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Having a cat or dog at home means you are constantly dealing with urine stains on your carpet. How do you deal with both old and new urine stains? It is very easy if you keep some readymade home remedies stocked at home always. You might just manage to avoid calling for professional carpet cleaning
Fresh stains are the easiest to clean if you get on the job immediately! You will need a whole bunch of old clean thick towels, a bucket of fresh clean water, a bottle of vinegar, a spray bottle or sponge, and something you can use as a heavy weight - large books or wooden boards work fine.
Fold a towel and place it on top of the stain; make sure it covers the entire stain, and place the weight on it.Allow the towel to soak up the urine for about ten minutes. Then remove the towel and spray clean water from the edge of the stain inwards until it gets fully soaked. It may take about a minute to soak completely. Then place one more towel again folded to fit over the affected area and put the weight back.
After waiting half an hour, remove the towel. Mix water and vinegar in a 1:1 ratio and soak the dirty portion again with this mixture. This again will take about a minute or so to soak in fully. Then place another clean folded towel on the area and once again place the weight on it. This should be allowed to stay without being disturbed for at least 12 hours. So, in case you are doing this in the evening, wait until the next morning before you clean it again.
This can also be done with peroxide (mixed in 4% water) or with concentrated dish washing soap. They will also remove stains fast and efficiently.
After twelve hours have passed, remove the towel and blow dry the carpet or let it air-dry. Both the stain and the odour will disappear. If it is a small section of the carpet that can be removed easily, it would be good to hang it out in the sun to get a clean fresh smell. Removing the odour completely is an absolute must as otherwise your pet would want to urinate on the same area again.
If the stain is an old one, you will have to resort to harsher cleaning methods. You can pick up of the commercially available carpet cleaning products marked specially for stain removal. But always test the product on a small unseen area of your carpet initially to ensure that it doesn't damage your carpet or leave any stain of its own.
If the stain and odour persist, you have no other choice but to call for carpet cleaning services who will be able to better assess the stain and deal with it efficiently and appropriately without damaging your carpet.