is probably 3' x 3', while the other might be 5' x 6'. These are both in a dining room (opposite corners) that is 12' x 13.5'.

Thanks, Todd
i know that activates charcoal is very good at absorbing odors...what if you spread a layer of it over the smelly areas and leave it for a week or so?

[John D Watson]

There are a number of products on the shelf these days that iliminate any oder from anything. Odor Gone, Get the Odor out, and Natures Miracle are just the ones I can name. As for stains in wood, any cleaner containing Oxalic acid will clear up most stains . Some stains require multiple applications, yet I have not had it fail yet. For small jobs I just use deck cleaner from the BORG. Make sure it contains Oxalic Acid. While your out finding cleaner throw a box of baking soda on the area as a pretreatment for removing the smell. It does a fair job at starting the removal proccess. Vacuum prior to cleaning.

[Jason Roehl]

Don't be afraid to shellac a whole floor. It's S.O.P. when I refinish a hardwood floor--using SealCoat without thinning it (it's a 2-lb cut out of the can, which I think is about like water). Just get an applicator pad for solvent finishes and "dip and scrub" to apply. You don't even have to go with the grain, but don't leave a heavy area. I've done plenty of floors where I could smell pet urine very strongly as I was sanding, but couldn't smell anything but finish when I was done.

[Brian Ashton]

we used to have a cat that would pee in the same spot all the time. I would pour vinegar on the area. I'd put enough on to soak into the carpet, underlay and the ply. Worked very well at getting rid of smells very quickly.

However. Not tried it but acidic fluids might react with the oak... Put a bit on a piece and see what happens.