My previous roommate's cat peed on the rug my mom bought me as a housewarming gift. It's a 3'x4' dark red shag-style rug. My roommate cleaned it with Nature's Miracle when it first happened, but after a day or so of still smelling the urine, we rolled the rug up and stuck it in the garage (where it sat for 3 or so months). Well, I just recently moved to New Orleans (I left the roommate and her damn cat behind!!) and would love to use my comfy carpet on my new hardwood floors. Problem is, as soon as I unrolled it I could smell the pee -- it stunk up my entire house in literally minutes! I've read through several related threads on this forum and most have been about wall-to-wall carpeting with padding, etc. rather than just an area rug. I'm not sure if I can throw the rug into an industrial laundry mat washer or use a steam cleaner on it since it is a shag-style rug... any ideas? I know I could just toss the rug and save myself the headache, stink, and money -- but I would really prefer to save it if at all possible! Thanks in advance :)

Thanks to all of you for the tips. I'll try the vinegar tomorrow. Pbrisjar--does it matter if it is white vinegar vs. the brownish cider vinegar? I sprayed the floor and all the walls with a peroxide and baking soda solution yesterday (recommended in a thread that I found on the flooring forum). That seemed to help at first, but I think the smell is coming back. It sounds like I will probably have to buy a lot of primer and seal the odor into the walls and/or the floor. I went to petsmart today and bought a blacklight; hopefully that will help me find the worst areas so that I know where to concentrate my efforts. I have a feeling the walls are worse than the floor; when applying the peroxide solution I noticed some discoloration and residue about 2 feet up from the floor on a few walls, so those may have been major spraying locations. I bought a large bottle of an enzymatic cleaner that sounded like it might help with older stains, but it was $35 and I know it won't be enough for the whole area, so if it's not much different from vinegar I may as well return it for a refund. Yes, I'm sure the prior owners knew about it. I have no idea how they managed to hide it every time that I came to the house (I have a sensitive nose), and it irks me that they did. If I'd known, I could have had a painter seal everything before I moved in, while it was still empty. At the closing, the owner mentioned that the cats had been "stressed" because of the move; I guess she knew that I would soon discover the smell. Thanks again!!

Not sure if you have solved your cat urine issue yet? I wanted to give you a recipe that will eliminate the urine and the odor. It may have already been posted but here it is anyway. 1 (16) ounce bottle of Hydrogen Peroxide 1 (tsp) baking soda a couple of drops of dishwashing liquid like Dawn or Palmolive pour the peroxide into a clean container, add the baking soda and the dishwashing liquid, stir very gently to dissolve the baking soda. Pour onto stained area and leave it alone for 24 hours. This solution is the Best and most effective I have ever seen or used. If you can get ahold of a black light, you can turn it on and the urine areas will glow. After you use the above recipe and leave it for 24 hours, if you turn the black light on, the stains are gone and so is the odor. Give it a try, I think you'll be pleasantly surprised at the results. Thats it. You can double tripple or quadruple this recipe for very large areas.

And just so you know, mills have a hard time working with 2 part products. The stuff used to finish on site is MIXED on site in small batches. Anything used in a mill (that has the capacity) will need to special-order the COMMERCIAL version of the mix. That gets weird and expensive REALLY quickly. Like SUPER WEIRD. The 'hardeners', once mixed with the finish (the stuff in the BIG container) starts a chemical reaction that doesn't stop. As SOON as you mix the hardener to the finish (like in a VAT sitting in the mill) the 'spray' nozzles (or rollers) have to be monitored. Bona's products (like Loba) go stale inside of a few hours. That means the nozzles have problems, the rollers have issues, the VAT has to be changed out/cleaned, etc. Bona produces the commercial application stuff (ie. in the mixer in a vat) but that is tough to find on this side of the Ocean. The European market has access to all of this because A. many work with Bona on many things and B. it isn't very far to ship and C. The VOC requirements in Europe are SOOO tough that it only makes sense to have the specialty mechanisms available in the mill. I personally choose site finished. It is the gold standard of the flooring industry. It is only a few days longer to install and Bona HD cures VERY quickly (5 days or less). It is cheaper in the long run as well.