Getting urine smell out of hardwoods?

Question

Tenant has allowed 4 (non approved) dogs to pee all over hardwoods in house. Tenant is leaving soon and so I am looking for advice on how best to get the smell out of the hardwoods. It is overwhelming smell from the door. I haven’t been able to inspect it enough yet to tell if there is water damage also. Am I going to have to rip the floors out?

Cristin Andrews · Answer

@Joe Abughazaleh thank you for your response. I’m really not sure if they are real wood or not as the house was bought with them already installed and I don’t know what to look for to tell. Will have to check into that.

Joe Abughazaleh · Answer

@Cristin Andrews sorry to hear you're going to have to deal with this. I think it's going to depend on a few things such as- what type of hardwood floors you have if its laminate or real wood, age of floors. It's possible the wood has absorbed the urine. If its real wood you might be able to sand down and refinish. If its really bad I would consider take the floors out and they have a Kilz odor blocker you can apply to the sub floor if its plywood these floors are on. Document all you're costs so you can keep the deposit hopefully that'll help with costs and for any future tenants I always tell them there will be quarterly inspections of the home. Its some what of a deterrent I know its impossible to control or predict what they'll do but I think it helps.

Best of luck.

-Joe