Featured Getting urine smell out of wood

My neighbor is having to quickly move from her home and is greatly down sizing.

It was a bit of a hoarder situation, so when she told me to come see what she had for sale I didn't get a really great look at everything

One of the pieces I bought was a 1970s Ethan Allen server.
I found the same one Cherish, just so yall have an idea of what I'm talking about.

When I got it on my porch I noticed it was sticky.
I sprayed it with a cleaner and that's when the cat urine smell started up, and that's when I noticed a cat must have been peeing on it for quite some time

I got a solution of half vinegar and half water and started spraying, wiping, scrubbing, so much the finish has come off in the area (which the piece is going to have to be completely stripped anyways), but if I run my fingers over the area, the cat pee smell still lifts off.

I probably (did) over paid for the items I bought because I couldn't tell the condition of everything, I was going on good neighborly faith , so Im going to have to try and make this work...

Whats the best method to get the urine smell out of the wood?
Will stripping, sanding, paint/stain work?
Or do I need to take an extra step?

https://www.chairish.com/product/32...VJatTDCoA2KKJKKnZA4gOcfZsg5XMznRoCB_IQAvD_BwE

 

Sorry to read that your good neighborly faith was not well rewarded. If you strip the piece and refinish it then hopefully that will remove the smell, or at least seal it up.

 

Need something to absorb the smell, maybe a bag of cat litter over the area, keep replacing it with new litter when it absorbs? Just a suggestion as I’ve not tried it.

 

You could try one of the enzyme solutions designed to remove such odors, such as "Nature's Miracle". Spray it on, and leave it to evaporate.

 

If all else fails, cover the area, or the whole piece, with good shellac. It has proven ability to be an effective barrier on wood.

 

Cat urine is a monster to eradicate. Ive tried more than once,unsuccessfully, so I dont even bother anymore. In fact I just bought an Ikea metal lamp that I cleaned when I got it home and put on my nightstand and that night when I used it I could smell that animal smell ! Not urine pre se,but that funk. i smell everything before i buy it but didnt catch this one.

 

I can tell you to clean urine smells from an animal on wood - horse stall cleaners work well, stronger enzymes than what is for smaller animals (cats/dogs) I have a friend who has a very spiteful cat who peed on one area of her wood floors repeatedly, through our research & trial & error it has been the only thing that has removed it & didnt damage her floors, but as always test a small area first. I like Johnny am very sensitive to smells & couldn’t go in her house with the smell. There is also a neutralizer type of flakes they sell which helps get into the crevices.

 

Wow, I didn't know "horse stall cleaners" existed! (Filing this away mentally for possible future use, thanks.)
In a previous home I had a cat who was partial to a corner of my son's bedroom. It was carpeted but by the time I traced where the odor was coming from, it had been in use for some time and the urine had soaked through to the wood beneath. I pulled up that corner of carpet and used everything I could think of, including several products made for pet smells... nothing worked completely. Ended up throwing down a bunch of baking soda on the wood under the carpet (which I had been able to make odor-free) and that seemed to mostly do the trick... except on the hottest days.
I got the baking soda idea from another home I'd lived in. When I replaced the wall-to-wall carpeting, I found baking soda in a couple corners and staining on the wood underfloor. NO odors, so it had done it's job. The previous owner of that home had had small dogs.
But cat urine is much more odiferous than dog urine.

 

Fullers earth cat litter.

 

My experience has been that cats can smell that spot in your home long after an apparently successful campaign that includes perfumery after the odor abatement process...an' will continue to use it. All Hope Abandon...Resistance Is Futile!

 

WICh is the very reason I dont have a cat though I love them ! The previous owner of our house had cats and a dog (No we didnt know) and on a good warm day the animal funk is noticeable . Im terrified if I get a cat it will seek out and mark all the previous cats spots.

 

I had a dog who, when she got old, had pee problems. I tried everything to get the odor out of the wooden floor, it got better but never really went away.

The final solution...had the bad areas pulled up, inserted new wood and refinished the whole floor. I know that's not an option for a lot of people, but it worked!

 

I have no idea if this would help but there is a product I see on tv called Pooph.
It is supposed to deal with bad smells. Not sure it would work in your situation but might be worth a try.
I never knew there were horse stall cleaning things and we owned horses. LOL

 

This is it
https://www.pooph.com/?srsltid=AfmBOori-C8-s4y2fpzInb0bWQsdB48fj6UhRqfsFZgJQAg0vbOJAhOo

 

We had tried everything on her floor my vet suggested it he grew up with horses, and it worked even on a hot day. Her cat still has not re-peed anywhere most important her old favored spot.

 

BTW, the server is beautiful! I think it's worth the effort and I hope it works out well for you!

 

I don't want to discourage you, but there was a room in our 1850 house that Jon's mother's cats had peed on the rug. We pulled up the rug and it had soaked through the wood. There had been a fire in that room long ago and the flooring had been replaced with plywood so we thought we could get rid of the odor by using a special product on the wood. We did two treatments and then put a special shellac over it that was supposed to work. If you leave the door closed for even a couple of days and then open it, you can still smell a mixture of the cat pee and a slightly sweet smell from the stuff we put on to get rid of it. This was done in 1995. I wish you luck. We should have ripped up the floor.