[SOLVED] Loveseat Peed On By Cat

[Appletax]

Solution: the landfill.


My expensive loveseat was peed on quite a bit by my former cat. I can take it to a janitorial company and have them steam clean it or I can purchase a portable Rug Doctor upholstery cleaner and do it myself multiple times. Pricing is similar. The Rug Dr could also be used on my carpet and my car. I wonder if the steam cleaning would be much better. Probably also need to use an enzyme cleaning solution.

What do you think?

 

[Dave 1973]

I had a cleaning and restoration company for 30 yrs. Cat urine is a very difficult one to deal with. Is the upholstery material

natural (ie: cotton ) or synthetic ? If it is synthetic you can be more aggressive. Where is the urine ? If it is only on

the seat cushions you may have a prayer. If the body is involved it will be very difficult to get good results.

 

[allanc]

I had a cleaning and restoration company for 30 yrs. Cat urine is a very difficult one to deal with. Is the upholstery material

natural (ie: cotton ) or synthetic ? If it is synthetic you can be more aggressive. Where is the urine ? If it is only on

the seat cushions you may have a prayer. If the body is involved it will be very difficult to get good results.

You've got my interest.
How about dog vomit?

 

[Appletax]

I had a cleaning and restoration company for 30 yrs. Cat urine is a very difficult one to deal with. Is the upholstery material

natural (ie: cotton ) or synthetic ? If it is synthetic you can be more aggressive. Where is the urine ? If it is only on

the seat cushions you may have a prayer. If the body is involved it will be very difficult to get good results.

Thanks for the reply. It's probably all synthetic. Can't imagine it being made of cotton. The cushions are not removable. They appear to be quite thin. The bottom edges of the loveseat are crusty.

 

[YeOldeStonecat]

Unfortunately I have VAST experience with cat piss. For over 10 years we had sibling cats, and the male cat would piss on everything. Sometimes the sister kit would follow.
Our male cat passed away last summer, and the surviving sister cat has been well behaved since.

Anyways, I've gone though several couches, love seats, chairs, sectionals, etc.
The key to cleaning...is LOTS and LOTS and LOTS of thorough rinsing. And I mean...moving serious volume of water through the cushions. You can't just spray it with something. Seat cushions on a couch are big sponges nearly a foot thick. You have to move LOTS of water through it...to FLUSH out the pee.

I used to fill the bathtub with water, add my cleaning ingredients...and then take the cusion, remove the cover (usually a zipper)...and you take that big foam cushion and submerge it in the tub. Squeeze/compress it, let it fill, compress again, let it fill. Do that dozens of times over.

And then drain the tub, get the shower on it...let the shower trickle sorta medium...and let it "rinse" ...hitting the top of the cushion, gravity drains the water out the bottom.

Compress it as much as humanly possible and get it stood up in front of fan overnight...you need to dry it thoroughly

Additives to the bath tub water...look up Natures Miracle Advanced Urine Remover.....yeah it's not cheap

Now, cats will smell any remaining odors...even if you don't smell them after. So, to deter them, we'd fill a large spraybottle with essential oils like peppermint, lemon, eucalyptus. Make a habit of spritzing the top of that cushion every few days...just a little.

 

[Larry Sabo]

As someone who ****** on hot coals removed from our furnace grate as a kid, I have to say that combining "steam cleaning" and "cat piss" is not something I would recommend. LOL

 

[NviGate Systems]

I have a steam cleaner that I bought years ago to deal with an insect problem that required high temps to ensure they were killed.

We use it when our cat throws up on one of the various mats we have about the apartment. It seems steaming it just spreads it more, so I think the mention of flushing it with water is the best advice (along with cleaners and enzymes). When I'm done steaming, it always smells worse then when I started. Although these mats are synthetic so maybe the heat is releasing chemicals.

It's the same for mattresses, when trying to clean them it sounds like steaming them will help, but because any fibrous material will continue to absorb moisture, it ends up not really helping much. The only real way is to use powerful cleaners and chemicals, but even those essentially break down what they can and mask the rest.

I'm sure you could find replacements for the cushions etc that came with the seat. There might be local furniture places that could whip up a custom foam + cover for maybe not as cheap as cleaning but will give your furniture a new lease plus it's guaranteed to not smell.

 

[Dave 1973]

Thanks for the reply. It's probably all synthetic. Can't imagine it being made of cotton. The cushions are not removable. They appear to be quite thin. The bottom edges of the loveseat are crusty.

Stonecat gave you some good tips, but you say the cushions are not removable, so that will complicate things.
You can find a "pro" through this organization. I was certified by them. https://iicrc.org/

 

[Dave 1973]

You've got my interest.
How about dog vomit?

Where did Rover lose it ( carpet, upholstery ) ?

 

[allanc]

Where did Rover lose it ( carpet, upholstery ) ?

My wife's favourite daughter has lost it on hardwood floors and it has seeped through blankets and duvet covers onto the underlying couches and/or futons. She (the dog) is a 12 lb miniature poodle.

 

[Markverhyden]

I'd not even try to clean it. Off to the dump and then buy a new one since it's a former cat. Years ago my girlfriend had a couple who had a cat. We stayed there for a few days while everyone was playing musical apartments. The male took a fancy to my tennis shoes and after several machine washes still smelled after being used.

 

[Appletax]

Would it be OK to have a cleaning company wash the loveseat with a garden hose and finish with upholstery cleaner?

It's electric so the electronics would have to be removed. Wonder if that would be easy.

 

[YeOldeStonecat]

If no prior attempts at cleaning it worked....and here we are several months later, I'd be at the point of A) Who cares about the electronics, let's try to rent a fire truck and pump 880,000 gallons of water through it, and B) Let's try a bunch of chemicals....to the point of being desparate.

Having pets is more expensive than just the pets and food.....they put a hurt on household stuff, including the home itself (floor, door frames, carpeting, window sills, etc)...as well as furniture. In the past 15 years, we're ready to get our 5th living room set. (usually just got sectionals, doing separate couch and love seat now, as well as living room chairs). One of my prior sets was a very high end "Scandinavian Design" leather set. Cat pee took its toll.

We have 2x cats, siblings. The offending cat, the male, passed away a bit over a year ago. We greatly miss him...but to be honest, I don't miss the constant cleaning of cat pee...and looking forward to having our next living room set of furniture for a long....long time.

 

[britechguy]

Sadly, I agree with @Markverhyden, particularly if it is as it sounds, that you had multiple incidents of peeing on this piece of furniture.

I've had many cats over the years, but in-house territory marking, if it could not be promptly stopped, was a deal-breaker. If they start marking walls and floors, eventually gutting of same will be required. Cat pee is one of the few things I can safely say can never be removed entirely, and how completely it can be removed very much depends on amount of pee, substrate into which it's absorbed, and "aging" before removal attempts.

There was a neighborhood cat many years ago that apparently scent marked inside our garage, which is detached, unheated, and cinderblock walls and concrete floor. Even many years later, and after many cleanings, if the conditions are right (usually warm and somewhat humid) your nose can still pick up on what once happened there.

 

[MDD1963]

I had a adorable, affection huge jet black male cat jump up on my couch, and, right beside me, I watched him piss on my expensive leather jacket...whilst making eye contact...!

If I'd have had my pump Winchester 12 gauge Defender handy....!!!! :/

 

[Markverhyden]

I had a adorable, affection huge jet black male cat jump up on my couch, and, right beside me, I watched him piss on my expensive leather jacket...whilst making eye contact...!

If I'd have had my pump Winchester 12 gauge Defender handy....!!!! :/

He just wanted to make sure you knew who was the boss.... LOL!

 

[Sky-Knight]

My solution to cat pee on the furniture is a gas can and a match.

Nothing I've ever done has solved that problem...

 

[Appletax]

Spent $150 to have it cleaned over the course of 1.5 months. The guy pressure washed it and used lots of chemicals including vinegar and baking soda. There's absolutely no fixing it. Not even reupholstering it would work because the piss is in the wood parts of the frame. The cleaning he did made the metal very rusty and the electric reclining part is gritty now.

Solution: dumped it in the landfill.

Looking to replace it with a gently used Ultra Comfort zero gravity lift chair, which lays completely flat so it's like laying in a bed. So dang comfortable!