| Salvaging Pee-Soaked Subfloor
(Right
click here to download a PDF file 446KB in size covering
the "cat pee condo" case study AND this page about salvaging pee-soaked
subfloor.)
Most customers can solve their
pet odor problems by simply pouring or spraying DooDoo Voodoo on their stinky
areas, then letting the product air dry naturally. This can even be the
case where repeated urination has occurred, despite what you might think.
DooDoo Voodoo is that effective.
There are times, though, when
more invasive measures might be necessary. This document addresses how to
go about salvaging your subfloor if repeated urination has trashed it.
Note that while we were dealing with wooden subfloor, these guidelines also
generally apply to concrete subfloors (slabs), too.
For example, at the
condominium
we recently undertook as a project, DooDoo Voodoo alone solved virtually all
the odor problems throughout the dwelling, even in spots where the blacklight
showed us that cats had repeatedly sprayed. There were three spots in the
condo, though, where years of repeated urination had trashed the subfloor
to such an extent that additional work was required.
Here's a picture of one of the
areas with trashed subfloor, along with a picture of the back of the carpet we took up from the area.
The third picture is what the carpet looked like before we pulled it up.
The fourth picture is what the carpet looked like after we removed it and I gave
the carpet a thorough cleaning and raking. Notice all the urine water in
the bucket, which is what I extracted from the carpet with our portable,
professional extractor. The badly
soiled area of the carpet is near the top of the carpet in the fourth photo.
Big difference, eh? (Click on any of the thumbnail pictures to see
640x480 versions.)
As you can see, the urine had
literally begun to rot the OSB (Oriented Strand Board) subfloor in this area, as
well as in two other localized spots in the condo. DooDoo Voodoo was
repeatedly applied to the subfloor and may have ultimately been successful, but
time was of the essence (the owner wanted to get the condo on the market), so we
opted to go a step further right away instead of waiting for DooDoo Voodoo to
get us the other 5% toward our goal of total odor remediation. While the
crew was onsite, it was decided to go ahead and replace
the carpet pad & tack strips, and seal the subfloor, in other areas than just
the three where rot had occurred. Bear in mind that DooDoo Voodoo alone
had solved the odor issues in these additional areas; the extra work we did was
just a safety net (as home & condo buyers sometimes try to come back at the
seller and make issues over odors that crop up down the road). I have
total confidence that due to DooDoo Voodoo's effectiveness, no odors would have
cropped up in the future; the additional work was just icing on the cake.
Now that we've set the stage,
here's what we did to rid this area, a landing at the top of the stairs, of
odor.
First, we pulled up the carpet
and moved it to the garage. We then removed the pee-soaked carpet tack
strips and the old carpet pad. Here's a close-up of the old, pee-soaked
tack strip:
Next, we pulled all the staples
and nails that remained, then sealed the holes with Sherwin-Williams 950A caulk,
which is what we recommend and have used extensively in our own animal rescue
facility. The first picture was taken before our helpers caulked the seam
between pieces of subflooring, which is also recommended:
Next, we sealed the subfloor with
BIN, a KILZ-like product made by Zinsser, which we've found superior to KILZ,
especially with regard to blocking odors. Note that the following two
pictures were taken in other rooms of the condo, not at the top of the stairs.
(I mention this to illustrate that while we were at it, the decision was made to
charge forward a bit more than planned, so in some areas we cut away a 33" strip
of the old pad, removed the tack strips, caulked the holes, sealed the subfloor
and replaced the tack strips. This method was chosen in lieu of removing all the
rooms' pad because DooDoo Voodoo alone had controlled the odors and had allowed
the carpet, which was estimated it would cost up to $12,000 to replace, to be
salvaged. Why did we cut away a 33" strip of pad? Because pad sells
in 6'-wide rolls, so 33" was a safe distance to get the maximum coverage from
the new pad without waste and without needing more than 1/2 the width of a
roll.)
Once three coats of BIN had been
applied (it dries in 45 minutes), we covered the sealed areas with thick plastic
sheeting (we recommend 4-mil. or thicker), cut to fit and affixed with staples.
If you do this, use as few staples as possible; just enough to hold the plastic in place.
The less penetrations through the sealed subfloor, the better, odor-wise.
Once the plastic sheeting was in
place, our carpet layers installed new tack strips and 6# rebond carpet pad:
After the guys had all the pad
and new tack strips installed, they essentially re-installed the carpet
throughout the condo. This may sound more daunting or expensive than it
actually is. Actually, it only cost 5% as much as what new carpet might
have cost, which obviously makes it a viable method for most homeowners.
Note: having been in place for nearly 10 years, the carpet had gotten
quite stretched, though the stretching wasn't visible to the naked eye. This
stretching makes
carpet wear out faster, so an added benefit of having the carpet re-installed
was that the guys were able to tighten it up quite a bit, thus making for a
better-looking, longer-lasting installation.
Here are a few pictures taken
before and during the re-installation of the carpet. In the last picture,
Ricardo is securing a seam where the room's carpet (which had been soiled with the
condo owner's late mother's urine, as well as animal urine) meets the new piece
of carpet we installed in the closet. The long gizmo shown in two of the
pictures is used to power stretch carpet back into place across the vast expanse
of a room or rooms.
Once all the carpet was back
down, we treated a few spots for staining and odor, then gave the condo's carpet
a thorough conventional cleaning. You'd never know from looking at the
carpet that
it's (a) as old as it is; (b) been peed on as many times as it has; or (c) was
in such a state of disarray while our work was underway.
Even
after paying for DooDoo Voodoo, sealer, plastic sheeting, carpet
re-installation, pad and some general labor, the condo's owner saved a LOT of
money versus what she would have had to spend to replace all the carpet & pad
(which still would've required all the subfloor work we did anyway)...not to
mention saving a lot of money versus having to drop the condo's price $50,000
because of the odor and related condition. All told, to drop the price,
replace the carpet and perform all the odor remediation & subfloor work might
have cost this lady $70,000 or more, but she spent a small fraction of that
amount and sold the place quickly.
The owner reported to us
that not one of the people to whom she showed the condo remarked about
odor and the people who ended up buying it remarked about the condo's
"fresh, clean smell." The biggest news is that the people who bought
the condo said they were not going to replace the carpet 'cause it "looked
like new" and matched their furniture. As we like to say
around here, "That's the answer we were looking for."
DooDoo Voodoo and a
little extra attention to the carpet & subfloor paid off in a major way for this
homeowner...and can pay off for you, too.
If you have questions for us
about the work we did, or live in the Indianapolis area and are in need of such
services at your house, feel free to
e-mail us.
(Right
click here to download a PDF file 446KB in size covering
the "cat pee condo" case study AND this page about salvaging pee-soaked
subfloor.)
###
Note: We recommend
wearing a mask or respirator while performing work such as is described here.
We have found the R95
mask by 3M, available at most home improvement centers for $6 or
so, to work well.
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