Here is how I have dealt with a similar situation. The POs were covering up damage on oak hardwoods with area rugs. I am guessing that in addition to their petÂs accidents, they shampooed the area rug in place which further damaged the floors. We found out about the damage two hours before closing on the house during the final walk-through. This is a very temporary solution and is not the correct way to fix the damage; the experts on this board can advise you how to do that. Wash the floor on your hands and knees (or sitting on the floor using a small amount of water, MurphyÂs oil soap, scrub brushes, scrubbies, and old terry towels- whatever it takes to clean the floor. Do a small section at a time, and rinse with clear water using a clean towel and dry each section thoroughly as you go along. Be careful with the waterÂdonÂt pour it onÂyou donÂt want to cause more damage than is already there. This will take a long time as you will be crawling around the floor. With a damp sponge mop using water and vinegar, rinse again. Remember while you need the water to clean the floor, water also damages the floor. DonÂt let pooling water sit on the floor. Dry it with a towel. On the stains you can try several things to at least lighten the color of the damaged spots. I used a combo of lightly sanding and household bleach. The stains have not disappeared, but they are lighter and cleaner. Wait till the next day or several hours to be sure the floor is completely dry and temporarily fill in the spots where the poly is gone due to damage of pet stains, water and sanding/bleaching by judiciously using a small amount of wipe-on-poly. Wipe-on-poly is for furniture and is not recommended for floors, but a small amount can fill in and blend the areas where the floor poly is completely gone. After the poly is completely dry, use a shine product. I used Holloway House Quick Shine for about $9.00 (Orange Glow does not work). I have added a few throw rugs and the floor looks about 50% better and will get me buy until I can have the floors refinished.

Putting laminate over will not stop the smell. Eliminating the odor is a lot like getting rid of mold. You gotta fix the problem. Not just cover it up. The stains have probably made its way to the subfloor. Only way for sure is to rip up and patch the stains. You could try sanding and refinishing but its a 50 /50 chance that they will sand clean. But if it made its way to the subfloor theres no way just a new finish will stop the smell.

Kim - You mentioned things I was worried about! lol You can put rugs (cheaper kinds) in the washer? I never even thought about not being able to shampoo a rug on top of the hw. Duh. :) Our driveway is stones so that wouldn't work either. I guess I really need to check into if there's a place near us that does professional carpet cleaning and see how much it is. Tina - That's cute your dog wipes her feet. Growing up we always wiped our dear Butch's feet. He was smart, we should've thought to train him with that! If we got hw I was thinking oak, mid range color, and less shine would be best. I bought a wool/silk rug for under the DR table back in October and didn't realize you shouldn't use a beater bar on it . . . For two months I ran my dyson over it often! I don't believe there's an adjustment for the suction. I now use the attachment and I find it to be somewhat of a pain. Doesn't help that the rug is mainly black, the cats like to sleep on it and the room gets a bunch of light. Our LR gets a bunch of light. That being said I don't think I'll ever buy a tufted rug again. It's not too bad since it's only one but I believe future ones will be cheaper synthetic or I'll go the hand knotted way and be done with it. But I think I'd feel better when something happened to them if I didn't spend gobs of money as accidents happen, iykwim. Heck, I've never had hw. Maybe I'll like it without rugs. Wouldn't that be easy. :) So as long as there's a good protective finish on there my cat's occasional hairball being there all day while we're at work should be ok? Honestly as far as cat hair, I'm not bothered by our vinyl floors. Well except by the side door where we're always in and out. The tiny stones get on my nerves. Oakley you're right as far as it sticking to the furniture. I'm forever running the sweaper on it. I thought it was pretty good until this morning when I was reading in the bright morning sunlight! Eek. I wouldn't trade our cats for the world but I've about had it with all the fur at the moment. I'm leaning toward hw I just needed to hear some thoughts. I'm nervous to spend the money and possibly not like them. I'm sure there's an adjustment period like anything else. Thanks for all the feedback everyone! I really appreciate it.

I (hope) suspect they had a pet sitter. We used to use one in our house when we went on vacation, but I can tell you, it's an imperfect system since my dogs would eliminate in the house (and the pet sitter wasn't nearly as eagle eyed as I am!) so we came home more than once to a stain on the rug. Luckily, heart pine seems to handle dog urine better than other types of floors. Have you tried a little wood bleach or oxalic acid (Bar Keepers Friend?) - try a bit in an inconspicuous spot and see if it helps. If yes, then go for it over the entire area. Or try Nature's Miracle first. Our dogs have been pretty awful about going out since we moved to this temporary apartment and I swear I've been through a gallon of the stuff on our living room rug. Some days I forget they're housetrained. Sigh.