shitty shit smell

Tube

So my dogs routinely shit and piss on an area of carpet in my office that I am utterly unable to protect them on due to the door not closing. This has left an area of stain that no longer dries. It kind of smelled bad. So I got some carpet cleaner and SCRUB SCRUB SCRUBBED.

It now smells worse. I have tried three different cleaning things. What now.

Etch

Maybe renting a steam cleaner could help. I know that it's pretty cheap to get one for a day from the store I work at, and if it doesn't work, well you can always clean the rest of your carpets.

mastman

potty train your dogs

brandotheninjamaster

I said this before on another thread, but Wal-Mart sells this power carpet deodorizer. Stuff is awesome. sprinkle on carpet and vacuum it up. You got like 3 - 4 hours of freshness.

Improvolone

Might need to pull up the carpet and clean the padding it's on, maybe even cut the padding out and replace it.

Tube

Aww weak. That's going to be a complete nightmare to do, I'll have to move the desk and stuff.

Zombot

I second the steam cleaner or even a carpet washer.
We had problems with the carpet smelling like dog until we got a carpet washer.

Improvolone

If it's under the desk, then cutting the carpet won't look god awful. Middle of the room, different story. Cut carpet can be easily blended back into the original, but yea, it's obnoxious.

FF

Depending on the color of the carpet, I'd just bleach the hell out of it for a little temporary relief. But, I'd still go with the steam/carpet cleaning. Barring that, yep, replacement.

And maybe fix the door if it can be fixed.

Improvolone

You can try to get a doggy gate and try to block the area off, assuming it's under your desk like I think it is.

Ardor

For help with the immediate odor, you might try looking for an odor counteractant if they have that kind of product available in the cleaning section of whatever retail stores are in your area. Deodorizers may help if you can't find the counteractants.

This will probably help with the smell, but the area will need to be cleaned for a longer term or permanent effect, which may involve the carpet removal as mentioned above.

Trowizilla

Have you used an enzyme cleaner? Nature's Miracle is the one I've seen used to great effect; it pretty much kills the stuff causing the smell. The trick is to really saturate the peed-on spot, enough to get to the padding underneath the carpet (unfortunately, you may have to rip the carpet some to do this.)

Also, seconding the doggy gate idea. If you put it on the door and just keep them out of the room until you kill the smell, hopefully they'll stop thinking of that spot as a good place to do their business.

EggyToast

You will probably never get the smell out, at this point.

My house had carpet in it, it was dirty and needed to be replaced but it wasn't bad. Just cheap. We ripped it up because we wanted hardwood floors (we were going to lay something down, but ended up just digging deeper until we got to the original, 120 yr old floors and refinished them) and even though there weren't any pee spots on the carpet... there were definitely pee-spots on the underside of the carpet.

And worse, that little foam pad had disintegrated in 2 spots, which we assume was from their dog peeing there a few times repeatedly.

They did a good job of cleaning the surface, but it's a major problem with carpet -- it hides stains and other marks. Technically, carpet should be replaced every 5 years or so, but most people install it as a cheap option, and just because 5 years go by doesn't make those people any less cheap. It should be replaced that often because smells, stains, and other things accumulate in it -- and you *can't* clean it well, because it's attached to the floor. Think of it like a pair of pants -- you spill some food on your pants, but the only way you could clean it would be to lay it out tight on a table, then apply chemicals to only 1 side. Or let water soak in (on one side only) and then suck that water out, and repeat until the pants are "clean." What a pain. And you know they wouldn't really be clean because you could only wash one side.

Deodorize the room, but the bigger problem is that if you replace the carpet it's only going to address the smell, not the fact that the dogs are urinating on the carpet. It's useless if you just put down new carpet and they pee on it again.

Gihgehls

Definintely go for the enzymatic cleaners, and let that shit soak in real nice. Since you don't seem to care about the actual carpet, a whole heap of bleach would probably work too.

Also I think that the infracted guy had pretty good advice. Dogs should not routinely be shitting and pissing anywhere that isn't outside.

Mr. H.G. Blob

mastman wrote: »

potty train your dogs

haha, infracted for this? sounds like good advice to me.

Falx

Except he wasn't asking "How do I stop my dogs crapping everywhere?" Its purpose at best is meaningless, but it's most likely pointless sarcasm.

OT: Enzymatic cleaners are best, but it could be that the dampness and bacteria have caused a fungal growth. This is not only almost impossible to get rid of, but likely dangerous to your health, as the spores are almost always toxic. They'll have to rip up the carpet and put in a new one after spraying the whole area with equally toxic fungicide. It's a crappy situation.

The Cat

Your carpet is probably fucked, it'll be all in the underlay. You can try calling in a professional; bow your head in shame when they give you the thorough talking-to you deserve. Because ewwwwwww. They may be able to clean it, but it'll honestly probably have to be replaced entirely, which be warned, will cost. Once its fixed, get some of that thin plastic stuff people put under office chairs and tack it down over the carpet. I very nearly got terribly sarcastic at you here. Lucky for us both I haven't refilled my glass yet. I settled for adding extra w's to the ewwwwwww.

Is it your house or are you renting? If its yours and you have to replace the flooring, probably best to go with tiles/vinyl/that fake wood stuff that's better than vinyl instead of carpet. Put a rug down over it for cold feets protection, at least you can chuck a rug in the wash.

Improvolone

Before calling in a pro to cut it, might as well do it yourself.

Gihgehls

Falx wrote: »

Except he wasn't asking "How do I stop my dogs crapping everywhere?" Its purpose at best is meaningless, but it's most likely pointless sarcasm.

OT: Enzymatic cleaners are best, but it could be that the dampness and bacteria have caused a fungal growth. This is not only almost impossible to get rid of, but likely dangerous to your health, as the spores are almost always toxic. They'll have to rip up the carpet and put in a new one after spraying the whole area with equally toxic fungicide. It's a crappy situation.

Actually he just said "what now" as in "what should I do moving forward." I took that as asking for advice on what to do about the carpet AND the dogs. But you're right, that isn't much advice on how to deal with one or the other.

zhen_rogue

Honestly, it's the pad that's the problem.
Typically, carpet pads are made from material that absorbs and holds odors/rot/mold very well.

To truly get rid of the smell, you really do need to replace the carpet and pad.

When/if you replace the pad, make sure you replace it with a pad that comes with a moisture barrier.
This will help keep any future dog pee in the carpet above, and not the pad below.
This way, a simple steam cleaning will remove 99% of the problem.

Casual Eddy

White vinegar is good with neutralizing urine smells, and the smell of vinegar will go away by itself. However, I dunno if it would be enough to deal with your carpet.

In the long term, you can put down tin foil on the area. Doggies won't step on tinfoil.