Removing urine odor from wood floor

10 years ago

I am experiencing a disgusting problem with my bathroom floor. In a nutshell, my home's previous owners had really bad aim and really poor cleaning skills. The wood floor is emanating urine odor (gag).

When I moved in three years ago, the wood floor had 1960s vinyl installed over it, which took months of repeated cleaning to get the urine smell out of. Last winter, I removed the vinyl to uncover the wood floor, which I then sanded, stained and polyurethaned. Now that the weather is warm, my nose tells me that the aforementioned "no aim/no cleaning" problem went through the vinyl right into the wood floor. Talk about gross.

I don't know how/what products to use to deep clean the floor without bleaching or staining it. I also don't know if deep cleaning will even work, since the odor is permeating three coats of polyurethane on a surface that was sanded fairly heavily. Any suggestions, or should I plan on sanding the heck out of the area and refinishing the floor a second time?

Featured Answer

jbb49

9 years ago

While I know this post thread is over a year old, I was wondering if you had heard to use hydrogen peroxide. While it won't lift out all the stain, it will cause the uric acid crystals that are deep in the wood to lift up. This is what is causing your odor. Soak a towel in peroxide, place over the stains and then cover with plastic for 24 hours. I found this solution on the web and then actually saw Scott McGillivray use it to get urine stains out of a concrete basement floor on his show. It works.

Comments (10)

jlc102482
Original Author
10 years ago
Also - I should mention that the wood floor is the original 1857 pine floor, so I can't really replace it, nor do I want to. At least, not yet!
millworkman
10 years ago
Nature's Miracle, use plenty and let it soak in!
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The AC/heating is all in the attic/ceiling, so (fortunately) that is one source that can be ruled out... I have shut all the doors to the room and left for a period of time. When I open the door, I smell the odor, so it is in that room. I do not smell it in the air in other rooms of the house. I have not sealed the floors because there is as much literature against as there is for. And the sealants are not guaranteed for an extended period of time (typically 3 - 5 years max). I'm in the Houston area, so it is already summer here. I've intentionaly left the house warm so that the humidity will be high allowing odors to flourish. The smell is not nearly as bad as it was when the carpets were first removed. So, I know I am making headway. It is just so frustrating to smell an odor and not be able to locate the source. Is it possible the odor itself permeated the walls/ceiling even though those areas were not urinated on? My next step is to use a garden sprayer to apply the odor neutralizer (Expel)to all the walls and the ceiling in that room. Those are the only surfaces which have not been treated, yet. (For the slab, I have been scrubbing with MM2 (a bacterial/enzymatic cleaner), vaccuming up the suds/liquid and then reapplying MM2 and allowing it to air dry.)
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"You may be able to sand down to unstained wood and re-seal." The problem that usually shows up is that the urine can penetrate at the joints between the strips of floor, and you simply cannot 'sand out' enough to remove the staining that came in from the edge of the strips. If it is a small area you can remove strips and replace them. If the floor is old look at closets fr a ready source of matching wood. The new wood in the closet will not show as badly
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Thank you so much for your responses. Someone recommended zinsser shellac seal coat wax free (sanding sealer) before applying the polyurethane. I dont know if it'll work because as you mentioned the urine may have penetrated in between the boards into subfloor but we don't have the time and money to replace anything now. I guess if by next year the smell persists we will remove the hardwood floor and replace it. When the AC is on it doesn't smell, but if the AC is off for a while the odor is there. It is not very strong but enough that it bothers us.
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I'm not a professional, but would think that putting Pine-Sol on unfinished wood didn't help the wood. I'd try sprinkling baking soda over the dry floor and letting it sit for 24-48 hours, then swwep up with a shop vac and soft bristle brush attachment. Have you scrubbed the walls? You may have to rinse walls with vinegar and water to neutralize any Pine-Sol smell. Open windows and run fans to exhaust the smell, as needed.
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Locrian
10 years ago
Yes! Nature's Miracle is superb for neutralising urine, whether cat, dog or manly man ;-)

The two bathroom floors in our new/older house are terribly urine damaged; to a point of infiltrating the concrete slab. I know I have to take up the toilets and may have to take out the two vanities to get the slab clean.

Nature's Miracle is a digestive enzyme; non-toxic to aquatic, bird & animals. I usually buy it at PetSmart by the gallon. (I also have cats & dogs.) It may be available in the cleaning section of places like Lowe's, Home Depot, WalMart, Kroger, etc.

Hope you can get the wood cleaned. You're right, it IS yucky.
dirt_cred
10 years ago
Chiming in with Nature's Miracle or some similar enzyme product. I, too, buy it by the gallon and when I had a very old, incontinent dog I began using it in a vacuum sprayer - the kind you pump up.

I haven't finished my floors yet but I have it on *very* good authority that 1) cat urine is by far the worst for smell and persistence and 2) after all the NM in the world, it needs to be sealed with shellac and nothing else works.

True or not? Not sure but I will be shellacking my floors and would do yours too.
navi_jen
10 years ago
Even better than Nature's Miracle is Kennel Odor Eliminator by Thornell http://www.amazon.com/Thornell-Kennel-Odor-Eliminator-Gallon/dp/B0002XI7DW

My old house POs had cats, lots of them. And no litter box. It's more expensive, but it did in 4 treatments what Nature's Miracle (and others) could not.

Now, the one problem you may have (and I did) is that the urine has infiltrated the HW and is into the subfloor. Try TOE first, but if it still smells....then your only option left is to remove the HWF and treat the subfloor. Mine was so bad I removed the entire subfloor because it had sunk into the joists below, but I think I'm a worst case scenario.

Good luck.

PS....the smell is due to the ammonia salts left behind, which are activated by moisture, hence the stronger smell when the humidity rises. My floor was so bad it changed color (got darker) when it was humid...hopefully yours is not!
graywings123
10 years ago
You can buy reclaimed pine floorboards from architectural salvage stores. I had to have the boards around two toilets replaced because of rot. Your bathroom probably isn't large and it wouldn't be terribly expensive. And it would eliminate the ick factor once and for all.
brickeyee
10 years ago
Are you SURE the wax ring under the toilet has not failed?

The problem being that lifting the toilet to examine the ring means it MUST be replaced anyway.

Does the toilet rock or move when you sit on it?

Move around on the seat (besides the seat slipping around)?
southerncanuck
10 years ago
I'm with Brickeeye here. Many a foul odor in a bathroom is blamed on us guys with aiming issues only to find the closet flange wax ring or old cast iron flange itself has failed. You want to remove the toilet and inspect before going to all the trouble of cleaning only to have a reoccurrence.
jlc102482
Original Author
10 years ago
Thanks for all the help, everyone! I'm sure it's the floor and not the wax ring/toilet, unfortunately. I bought some Nature's Miracle and it has made a significant difference. If I can't get it to go away entirely, I have resigned myself to redoing the floor...sigh. I don't want to resort to that, but it's worth having a clean bathroom for. At least it's a relatively small bathroom and not the whole house that has to be redone!

Removing urine odor from wood floor

jbb49

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jlc102482
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millworkman

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Removing urine odor from wood floor

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