Finding Pet Urine In Your Carpets

In this article we are going to cover how to find pet urine in your carpet. There will be two other follow-up articles on how to remove the pet urine from the carpet and how to remove dog or cat dander odors from your carpet.

You can find out more about our pet odor removal services in Vancouver by clicking the link.

So Let's Get Started

One of the biggest issues carpet cleaners face on a daily basis is dealing with pet urine issues in carpets; mainly from dogs and cats - but also from other animals that people keep as pets in their homes -  and from humans.

Let's first talk about dog urine in carpet.

Dog urine odor in carpet is fairly common, especially in homes that have smaller dogs. Nothing against smaller dogs, but almost any carpet cleaner, that regularly deals with pet odor, will tell you that in most cases the urine is from a smaller dog.

Why is this? We have no idea to be honest. It is what it is. We  don't know if it is a physical thing (maybe smaller bladder), a psychological thing, or both.

Either way, MOST pet urine issues involving dogs are with smaller breeds of dogs.

While dog urine odor in your carpet can be really bad, it is actually much easier to deal with than cat urine in the carpet.

Dogs almost always urinate in the middle of the room, or against a piece of furniture. Sometimes even on the people in the home.

The FACT that dogs don't seem to care where they do their business makes
it easier to find the urine.

Later, we will talk about tools you can use to find the urine in your carpet.

Now let's talk about cat urine odor in your carpet.

Cat urine odor can be MUCH more difficult to deal with for two reasons:

1. It can be a bit harder to find because cats are much more private and tend
to urinate behind furniture and up against the walls.

2. Because cats tend to urinate against the wall, or very close to it, the urine
can  easily get to the sub-floor by running down the wall and between the tackless strip.

3. Cat urine is also chemically different than dog urine, it is more concentrated and therefore usually more difficult to neutralize. Dog urine is much closer to human urine.

Ok, So You Smell The Urine In The Carpet - How Do You REALLY Find It?

If you walk into a room and you immediately smell dog or cat urine you know there is urine somewhere in the room.

But where EXACTLY is that urine? For good pet odor removal results you need to find ALL OF THE URINE. Every last drop.

Tools Used To Find All Of The Urine In Your Carpet

The first step in finding the urine is just a good visual inspection. Just look around the room.

Most of the time you will see urine discoloration, especially from dogs, somewhere in the room.

A visual inspection, with the naked eye, can find urine deposits; but in most cases you need more than just the naked eye. You need speciality tools to find all of the urine.

And there are two specialty tools that all pet owners should have, and a "third tool" that is an absolute must for finding pet urine in your carpet. Let's look at the first two tools used to find pet urine.

1. A Black Light

2. A Moisture Detector

Both are important when finding the urine in your carpet, a they compliment each other. Let's take a look at both tools.

Black lights and moisture detectors can both be used together to form a powerful duo when it comes to helping you find urine in your carpet.

But there is one more "tool" that you really need to confirm what you are finding is urine or not.

And that tool is...

YOUR NOSE! Yep, the good old sniffer that you were born with.

A black light can show you an area that looks like urine. But to confirm that it is urine you need to get down on the carpet, put the good old sniffer to the carpet, and smell. It won't take but a second or two to confirm if it is urine.

The exact same thing goes for a moisture detector. It can tell you if there is a possible urine deposit, but you will not know for sure until you get down on the carpet and smell.

Yes, it seems disgusting but it is the ONLY way to know if the what you are seeing, and what the detector is signaling, is actually urine. So you gotta do it.

Or, you call a company like Linton's Carpet Cleaning that are EXPERTS in removing pet urine odor from carpet.

In this article we have gone over some of the tools you need to find the urine, but now what do you do when you find it?

This is where knowing how to deal with urine in the carpet really comes into play.

In the second article in this series we are going to go over the process of actually removing the urine from your carpet, along with the odor. You can click the link to check out the article.

And, finally, in the third article in this series we are going to cover how to deal with pet dander odor in your carpet. You can check out the pet dander odor removal article by clicking the link.

We thank you for reading this article on pet odor removal in Vancouver, Washington.

If you have any need for pet odor removal services in Vancouver, Wa., or the surrounding areas, please give us a call. We will be more than happy to answer any and all questions related to our pet odor removal service.