The Pet Odor Dilemma
We all love our pets, whether dog, cat or some other creature. Their love & affection is unmatched because they bring us joy and comfort that no one else can, but sometimes their bad habits can drive us crazy too! Untrained pets can leave urine stains all over the place, especially on the corners of furniture, walls, carpeting, tile, and even where we sleep. After a while, the salts in the pet urine will dry and crystallize on the carpet, the backing, and even get deep down into the padding areas. The salt crystals absorb moisture from the environment and emit an ammonium gaseous odor mix, which we call a urine smell. Their skin cells also migrate down to the carpet and even into the padding after long periods of time. The skin cells begin to break down with bacteria and emit a doggy dander odor that gets worse as more skin cells collect onto the carpet and padding. Carpeting has the benefits of comfort and warmth, but can also be a breeding ground for all kinds of dirt, bacteria, germs, and salt crystals to form.
We Have Solutions @ QACC
QACC recognizes this dilemma and has a number of common sense solutions that may help fix this carpet odor problem:
Step 1: Free Assessment – Recognize where the source of the problem comes from!
The first step is to schedule an appointment with QACC to make an assessment with our Urine Detection Kit. This can be done during the carpet cleaning appointment or if you are just gathering information and need a quote. During this assessment, we will be using a black light and specialized glasses. Our technicians are experienced at locating urine in the carpet areas and will let you wear an extra pair of specialized glasses that will enable you to see what they are seeing. Urine salts containing phosphorus and potassium will glow under black light. This will be an indicator of where all the urine salts have collected over time. Our technicians are well trained and can assess whether the collection of urine salts can be neutralized or whether the carpeting is So saturated that it would be best to replace. Normally, if 50% or more of the carpet and padding is saturated, then it is best to pull and replace and even treat the substrate surface with a urine neutralizer. However, it may also be as simple as few large spots of urine that are emitting most of the odors and treating them wouldn’t cost much at all?
This assessment will cost you nothing and is highly recommended. We can even give you a FREE written estimate of how much it will cost to treat the urine and dander in your carpet.
FAQ: So what is this urine neutralizer and what does it do?
QACC uses very effective urine neutralizers that are accepted industry wide. These formulas were developed by industry professionals and even scientists years ago because of this very problem you face today. Urine neutralizers are proprietary chemical formulas that are designed to break down bacteria and urine salts and that emit odors and encapsulate and neutralize the source of the foul odor. This process only works if the urine neutralizer actually comes in contact with the salts and bacteria that have formed in the carpet, backing, and padding areas. This is why the rule of 50% is used for determining whether to treat or pull the carpet and padding. Once the urine neutralizer comes in contact with the salts and bacteria, it begins to disinfect and neutralize the odors. For doggy dander odors, a broadband spray application maybe all that is needed to wipe out most of these odors and our urine neutralizer is very effective at eliminating dander bacteria odors too!
Step 2: Cost Assessment?
So how much will this cost me to eliminate this odor?? The answer depends on how much urine neutralizer is needed to treat the affected areas? Maybe all that is needed is a broadband spray over the surface of your carpet to saturate the surface existing odor sources, like dander and urine and/ or do a deep saturation treatment to other areas? Deep saturation involves soaking an area of carpet with urine neutralizer down to the padding and extracting it out with a carpet claw device and truck mount level suction, which extracts the water, urine, and bacteria out very effectively. It is the same principal as taking a wet stinky sponge, filling it full of peroxide and ringing it out with your hands.
FAQ: What if the pet urine saturation level in the carpet is really bad ??
If there is too much urine saturation and bacteria down in the carpet backing and padding or even the substrate areas, it would not be cost effective or even possible to treat every square inch of these areas to get all the odor out. Please keep in mind that this process is only designed for surgically treating smaller areas or just the surface areas of the carpet. It is not designed to eliminate heavy saturation in most of the carpet, backing, and padding areas. The answer is to get rid of the carpet, padding and even treat the substrate with urine neutralizer.
So how do I know where do you draw the line though?
Generally speaking, when you look at your carpet and there are urine stains everywhere and the odor and smell of dander is pretty heavy in the air, it is time to pull the carpet! However, if you would like a second opinion, you can call us and make an appointment for a FREE assessment of your particular situation. Ultimately, the decision of whether to proceed all boils down to the cost of treating the carpet areas vs the cost of replacement?
Step 3: Pre-Treat The Carpet and Clean it!
If you have determined that you would like to get the carpet treated for urine and dander decontamination, then we can proceed to pre-treat the carpet areas with urine neutralizer before doing the carpet cleaning. This may involve a broadband spray treatment and/or the deep saturation treatment. Once this is done to the technician’s satisfactory, then he can proceed to the carpet cleaning process, using a Rotovac and a brush head to help get the neutralizer deep down into the carpet fibers during the cleaning process. Once he cleans each area, then he does a dry pass to help pull up as much moisture as possible with the Rotovac.
Step 4: Drying Process: So How long will this take?
Normally, it takes a carpet 3-6 hours to dry depending on temperatures and the level of moisture saturation in the air. Obviously, if it has been raining, then the air is saturated with moisture and it will take longer to dry out. The areas of your carpet that have been deep saturated will take longer because the urine neutralizer went down to the padding level. These areas may take 12 to 24 hours for these areas to completely dry?.
FAQ: So should I open the windows to help it dry out?
No! It would be best to turn on you’re A/C or heat and all the fans! The more moving air, the better! The outside air may be heavily saturated with moisture and may actually hinder the drying process.
FAQ: Can you get out urine stains?
Most of the time, yes! However, it all depends of a number of factors from what kind of textile the animal urinated on to how much uric acid was in the dog or cat urine. Over time, uric acid can break down textile colors or even permanently damage them. Thus, you could end up permanent yellow, brown, or tan stains on the textile.
FAQ: Do you treat and clean area rugs?
Yes we do! We can use the same techniques as with wall to wall carpet, but even better, can flip the carpet over and extract the urine neutralizer from the other side, making this process even more effective. Discuss this with the technician and we can advise you about your particular situation.
FAQ: What if I smell strong pet odor after getting the carpet areas treated with urine neutralizer?
There is no exact science that can determine if all the bacteria and urine salts have been neutralized in your carpet and padding. Though the technicians are experienced at finding odor sources, there maybe some areas missed? We do have a 7 day guaranty that comes with each treatment.
So what is this Pet Odor Guaranty cover?
To be perfectly clear, our Pet Odor Guaranty Program guaranties that we will provide the necessary services and chemicals to re-treat the affected areas of carpet and provide a noticable improvement over the way it was before the treatment process started. We cannot guaranty that this process will completely eliminate all urine and dander odors from the carpeting areas though. So, with this stated, our
Pet Odor Guaranty: If the client still smells pet odor within 7 days of the treatment, they can call QACC and we will come out and re-treat the concerned areas with a one time free application of urine neutralizer, which we will re-treat the affected carpet areas again. This should help to eliminate any residue odors that were not neutralized the first time around. If this does not resolve the odor issues, it maybe time to replace sections or even all the areas of carpet and padding affected by these odor sources.
Do you provide a guaranty satisfaction or your money back policy?
We will not guaranty satisfaction or your money back because of all the work and cost of the chemicals that went into treating your carpet and even padding areas. So you will need to make an up front assessment of cost vs replacement before you commit to this process.
FAQ: What if my pet continues to urinate on the carpet after it has been treated? Doe the Pet Odor Guaranty Cover this?
No! If your pet is still urinating on the carpet, this would not be covered by us. We strongly recommend seeking the advice of a qualified pet trainer and considering crate training?