How To Remove Pet Stains

How To Remove Pet Stains

Often times, people dealing with pet stains overlook one major factor. Pets urinate by instinct. This is important to understand, because while an initial bathroom break in the house may be an accident, ongoing behavior is not. 

Both cats and dogs are drawn to bathroom locations by instinct. With cats, this is most evident by litter boxes. It is not uncommon for cat litter to be manufactured with an ammonia scent. This odor draws them to the box. If you are a dog owner, chances are you've had to wait outside while your dog sniffs around trying to find that perfect spot. In the event there was an isolated incident in the house, if that spot is not cleaned and the odor 100% removed, your pet will continue to go in that spot until it is finally cleaned. 

Understanding these animal behavior is extremely important in knowing how to deter pets from going in unwanted areas. Being aware of repeated incidents can help pet owners understand why properly cleaning pet stains can help prevent ongoing issues. The primary cause for what many people refer to accidents is scent. Scent draws animals to go to the bathroom in the same spot. To prevent the behavior, it is important that areas are thoroughly and properly cleaned to remove any scent that may draw your pet back to that spot.

There are many suggested remedies for cleaning pet stains. Unfortunately, many of them only worsen the situation. The biggest misconception is that pet stains can be cleaned using vinegar. Vinegar is listed as a common pet stain remover for many reasons. The fact that it is a natural product reassures pet owners they will not expose their pets to any dangerous chemicals. It is also an inexpensive product. Many pet owners have tried product after product to remove pet stains. Too many of them don't work. Because of this, it becomes pointless to spend money on yet another cleaner that will likely fail. Another reason people resort to vinegar is because it's likely in the house. When a stain happens, people want to treat it immediately. With so many homemade pet stain remover recipes calling for vinegar, it's easy to go right to the pantry and use it. 

But vinegar is without question, the absolute worst thing pet owners can use for pet stains. Especially in carpet. While vinegar might be able to reduce visual surface stains, it can not kill odor that has seeped into the padding. In fact, vinegar can encourage pets to urinate in spots where it had been used to clean carpet stains. 

Vinegar is an acid. It's acidic base has some of the same properties as urine. With pet's being drawn to urinate in an area based on scent, applying an acidic cleaner to the area will only enhance the smell. If you have been cleaning pet stains with vinegar and your pet keeps going in that spot, STOP. Your pet is going to keep going there until you have thoroughly cleaned the area of the odor. 

Enzymes are another popular suggestion for removing pet stains. Enzymes are often sought after for their "natural" properties - despite the fact some enzymes contain the same elements found in fertilizer. Enzymes are feisty things. The synopsis as to how they were is fairly simple. When the enzymes come in contact with the stains, the stain will react in a matter that cause it to break down. If only it were that simple. For an enzyme to work, there needs to be a match between itself and the stain it is breaking down. If the factors are not 100% accurate, the enzyme will not interact with the stain. Contributing factors are temperature, moisture, age of the stain, age of the enzyme, and the pet's diet and health (this impacts the chemistry of the pet's urine). If these factors are not in sync, the stain will appear to be removed while the carpet is still damp. Once the carpet dries, the stains will reappear. It is very common to clean with an enzymatic cleaner only to have to stain or odor return within a few days. This is the result of the enzyme not being able to properly react to the stain. 

Household cleaners are another incorrect way to clean pet stains. Baking soda can destroy vacuum cleaners from the fine particles that get trapped in the filter. They can also destroy carpet cleaning machines. When it becomes wet, it is almost paste like. This can cause it to clog in your machine and burn out the motor. Dish washing detergent and laundry soap are NOT designed for carpet. In fact, they can ruin carpet. Because soap attracts dirt, you may end up with phantom stains. These are stains that initially appear to go away, but then return from changes in humidity. This is from deposits of dirt the soap has collected over time in the carpet padding. Household cleaners with oxidizing chemicals can actually discolor your carpet. If after cleaning, your carpet appears orange or pink, this is the result of of an oxidizer. Now you don't just have a stain, but you also have discolored carpet. 

To properly clean pet stains, and more importantly to stop a cat or dog from peeing in the same area, you MUST remove the odor from previous pet stains. Genesis 950 is the best way to do this. 

Because Genesis 950 is a surfactant, it actually break down stain and odors. When used in a carpet cleaning machine, Genesis 950 has the power to get within the padding. This is crucial in removing pet odor from the carpet. As Genesis 950 breaks down and removes the stains, it does not leave behind any odors that will attract your pet to that spot. Unlike enzymes, you do not have to worry about the conditions being in place for the cleaner to become active. 

Genesis 950 is the best pet stain remover for surface stains and pet odors. remove the urine odor from your carpet and prevent your pets from using your carpet as their toilet!

DIY Carpet Cleaning

KEEPING CARPETS CLEAN

Throughout the year your carpet takes a toll from muddy, wet shoes tracking through the house. If you are a pet owner, you might even be battling muddy paws. Eventually, trails begin to appear through your house. Wet tracks seep into the carpet taking dirt and grime with them. Before long the dirt, dust and dander have seeped into the padding.

When possible, there may be an attempt to clean a spot as it happens. Sometimes the quickest thing might be grabbing a cleaning product from under the kitchen sink.

Carpet "Cleaned" with household cleaners

Grabbing that bottle of stain remover might not be the best idea however. In some cases, you can actually make a bigger stain then you started with. Here is an example of a stain that was treated with a very common store brought product that claims it is specifically designed to remove carpet stains.

Rather then removing the stain, the cleaner actually made a bigger mess. Store bought cleaners can have a negative effect on your carpet for several reasons. If a cleaning product is soap based, it can actually attract dirt to the area where it was used. If a cleaning product is chemical based, it can discolor your carpet. In this photo, a soap based cleaner basically just spread the stain throughout the carpet. Prior to the attempted cleaning, this was just a simple, small stain. After cleaning with a basic cleaner, which claims to be specifically for carpet stain removal, the stain now appears to be smudge marks throughout the carpet.

Genesis 950 Reviews

• Genesis 950 Reviews

One small spot can be frustrating, but when there are several stains, a carpet cleaned improperly can be an embarrassing nightmare. In the event that a carpet cleaner doesn't work, stains become the least of your worries. In the above example, an attempt was made to clean several stains. This photo represents months of trying to remove carpet stains using several different household cleaners. It is more then obvious that these cleaners failed miserably. Prior to cleaning, some of these stains were only visible if you approached the stains up close. After cleaning, they became eye sores. Cleaner after cleaner failed. The next step was replacing the carpet.

However . . . it turned out that the carpet simply wasn't cleaned right! After correctly cleaning the carpet, not only were the stains gone, but the stains left behind from the other cleaning products were removed as well.

If you have carpets that have become a nightmare, or if you are at your wits end with the mess on your floor, you are probably asking "How did you do it??" While this carpet was a battle for over 6 months, with an arsenal of store bought products and threats of being torn out, the issue ended up being resolved in less then an hour with amazing results as you can see.

How To Make Your Carpets Look Professionally Cleaned

It turned out that cleaning this carpet and removing the stains was easier then ever . . . once it was done correctly. The key to properly removing stains from the carpet was in the cleaner. The best type of cleaner to use is a water based surfactant. A surfactant cleaner works quite differently from other cleaners. It does not contain harsh chemicals or soaps found in many cleaners labelled as spot or carpet cleaners. Those type of cleaners promote buildup in carpet, or can cause reactions with previously used cleaners, or even with your carpet for that matter. Enzyme based cleaners can also be highly ineffective. The biggest problem with enzymes is that they are bacteria based. Because of this, they will only break down components with a specific composition. They react to other elements, and if the elements do not correspond, the enzyme will not break down what you are looking to remove. Vinegar and ammonia are often suggested, however if you have pets this is an absolute No No as pets can be drawn to urinate in the places where they were applied.

Surfactant based cleaners do not contain harsh chemicals. There is no bleach. There is no ammonia or vinegar. There are no enzymes. Instead, the cleaner breaks down the bonds of the stain, causing it to detach from the surface. It can then be flushed from the area it was located in.

The best way to clean a carpet, and the way that was done in the above example, was with a carpet cleaning machine. The machine used was a Bissel Pro Heat. It is probably one of the best carpet cleaners a home owner can buy. The cleaner used was Genesis 950 - which is without question the best carpet cleaner available.

How To Shampoo Your Carpets

The actual process to clean these stained areas took less then an hour. It was quite simple. The Bissell Pro Heat 2X has a compartment that fills with water, and another that fills with cleaning solution. In this case Genesis 950. The machine allows the user to set the level of cleaning needed. Obviously, based on the stains, the setting was "Heavy". Slowly, go over the stained areas releasing the mixture of solution and water into the carpet. After the area has been cleaned, the next step is to rinse. As the surfactant based cleaner has been released into the carpet, it immediately begins to break down the dirt, grime, and other residue in the carpet. Once the area is finished, use only water, and the rinse setting on the machine. Go over the area that was cleaned and begin flushing all the lifted debris from the carpet.

For this particular carpet, the rinse cycle took the longest. Upon rinsing, the water being returned to the machine was mud brown. It was shocking to see what was coming out of the carpet. It should have been expected based on how the surface looked, but we often forget that the dirt, dust and grime settle down into the carpet. This carpet needed to be rinsed about 7 to 8 times before the water being returned was clean. However the end results speak for them selves. The carpet was no longer a filthy eyesore. It was clean, smelled fresh, and was even restored to a fluffy state.