EXTREME PET ODOR!! Please help!

[Jake Oreskovich]

Hello BP members. Recently I purchased a new rental that was distressed to say the least. I purchased the property from a landlord who was just burned out. His tenant went on a drug/drinking binge and he and locked himself as well several dogs and cats in the home. In the process of me evicting the tenant, he was thrown in jail. Needless to say his dogs and cats were still locked in the home. By the time animal control was able to remove the animals, we found that he had locked the animals in the basement and they had been urinating and pooping throughout the basement and other stray cats got into the home. 

Once I got everything out the smell was horrendous. I pulled ALL of the flooring, ALL of the subfloors etc... I had a crew go in and deep clean every piece of concrete in the basement with bleach and I sprayed every square inch of the wood (floor joists, window wells, etc...) that I could find with KILLZ before painting. What it seemed to do was mask the odor slightly but then it came right back about a month later. 

I've scheduled a vent cleaning company to come out and try to clean the vents and the furnace in the event the animals urinated in the duct work. Starting to get a little discouraged as I've exhausted everything I could think of. Has anyone ever dealt with anything like this or does anyone have any ideas. I've been a landlord, flipper, investor for over 10 years and I've never seen anything like this. I even cleaned the house with chemicals that I purchased from a commercial janitorial company that are supposedly used to clean bio-hazard (death sites)........still didn't do the trick. PLEASE HELP!!!

[Kevin Enderle]

First off, Kilz is a STAIN blocking primer. It has nothing to do with odor...or mold. What you need to do is attack the problem chemically. The biggest issue is porous materials like wood. For really difficult problems, we typically attack the issue with Chlorine Dioxide, a non reactive, ultra strong oxidizer. It can be put though the structure as a gas or made into a liquid and sprayed directly on. It has proven highly effective against cigarettes, pet odors, sewage, and Mold VOCs. That is often followed up by a specialty product designed specifically for pet urine that is fogged on. 

In extreme cases, heat can actually be your friend. Heat drives out VOC's. We will bring in a big structural heater. 

Next, you want an actual ENCAPSULANT product for any remaining wood structure, not Kilz. Something designed to encapsulate fire damaged materials is ideal.

On concrete, hire in a professional power washing or steam cleaning company with a vacuum recovery surface cleaning system...or see if a steam carpet cleaning company would be willing to do the concrete. An application of Sodium Percarbonate PerOxyhydrate will help neutralize the uric acid and the heat will open up the pores of the concrete with the extraction pulling the materials out. I'd avoid bleach as you can start to make some pretty toxic gas depending on the concentrations of acids. Once the floor is clean, follow by an application of a vapor sealant product specifically for concrete (we sell this)  and an epoxy concrete floor coating. 

Note, I use most of these products commercially and also sell most of these products direct to consumers,  so if you need something, don't hesitate to ask.