ReNe: pet pee is forever

Interestingly, it has only been 2 weeks since our last post. It felt much longer because we were so busy/tired. The last post was on 24th May, and that was when we started to move into our new place. Actually, by that weekend, we were already tired because we were painting the previous weekend -- recall the previous post where we showed the 'before' shots of the cave-like apartment. After a fresh lick of paint, it looks much better now.

We shampooed the carpet on 24th May; our initial plan was to clean the place up over the weekend, give the carpet a couple of days to dry completely and then move ourselves in on Tuesday (because that's when the internet connection would be up). Easy right?

Well, there's a reason why we've been 'net incognito' for the past 2 weeks, and it can be summed as as: dog pee + carpet. In other words, one of the previous tenants had a pet (the building maintenance guy told us it was a dog) and it peed everywhere. On the stairs and all over the stairs, corner of stairs and closet, by the window, under the ladder, middle of the room, by the loft post... what the fark?!

We started to suspect something was wrong when the carpet started to stink after getting shamopooed. At first we thought maybe it was because of the wet carpet or that because we didn't get the carpet completely clean (the water coming up was still brownish) but since the shampooer (Rug-Doctor) was rented by the day, we had to return it. However, even after the carpet dried, the sharp smell of animal pee still lingered, and having owned pets before, we know what animal pee smells like.

Later, while researching online, we realized that this is a common situation -- new tenant moves in, shampoos the carpet and in doing so, removes the dust and febreeze and what-not that had been sitting on top of the stain(s) and suppressing the odors, re-wets the stains and brings the stains back up from the carpet padding back up to the carpet fibers. No wonder we did not smell it when we first took a look at this place. And no wonder there was a bottle of pet febreeze and a huge bottle of clorox under the sink.


We tried baking soda (it turned yellow; see above!) and zeolite powder -- did not work. But then, these are simply odor-lifters. We also tried hydrogen peroxide. We also sprayed on an enzyme-based solution meant especially for pet urine, which is supposed to work as a pre-treatment before shampooing again. Then last weekend, we rented the Rug-Doctor and spent the entire day shampooing the carpet, again. This time we also rented the wand (upholstery attachment) and we could see through the clear plastic that the water coming up was yellow (see the photo below)!


By the time we returned the Rug-Doctor, we were still not convinced that the carpet was fully clean but we were hopeful that the smell would improve. We were fully prepared to walk around the carpet in slippers if it meant that the smell is gone, because the carpet is so old that even the parts that do not stink of pee don't feel nice; the fibers feel matted and worn.

The smell was worse after that.

We were pretty pissed by then. Waking up everyday to a noxious smell and basically living in a litter box does amazing things to your mood. I've always thought that carpeting is a hugely bad idea in a house because it's effing difficult to keep clean. Yeah, warm and all but I'd rather wear slippers in winter. But maybe I was biased because I grew up in a tropical climate where a carpet = mold trap, and a cool (temperature-wise) floor is desirable. I remember lying on a cold marble floor as a kid during hot days. Still, there must be a good reason why carpets are so popular here, right? I just haven't found it yet.

Now I'm utterly convinced that carpets, especially wall-to-wall carpeting, is a terrible idea, even if you do not own pets. More so if you do have pets or children.

We did yet more research online, and came to the conclusion that many others did -- dog/cat pee is forever. Sure, some say you can remove it if it's a small spot and if you get to it fast enough (before it has soaked through the carpet fibers down to the padding, or even the floorboards). But with old stains like these, there's no other solution that to rip out the carpet, sand down the floorboards and seal the floorboards with polyurethane varnish.

And that's what we did.

It was surprisingly easy.

Underneath the carpet, it was truly disgusting. Yellow, brown and even black spots everywhere. The smells released were just nauseating -- flies were actually coming in through the window and buzzing around the stained areas.

The parts near the steps (both left and right) stank very badly, and here's why. Notice the yellow stains on the carpet padding.

This is one of the worse spots. A different kind of smell, not as pungent, but it attracted more flies than the yellow spots.

We showed the landlord some of the above photos and we called him over to smell it for himself. He agreed that the carpet should be changed and agreed to pay for a new floor. However, since it would take weeks for any contractor to be able to come down and install a new floor, Mike's gonna do it himself, tomorrow. The new laminate planks have already been delivered and are now sitting beside me, acclimatizing to the room's temperature and humidity. The landlord should be happy -- the labor costs saved constitutes more than half of the costs of ripping out the old and installing a new floor.

So, I was joking that Mike has leveled up his DIY skills. In our first apartment, we painted the walls ourselves and he installed all furniture and shelves. In our second apartment, Mike further learnt how to drill into reinforced concrete. He also installed all the kitchen cabinets and hob and hood by himself. Now he has learnt how to rip out carpeting, and tomorrow he will learn how to install laminate flooring. Next, he should learn how to install a toilet flush system because our current one is held together with dental floss (and that's another story).

The take-home lessons? Carpeting is a bad idea. Pet pee is forever.

This is what the place looks like right now; somewhat warehouse-shabby-chic. The shiny parts are where he painted the polyurethane varnish in an attempt to entomb the stench. Disgustingly enough, if you lean in close, you can still make out the smell despite 3 coats of varnish.