If the slate looking tile is "hard slate" or "porcelain" it is not very porous. If it is "soft slate" is is very porous. Regardless of what the tile is made of, the grout will soak up urine/poo and it is impossible to get it out. Grout that is mixed/poured right will be less porous. However, the soupier the grout the easier to install, then the owner is left with lots of pinholes where the air bubbled out. Drop a few drops of water on the "tile" and see how fast it absorbs. If it sits there in a puddle, the tile is not porous. I would think covering the tile/grout with the enzyme for getting rid of urine would make a difference for the better. No amount of scrubbing will get the odor out of the grout.

Oilbase would still be offgassing and you'd be able to smell those hydrocarbons (smells like mineral spirits, paint thinner...that kind of smell). Waterborne is about 85% cured in 48 hours and totally cured in about seven days. They too can have a strong smell if the building is closed up after the finish is applied, but nothing as strong as oilbase. Oilbase would still be rather soft and slightly sticky. Moisture cure finishes are extremely strong fume producers and their odors would be gone quickly as well. However, few people work with that stuff anymore.

For any finishing procedure it is best to practice the entire process so that you aren't surprised at the end. (I turned a whole maple floor pumpkin orange one time, recovering from that taught a lifelong lesson). Where you don't have a piece of wood that was used in the project you can either use something similar, or an out-of sight part of your bookshelf-- like the bottom or the underneath side of the bottom shelf. Color especially will change as you go through the different finishing steps. Set up a space with good ventilation, as little dust as possible, and excellent, very bright lighting from several sides, with strong sidelighting to allow you to see the surface in detail. Prior to staining, sand to P150-P220 grit using a random orbit sander. (At least P220 if hand sanding) Don't skip any grits and sand until the scratches from the previous grit disappear, they will never go away later, and will pop up like a sore thumb when you apply finish. Vacuum the surface with a brush head and then use a tack rag (either a traditional sticky one of a microfiber rag) to get all the dust you can. Stain, if you need to. I prefer using trans-tint dyes in denatured alcohol, but some people (I'm not one of them) have good success with oil stains. Very lightly hand sand with P320 to knock off any nits. Repeat with the tack rag. Apply a coat of gloss oil-base polyurethane from the can. Use either a good natural bristle brush (Purdy or Wooster make OK ones at $15-20 for a 2-1/2" brush.) Don't mess with cheap brushes, they are pure frustration. Throwaway foam brushes also work well with poly, and may well be your best choice. Buy several and throw them away rather than trying to clean them for re-use. Work quickly to get finish onto a surface, then finish with very light strokes as long as possible with the grain of the board (called "tipping off"). Then stop, don't mess with it any more. Watch for sags ad drips, and catch them before the finish starts to set up. They greatly complicate the rest of the process. Allow the finish to dry thoroughly. Usually several days. You want it to come off as dust when you sand, not globs of glue on your sanding pad. Sand with P220-280 using a ROS, or 320 by hand. Sand until most of your brush marks are gone, nits are removed and the surface is smooth. Do not sand through your stain! Vacuum and tack off your work, and thoroughly clean your work area, then tack off you project again. Apply another coat of clear gloss finish. Allow to dry thoroughly again. Most woods take 3 coats to give a good surface. If you have a good uniform surface you can stop there, otherwise proceed to a third coat. Sand by hand with P320 to take off the nits. This is your "money coat", so become fanatical about dust control and removal. After tacking I will also use a microfiber rag dampened with mineral spirits or denatured alcohol to remove the last of the dust. Apply a third coat of finish. Use gloss if that's what you are aiming for, use a semi-gloss or matte poly if you are shooting for that. The more matte finishes are gloss poly with small particles added to break up the light. They also, to a small extent, obscure the wood. I prefer to use only gloss and then buff to the desired finish level. Allow to dry. If you are happy with what you see you are done. I like to rub out these finishes to give them a smoother more pleasing surface. How much you do is a function of where you want the finish to end up. Getting to a high gloss is a lot of work, and I'm not going to get into that here. Allow the finish to dry completely-- 2-3 weeks at least in most cases, a couple of months is better. (So this is not good as a production method, better suited for weekend warriors) It won't work if the finish is still sticky at all. The idea is to burnish the surface. I start with 0000 steel wool and rub down the entire surface. Strokes with the grain are preferred, you will see shiny spots around the dust motes you missed, rub until these are all gone. Change pads as the surface fills, or re-fold to expose fresh steel wool. The finish should come off as a tiny bit of very fine white dust as you're doing this. You will notice that the surface feels much nicer than it did before. If you'd like a bit more shine you can wax the surface. Do not use grocery store furniture polish. There are a variety of products from woodworking supply places or Amazon that are primarily carnauba wax, softened with beeswax and solvent. Trewax and Briwax are two good brands. Run don't walk from products that don't tell you what's in them, promise miracles, or have any form of silicone. Antique cans of Simonize car wax are also good! Apply the wax to the whole piece then buff with a clean soft cloth (old t shirt or flannel). You will work up a sweat in this process, these are not "instant gratification" products. Once done you are finished and your project will stand up for years of use and abuse. Hope this helps. It's a lot of work and takes a long time, but the results are pretty decent and it's very satisfying. This post was edited by rwiegand on Mon, Jun 2, 14 at 10:09

DIlly-Dally have you ever gone into court and gotten a judgment against someone? Do you have any idea how difficult it is to collect on a judgment? Remember the tenant has moved out. Before you can collect you have to find them. You have to either find a bank account or find out where they work. Then you have to file for garnishment. If it's a bank account you have to refile each time you go into the account to garnish funds. Most people just change banks leading the collector on a merry chase. If they have moved out of state you can just forget the whole thing. You may have "won" in the courtroom but all you've actually done is paid a lot of filing fees and spent a bit of time for the "paper". It's not like on Judge Judy. LOL Yes there are statutes as to how much deposit a landlord can require for a pet. Actually in California their is no "pet deposit" In California under civil code section 1950.5 "pet deposits" are considered as part of the security deposit. The landlord can only collect a security deposit with the following maximums: Unfurnished rental unit: The total amount that the landlord requires as security cannot be more than the amount of two months' rent. If you have a waterbed, the total amount allowed as security can be up to two and-a-half times the monthly rent. Furnished rental unit: The total amount that the landlord requires as security cannot be more than the amount of three months' rent. If you have a waterbed, the total amount allowed as security can be up to three-and-a-half times the monthly rent. Let me tell you. It can eat up a lot more than two months rent to repair the damage one peeing cat can do. Plus the landlord is out of the rental income during the extra time it takes to get the property ready for the next tenant.