My friend Jan called me late one night recently in a panic. She was hosting a Mary Kay cosmetic party the next night, and her house smelled to high heaven. Jan has an indoor dog and a cat and, even though she’s a fanatic about keeping the litter box clean, her house reeked of urine. When I arrived, I found that Jan wasn’t kidding, because the smell hit me in the face like a ton of bricks as soon as I stepped inside the door. Read this informative article and learn how to remove dog and cat urine from cement!
Locate the Source
To remove any odors from your house, you first have to locate the source. Looking around Jan’s house, we couldn’t find any puddles or suspicious-looking spots. We went to the basement where the litter box is kept, and the place where the dog is sometimes shut in while she’s away. Still, we couldn’t visually locate any odor source. Until I spotted a rubber mat in a corner, that is. The mat was rubber on the bottom, and had a fuzzy material on top. Jan had her winter boots and shoes set in neat rows on the mat. I picked up a boot and found its sole was wet. As I went further down the rows, I found that every bottom of every boot and shoe was wet with urine. Dog or cat, I couldn’t tell, but it was certainly pet urine, I can tell you that! Obviously the dog and/or cats had wet repeatedly on the mat.
Remove the Source
Fortunately, Jan’s trash man was coming the next day. So, to remove dog and cat urine from cement, we started by placing all her shoes and boots in a trash bag. The fuzzy rubber mat was saturated, so that went into the bag too. As soon as I took the bag out to the curb, the smell in the house improved… a little.
Neutralize the Urine Odors
Underneath where the mat had been, there was a wet spot that measured about sixteen inches long and a foot wide. I asked Jan if she had any white vinegar, or if we had to dash to the grocery. She had a half jug of vinegar. So, I put on a pair of disposable gloves and went to work to remove the dog and cat urine from the cement.
First, I used a wad of paper towels to wipe up what I could of the urine. Then, I poured white vinegar full strength on the spot. The cement is neither sealed or painted, so I figured the urine had soaked into it. Therefore, I poured the white vinegar until it puddled up on the floor. The vinegar would neutralize the urine odors. Jan and I then went upstairs and had a cup of coffee.
Natural Odor Removal
It wasn’t too long before we realized the air in her house was smelling much better. No longer could we smell any pet urine at all! I wanted to leave the white vinegar set overnight. Even though vinegar is natural and non-toxic, one of her cats insisted on playing in it, so I used another wad of paper towels to wipe up the puddles. I did leave the floor wet though. I then told Jan she should scrub the spot with a non-ammonia household cleaner the next day. The cleaner would help remove any urine that had soaked into the cement. Just to make sure the air in Jan’s house continued to smell fresh, we filled several baby food jars half full with white vinegar. We then set those in the basement and around the house upstairs. (Out of the reach of the dog and cats, of course.)
The next night, when I arrived for the Mary Kay cosmetics party Jan hosted, I still couldn’t smell anything out of the ordinary. Later, I asked Jan what she used to scrub the spot. She looked embarrassed, and said, “I forgot. I rushed home from work and was so busy setting up for the party, that I forgot all about it. You can’t smell any urine, can you?” Not a thing! Getting rid of the source and neutralizing the ammonia with white vinegar does wonders to remove dog and cat urine from cement.
