How to Remove Cat Urine & Dog Urine from Carpets, Rugs & Upholstery

We love our pets, but sometimes they create unwanted mess that can be stressful, especially when it’s on your new expensive sofa. 

When your cat takes a disliking to the new armchair and it becomes its favourite place to wee. Your puppy isn’t toilet trained yet and doesn’t quite make it through his exit route to the garden. We’re here to help with pro tips and pet carpet cleaning solutions to make sure that when the accident happens it’s less stressful.  

In this blog post we guide you through how to clean up cat & dog urine from your carpets, rugs and upholstery. Whether you’ve caught your pet straight after its happened, or it’s an old stain and odour from a while back. Read more to find out how to keep your fabrics, carpet, sofa, armchair's, rugs - clean & odour free!

Cleaning Cat and Dog Urine from Carpets Quickly 

If you’re luckily there to witness your cat or dog peeing on your carpet, the best thing to do is quickly respond with paper towels. Apply them down onto the soiled area and allow to soak up the pet urine.

There will still be some urine in the carpet pile which will need treating so it doesn’t smell when it dries.  

You can use Pet Carpet Cleaner in a carpet cleaning machine extraction carpet cleaner. If your machine has 1 tank for both water and solution, use 10 ml of Pet Carpet Cleaner solution to 1Litre of water. If your machine has separate tanks, one for water and the other for solution, dilute our carpet shampoo 50:50 with water in the solution tank (e.g. 500ml solution and 500ml water).  

Our Carpet Washer products have high dilution rates so that they last longer than some other carpet solutions. Pet Carpet Cleaner has reactivating odour nuetralisers. They work deep into the carpet pile to remove odour, making sure that cat & dog urine odours don’t reappear.  

If Urine has Been on Carpets, Rugs & Upholstery for a While 

If you were out when your pet urinated, or they’ve sneakily done it behind the sofa, the smell can still be dealt with. When urine has been left to soak into the carpet it goes deep down into the carpet pile, so it needs a little more attention!  

Add a capful of Odour & Urine Neutraliser to the carpet machine tank mixed with Pet Carpet Cleaner. Using both of these products together gives extra deodorising power. Odours will be neutralised and extracted out of the carpet. The reactivating odour treatment will ensure that odours don’t reappear after cleaning.  

Extreme Cases of Cat Urine Smell

When carpets have been left smelling of cat urine for quite some time, it can cause the back of the carpet to smell too. It will require more of a deep clean. 

To solve this issue, you can lift up a corner of the carpet to find the underlay. Spray Odour & Urine cleaner neutraliser onto the underlay, floor and on top of the carpet. You should soak each layer in enough solution to completely cover the affected area and leave them to dry completely.  

If the underlay is very bad and has been saturated with the bad odour, a carpet fitter will be able to replace this. This is the last option but if needed it can be done to make sure the problem is resolved. The carpet itself can be cleaned using a carpet extraction machine, with the Pet Carpet Cleaner Shampoo + Odour & Urine Neutraliser. 

How to Clean Pet Urine from Carpets and Upholstery by Hand (Without a Carpet Shampoo Machine) 

If you don’t have a carpet shampooer machine you can use Dirtbusters Odour & Urine Neutraliser by hand.  

Dilute our product 1:5. That’s 1 part of carpet odour cleaner solution to 5 parts water, or 100ml of concentrated solution mixed with 500ml of water.  

Spray this diluted carpet, upholstery and rug solution straight onto the affected area. Let it soak in as deep as the urine stain, before blotting with a towel. If you get there straight away it is easy to remove quickly.  

Carpet Cleaning Pro Tips to Remember 

When dealing with cat & dog urine on carpets, rugs and upholstery we have a few pro tips that will make things easier. These professional tips will also help to avoid further issues, making sure you are left with a fresh smelling, stain-free carpet.  

Tip #1: Don’t over-wet the carpet. No matter how bad the smell is, going over the carpet, rug or sofa multiple times will make the smell worse. It has the opposite effect because when the carpet becomes too saturated it soaks the underlay too. The underlay can start to smell as it dries, which can make the smell worse than the urine you were trying to remove in the first place!  
Go over the fabric once, and only when it has dried should you repeat the cleaning process if needed.  

Tip #2: Less product is more. It’s important to follow the dilution rates provided by us for our solutions. They are highly concentrated so only a small amount is required. When using too much solution than necessary it can cause over-foaming and damage your machine. It also will make cleaning harder rather than easier. Stick to the dilution rates and if needed repeat the process once the carpet is dry.  

*Carpet Cleaning Hack: to remove the smelliest stubborn urine stains & Odours: Mix Odour & Urine Neutraliser with Pet Carpet Cleaner for a deodorising boost.

For bad odours you can use a capful of Odour & Urine Neutraliser in the machine with the Pet Carpet Cleaner. This will help to tackle very bad urine odours.  

Dirtbusters Pet Carpet Cleaning solution has two fragrances, Geranium & Chamomile or Blackberry & Fig. Both leave carpets smelling fresh, and odour neautralised. They clean, deodorise and stain remove in one clean.  

All of our carpet shampoo products are safe for use in carpet cleaner machines. They are gentle on all carpet types including wool, and machine-cleanable upholstery & rugs.  
 
If you need any further advice on removing pet urine smells from carpets, rugs & upholstery, contact us for expert advice info@dirtbusters.co.uk