Cat pee leaves massive damage

[Jean Moreau]

I really don't know what to do in this situation, and I need some help. This is my first property, and I use a property management company.

This building is an old (1920ish) 6 unit multifamily. It's C class probably. I paid 165k.

We had one tenant in a second floor 3 br (smallest 3 br imaginable) 750 a month. This tenant had a government voucher, kind of like section 8. Anyway apparently there were some mental issues and this person ended up having 30+ cats in the apartment.

To get the cat pee out I got a quote for 10k to rip out the floors and what not, and if the smell lingers, possibly 7k more. And of course insurance is covering nothing.

So I'm thinking, if I spend 17k on rehabs, how many years is it going to take to make that back? Especially considering the high vacancy rate for this place. Is it even worth it to fix? Should I leave that unit condemned forever? The other 5 units are okay and the smell hasn't gotten to the other units, I'm told.

[Marcus Auerbach]

@Jean Moreau you are being ripped off. Given the age of the building you probably have oak floors over a subfloor. Removing the hardwood floor should not be more than a couple days and $25 per hour. 

I agree with John, first step would be sand and refinish (oil based, not water based), if that does not take care of it paint with oil based primer and install LVP over it.

My first step is usually to ozone a house. I bought an ozone generator years ago and we use it quite a bit to delete any organic smells. I bought a medium size unit, had I know it worked so well I would have bought a commercial unit. Find someone who will rent it, my home insoector has commercial units and charges $300 for a treatment with success guarantee.