Seen too many properties with this problem and itâÂÂs nasty. Every cat owner will swear their home doesnâÂÂt smell but I have never been in a home that I couldnâÂÂt tell had a cat. IâÂÂve been in hundreds where it was noticeable but the owners still believe itâÂÂs not a problem. Cat urine is far more concentrated then dog and human urine. A cats kidneys are so efficient at extracting absorbable water that the high concentration makes the urine extremely foul. With that high concentration, the real problematic component of cat urine is uric acid. This concentrated acid causes that nasty odor and makes stains hard to remove. Uric acid contains non-soluble salt crystals which bond like crazy glue to any surface. These crystals bond to wood, drywall, grout, ceramics, marble and even concrete. Even when the crystals are dry, the problem remains. Any moisture will reactivate the crystals releasing the smell all over again. Usually the smell gets worse since the crystals concentrate after drying. Humid summer days will reactivate the problem years after the cats are gone. The only way to resolve the problem totally is to get rid of the carpet and pad. If wood subflooring needs replacing due to the urine damaging the integrity of the plywood, replace those areas. The rest of the subflooring needs to be thoroughly cleaned, dried and sealed with Binz. YouâÂÂre not cleaning the subfloor to get rid of the cat urine but to make sure you have a clean, dry surface for the Binz to adhere to. The Binz shellac primer will seal down to a .005 microns which is critical. Kilz only seals down to .015 microns so I recommend Binz to fix it the first time. Any walls or trim that are suspect to the urine also needs to be sealed with Binz and repainted. Even concrete needs to be cleaned and sealed but I recommend using and epoxy on the concrete if itâÂÂs going to be left exposed. The biggest lesson I learned is if a cat is urinating frequently in a few areas of the home, itâÂÂs likely a problem throughout. I purchase properties for investments and if IâÂÂm looking at a property with cat issues, I figure replacing the carpet and pad in all rooms, cleaning and sealing all the floors, sealing half way up the walls, repainting entirely, sealing (sometimes replacing grout and/or ceramics) and even having the duct systems cleaned as this odor permeates all areas and cats will even urinate into the floor vents. The last property I purchased like this had the price reduced $35,000.00. I cost me $40,000.00 when I was done so I should have reduced the price $55,000.00 as my intent is to be profitable and this is a horrible problem.

Keeping your kitties claws trimmed may help, but there is also a product called SoftPaws that should help. They are vinyl nail covers. Sorry, I have no floor info help but maybe if they wear SoftPaws, you can get whatever flooring you want.

A number of years ago, something similar happened in an office I worked in. The people left town without letting the agency know (this was before scheduling companies). They had 2 indoor cats & they had had a big dog, but it had...something. died, kid took it to his new place, something. In-house agent shows the house one day & there's the cutest little dust mop of a dog inside, friendly as all get out, bouncing off the walls, wagging, etc. Cats are under the bed. Agent notices the water bowl is empty, so she fills it & writes owners a note, something like: "Congratulations on your new dog! showed house, filled water bowl, picked up pillows off floor." Homeowner returns, flies into a rage, demands agency pay for the damage caused by... somebody else's dog. That's right. The dog was a "neighborhood" dog, & of course after this nobody was claiming it. Broker declined, said homeowner hadn't even told her they were going out of town, & agent did not let the dog in. There was no way to find out who had let the dog in. Homeowner said her insurance company told her "they're gonna make you pay for it", especially since agent had written a note "admitting" that the dog was in the house. Broker contacts liability carrier who says: no dice. Brokerage had no way of knowing that a dog inside the house was not the homeowner's dog. Adjuster said it would have been worse had the dog belonged there & the agent had let it out. What you have to do, I think, is communicate *everything*, even if it seems like you're overcommunicating. Tell agent you're going out of town, post placards on doors ("Dog in backyard is friendly but jumps on people" etc). & realize that sometimes stuff just happens, & nobody's going to pay you for it. The cats walked in like they lived there. The dog walked in (probably) like it lived there. Everybody lived over it. & we did sell that house.

I haven't read all the responses but having a multiple cat household I would like to mention that you should consider having multiple locations for cat boxes. Otherwise you may experience more out of box behaviors. There can be problems when you have multiple cats with some cats deciding to bully other cats. They may prevent some from coming into the room to use a box. The more cats you have in your home the more likely you will have out of box accidents or even spraying due to territorial issues. In addition, some cats like to pee in one place and poo in another. The good part is that you will be moving them all to a new home, so there is no cat that will feel his territory is threatened right away. In addition, you will need to separate food and water from their box locations. Cats tend to not to like to eat or drink where they go to the bathroom. I have three boxes for three cats. I would suggest that you at the minimum have three cat boxes located around your home. And clean them daily or twice daily. In order to keep them from scratching areas you don't want you can either block them from those areas or be sure to provide suitable scratching posts around your home... many cats scratch horizontally and vertically. So provide multiple surfaces particularly in areas where you don't want them to scratch other areas. Sprinkling cat nip on the perches helps to attract them there. DO THIS FIRST before you allow them in the home and show them where these are. And be sure to supply enough perches and/or beds around your home so each one of your cats will have its own place to call his own. If you really want to have a bedroom they can call their own consider installing cat climbing runs and tunnels all over the room. Places where they can curl up and hide or just to look out the window. And let the fun begin!