Cat Urine Smell that refused to die

[Kenneth LaVoie]

We've always been able to get rid of ANY odor, eventually, no matter how bad, even if it meant refinishing floors with six coats of poly with vinyl flooring over it! But we have a 2 BR unit that some mentally ill people lived in before we bought the building. They had 5 cats. 

Here's what we ALREADY DID:

1. 2 hardwood floors, resanded, then before the 3 coats of poly were added, I brought in a backpack sprayer with bleach water. Then another with 2 different industrial odor removing agents (like odo ban and natures miracle I think). 

2. Sprayed 2-3 times with high volume backpack sprayer (removed baseboard covers and literally pressure sprayed each fin so it gleamed) Sprayed literally every crack and crevice with about every odor eliminating chemical known to man. 

3. Every surface, odor blocking primer, then 2 coats. 2 floors that had carpet, stripped down to wood floor, soaked like #1, 3-4 coats poly, luxury plank vinyl over that. 

4. 12-24 hours ozone machine

Still can smell it, especially on humid days. Not overwhelming any more, but unmistakable. Because cat urine is organic, will there come a day when it will finally go away on its own? There's not much left for us to do, and we've already put 16K into the apartment in renovations (4K was cleaning, disposal, and odor mitigation, believe it or not!)

Thanks for any tips, and quips and jokes welcome as well, haha!

[Gabe Waldrep]

I have had some experience with properties similar to this one. #3 - we tried a similar treatment on the carpeted ares but ended up having to replace the wood/subfloor after removing the carpet.

#2 - the problem with baseboards, trim, and sheetrock is they are porous. So even though you pressure washed them until they gleamed, it doesn't remove the urine that soaked into the wood. You may need to replace all of the baseboards. And we had to cut the sheetrock about twelve inches from the floor and replace it because the sheetrock had soaked up the urine. You can use Kilz on wood and sheetrock, but it will not solve the issue on heavily-soaked areas that have been exposed to the urine over several years. I know you have already put in a large sum of money on cleaning and renovations, but this is something to consider.

Also, consider having a service clean the ductwork and whatever HVAC system you might have. That smell can soak into these areas as well. 

What about doors? Often the bottoms of interior doors have some buildup as well. 

No jokes here. Cat urine is the worst, especially when it has been building up over the course of several years. Good luck to you sir.