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We are looking to buy a home where the owner was a cat rescue lady and there were up to 12 cats living there at one time. The smell is bad, BUT I know this woman and there have been times where she had professionals come in and clean, as well as "de-stinkify" the place. As long as the cats were confined to the garage, it was fine but she let them worm their way back into the home!
We are prepared to remove the soft flooring as well as the sub-floors beneath them. We will also remove and replace the floor molding and at lest 24" of sheet rock in the affected areas. She had tile installed in the living room, family room, and the hallways so my question is, will the tile have to be removed? I am open to all sorts of creative solutions, so bring them on! I wonder....can I paint over all of the tile with a super duper stain killing sealer and then put something over the tile??? We probably want hardwood floors in the living and family room, ultimately. The tile in the hallways isn't bad and the cats weren't in that area much so I don't think they are a total disaster....but someone may throw that notion into the scrap pile.
Thanks for any and all ideas/helpful solutions you have!!!
unfortunately when it comes to cat urine thats a costly time consuming job. all the wood floors if you didnt replace them youd need to bleach multable times then seal all the wood with a good sealer. the walls will need to be a least sealed. ( i remodel homes for an invester for over 15 years and have found the best sealer for the wood and walls is a concrete sealer)(investers are cheap but this worked awesomely)
as for the tile, just clean it first see how it does if not just remove it. dont cover it. if you cover it, it will later down the road cause you headaches.
You have the right plan for removing the carpeting, subfloor, baseboards, and sheetrock. If you ultimately want hardwood floors in the tiled rooms, I wouldn't worry about it because you have some cheap options until you can install the hardwood floors. For example, you can tear out the tile and put laminate down for as cheap as 90 cents square foot. If you want to keep the tile for now, the potential of deodorizing depends on the type of tile. Stone tile would have likely absorbed the urine deep within. I'm guessing porcelain would be least likely to absorb the urine. Either way, the grout will need to be chiseled out and re-grouted. That will be more time consuming than taking a sledgehammer to the tile and tearing it out.
Urine is a challenge even on tile floors. Clean the floor as you normally would. I get down on my hands and knees with a scrub brush and use blue Dawn dishwashing liquid because it works so well and cuts through everything. Then, if you have access to a steam cleaner, go over the cleaned floor with the steam cleaner. After that mop the floor with a vinegar/water solution. This should neutralize any and all smells, but it is a lot of work. Let us know how this turns out for you.
I assisted on a house that was going to be flipped. There had been an animal hoarder there, with something like 10 dogs and 23 cats (I don't know the exact number, but it was high).
The kitchen and bathroom floor tiles were initially sprayed with a product that had enzymes to "eat" the smell and then steam cleaned. No go. They had to be ripped up, plus the sub-floor needed to be treated professionally. In all, that was a flip that barely broke even, and in the end there as an underlying "sour" odor, although it did come and go.
I don't know that it's possible to get out pet odors or smoke past a certain saturation point. Even professional products and techniques can only do so much when the sub-flooring and wall interior is compromised.
I've has success remodeling houses with massive pet urine problems. As people have said above, you remove what you can and seal the rest.
You might not have to remove the subfloor, depending on what it is. If it's particleboard, yes, if it is buckled/swollen under the carpet. Plywood you could just seal.
I'd try circeseye's concrete sealer on the tile before deciding whether to remove it!
I assume you are getting bids on all the work before making an offer on the house?
Everyone saying to pass on the house isn't realizing the OP is probably getting it super cheap. I considered a 400k house that was on the market for 60k for this very reason. It was an elegant eight bedroom 150 year old stately home in a rural area. It was a mansion in it's day. I fell in love with it. We could have easily repaired the urine damage for the price difference. We chose not to because it was way too big of a house since my husband will be retiring in a few years. It would have been silly for two people to rattle around in an 8 bedroom home.
Everyone saying to pass on the house isn't realizing the OP is probably getting it super cheap.
Two problems: daily living if the smell won't go away and resale value.
Super cheap isn't always a bargain.
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