Web page for urine elimination

Urine Elimination

The information about how you can eliminate pet urine problems is further down this page. If you would read this other information first it will help you to understand the importance of the recommendation I give you.

What is animal urine?

Animal urine consists primarily of water, yellow pigment, urea, uric acid, cholesterol, enzymes and traces of other chemicals. The urine leaves the animal’s body as an acid compound, but due to rapid bacterial action, the urine changes into a highly alkaline compound. Urine deposits form alkaline salts. It is the alkaline salts and the yellow pigment called urobilogen that cause the yellow spots we think of as urine stains.

The amount of time that these components remain in the carpet fibers has a great deal to do with the success rate of completely removing both the spots and the odor. The off-gassing of the bacteria creates ammonia, which can cause a loss of color in fabrics. When this happens, the dyes and carpet fibers may be permanently damaged. In beige carpet, blue dyes are attacked by pet urine, leaving behind the red and yellow dyes, with a resulting stain appearing red, yellow, or orange. This color loss from old urine stains is often mistakenly associated with the current presence of urine. There are times with old urine that we can not remove the stain, simply because it is not a stain but a loss of color.

Fresh urine does not actually have an unpleasant odor, but the ammoniacal smell of stale (old) urine is due to bacterial decomposition of the urea in the urine, urine salts, mercaptans, and the bacterial excrement itself. Nature's bacteria will continue to feed as long as there is a food source and moisture. That is why the ammonia smell becomes stronger on humid days, or soon after a carpet has been cleaned if insufficient or ineffective chemicals have used in the cleaning process. This is where most do-it-yourself cleaners have difficulties.

Pet urine, left untreated, can damage carpet in several ways. Moisture can weaken the layers of the carpet, allowing separation or delamination of the backing material. Seam areas can be particularly damaged and can separate.

Some carpet manufacturers have developed backings that resist spills and even prevent the spillage from penetrating the carpet into the carpet cushion and, perhaps, the subfloor. Check with your carpet dealer about these products

Situations to be aware of when doing this work yourself.
With urine over 12 hours old, the bacteria must be killed. Cleaning without an enzyme or proper disinfectant will not eliminate the odor.

Sometimes the urine stain may have removed but the bacteria were never destroyed. This results in a spot that has urine odor but you don’t know where it is, because you can’t see the stain. To effectively get rid of the odor, you must locate and treat every area that has urine. You can either crawl around with your nose in the carpet sniffing for urine, you can pull up the carpet and look at the back of the carpet for the stains there, or you can use a UV long-wave blacklight made for urine detection. You can find these at most pet supply stores.

Always follow directions carefully, however, when it comes to using solutions to kill bacteria, overkill is always better. Always imagine how much urine went into the carpet originally and how deep into the carpet it went. You need to match at least that amount.

All pet urine situations are not created equal.
The process most effectively used will vary depending on the severity of each different situation.

What do you do when you find fresh urine?

(This is for individual spots, not for saturated areas.)

How to take care of the fresh urine problem yourself.

When the urine leaves the animal, it is in an acid state, so it must be neutralized so that it doesn't cause damage to carpet fibers.

1. Remove the majority of the urine by blotting with a clean white towel. Press down firmly to remove as much moisture as possible. Repeat until no stain appears on cloth.

2. Then mix 1 teaspoon mild liquid non-bleach laundry detergent and 1 quart water.

3. Dip a clean white absorbent cloth into the solution and then blot the spot and continue to blot until stain is not apparent.

4. Apply straight water to the spot to rinse all detergent residues.

5. Mix 2 tablespoons of white vinegar per cup of warm water.

6. Blot the area with this solution to remove all alkaline residues.

7. Dry carpet with towels or hair dryer set on low heat setting.

Urine stains over 12 hours old

(This is for individual spots, not for saturated areas.)

First you must kill the bacteria. To do this you can use a product from Fred Meyers called ‘Pets and Kids’ or a product called ‘Nature’s Miracle’ that you can get from most pet supply stores. Follow the directions carefully. If this does not get rid of the stains,try using 1 part vinegar to 3 parts water to eliminate stain.If this does no product called Natures Miracle that you can get from most pet supply stores.e

Caution; if you use vinegar, do not use water over 150 degrees, because you could actually set the stain in.

Areas where cats have urinated several times.

If you have severe cat urine problems, then we need to talk. Most of the time we can fix your problems, but the first step is to have a telephone conversation. We could come to your place to do the blacklight and could advise you at that point on what needs to be done.

Cats usually have 1-3 favorite places where they will go over and over. It is almost always up against a wall, usually in a corner and usually area about three feet long by two feet wide along both walls at that corner. Cats tend to go repeatedly in the same place, saturating the carpet fibers, the carpet backing, the pad, and even the wood floor underneath. Tack strip and trim can also become saturated with urine. One reason why cat urine staining and odor is so difficult to remove is because the fibers become saturated with urine and as the water content in the urine evaporates, the urine becomes more and more concentrated.

With cats about 90% of the time the only effective treatment is to:

1. Pull up the carpet, remove the affected pad.

2. Disinfect the sub floor, using ‘Urine Prespray’ and ‘MultiPhase’ products you can get by calling Warren and Sons at 562-4980.

3. Seal the sub floor with Kilz seal paint.

4. Extract as much of the urine from the carpet as possible.

5. Saturate the carpet with the UPS and Multi Phase.

6. Let sit for 15 minutes.

7. Flush and extract the affected carpet.

8. Repeat steps 5, 6 and 7 until there is no more urine odor in carpet.

9. Install new pad and reinstall carpet.

10. Thoroughly clean all surrounding carpets.

If this process does not completely work, there is a technology called encapsulation that might be helpful. Call me at 227-9014 and I will explain the process to you.

What you should know about dog urine.

Dogs piddle all over the carpet, seemly wherever the notion hits them. Occasionally dogs will have a spot they use several times, but the rule of thumb is all over the carpet. Dogs that have not been neutered or spayed may mark their territories.

The size of the urine spot is the main factor in deciding which process to use. The concern is that spots larger than about the size of a hand is enough urine to soak into the backing of the carpet. It is important to saturate the carpet and the pad in this area with the disinfectant or enzyme.

Occasionally with severe urine problems where there has been overlapping urine stains or very large stains, the only effective treatment is to follow the procedure above for severe cat urine problem.

If you want Power Clean to eliminate the problem.

The new Power Clean slogan is: Power Clean: your cleaning experts from A to Z, especially Pee.

This may be humorous but it is also true, We have become very expert in dealing with pet related cleaning problems.
Part of the reason we are so successful with urine removal
are the high-tech chemicals and equipment we use. One of
these tools is the Water Claw. The Water Claw allows us to
flush through the carpet and even the pad to remove urine.

The Cost

We charge $95 per hour for the labor involved in urine remediation. This includes:

§    Time spent using the blacklight to detect urine, when necessary.

§    Time spent pulling up carpet and removing pad, when necessary.

§    Time spent sealing sub floor when necessary.

§    Time spent applying solution to affected areas.

§    Time spent flushing and extracting carpet.

§    Time spent laying new pad and reinstalling carpet, when necessary

This does not include the cost for the regular carpet cleaning.

We charge $35 per gallon for the chemicals used. (This is our cost)

We charge for the materials used, such as padding, new tack strips, seal paint and etc.

There are basically four different processes that we use, depending on the severity of the urine problem. Here are the four situations and the processes we would recommend. Included are approximate estimates as to how much it might cost.

1. A few visible urine stains smaller than your hand. These are the easiest, we simply need to saturate the urine stains and clean with our regular cleaning process. The cost is minimal, usually between $15 and $30 extra.

2. There are no visible stains, however there is a urine odor. Pet owners sometimes clean up the stains with a solution that will not eliminate the odor. This means we have to find where the urine is. Our first step is to use a long-wave UV blacklight under which we can clearly see all urine spots. We flush out those spots, then saturate with our combination disinfectant and deodorizer product which will kill the bacteria that is causing the odor. We then flush this out of the carpet.

The total cost depends on how much urine we find, but in most of these cases the labor is between 1 and 2.5 hours- which is about $95 to $238; chemicals, between $15 and $40. Total cost is usually between $138 to $280.

This is in addition to our regular carpet cleaning cost. Again, these prices depend on how much urine we find. Sometimes we find very little urine and the cost is much less than these average prices.

3. There are many urine spots and a noticeable odor. We recommend using the UV long-wave blacklight to find any non-visible spots. On smaller stains we saturate with our disinfectant and clean; with larger spots, which we feel may have gotten into the backing, we use our specialty Water Claw tool to flush urine from pad, backing, and fibers of carpet. We then saturate these spots with our disinfectant and flush them out again until we feel we have flushed out all of the urine. It is possible we might find a spot with either a very large stain or saturated carpet where we might recommend replacing the pad.

The cost is difficult to say here, but even with quite a few urine spots, most jobs like this take us between 1.5 and 4 hours of urine elimination work. Total average cost for additional work might be $315 plus normal carpet cleaning cost. If we have to replace pad, the cost would be significantly more due to considerable more labor and material cost.

4. Severe urine problems. This would include most cat urine problems. If you have severe urine problems, then we need to talk. Most of the time we can fix your problems, but the first step is to have a telephone conversation. We could come to your place to do the blacklight and could advise you at that point on what needs to be done. We could also give you a much closer cost estimate.

Health issues

There are health issues associated with urine in the carpet, so we always recommend doing the full process needed to remove the bacteria. It is, however, up to you, our customers, to decide how thoroughly you want to deal with problems. However, if a customer is moving from the residence and wants us to hide the problem, we will not do this work.

At Power Clean we are proud of the work we do. Our first objective is be effective in the work that we do. We also try to be as cost effective for our customers as we can.

Web site answers water damage

Water Damage

If you have water in your carpets, here are the issues you need to look at.

The first step is always use proper safety precautions. Wear safety gloves, masks and glasses when appropriate, read and follow directions carefully when using equipment or chemicals. Be extra careful around rusty tack strips.

1. If possible, you need to stop the water from coming in. If you have a broken pipe, you must turn off the water where it comes into the house. If it is rain water coming through the concrete wall, you probably need to dig a hole outside and put in a sump pump. Wherever the water is coming in, stop it or catch it in buckets.

2. Extract as much of the water from the carpet as you can. Start at the point furthest from the source so that you stop the water from getting even more carpet wet. You need to know if there is pad under your carpet. In most cases there is. The pad is just a big sponge. There is going to be just as much or more water in the pad as there is in the carpet. What you need to do next depends on your situation. I am going to explain different situations and what needs to happen.

Situation 1: Water is from a clean water source such as broken fresh water pipe. There is no pad and floor is concrete. Water has been on carpets less than 24 hours.

Hire a professional to extract, disinfect and clean, or rent a carpet cleaning machine, extract water, disinfect with Odor Master Quaternary cleaner (call 562- 4980 Warren and Sons for quaternary cleaner) and clean carpets. If you have some fans, put them in room to help the carpet get dry.

Situation 2: Same situation except floor has been wet for more than 24 hours.

Same process, except make extra sure you disinfect carpets really well with Odor Master Quaternary cleaner (call 562- 4980 Warren and Sons for quaternary cleaner). If you find mold in carpets, stop and call us.

Situation 3: Clean water source but you have pad on concrete.

It totally depends on how fast you can get the carpet and pad dry. The real concern is the pad. The safe thing to do is to take the pad out and throw it away. If you have a professional like Power Clean, we have the high-tech tools to dry out the pad quickly enough to save it. If you do it yourself you will need to extract really well, disinfect carpet with Odor Master Quaternary cleaner (call 562-4980 Warren and Sons for quaternary cleaner), rent one or more floor fans and put the fans under the carpet. After the carpet and pad is dry, clean the carpet.

Situation 4: The water source is contaminated because either it was clean water but very dirty carpets or it is ground water coming in from outside.

If no pad- Use same process as clean water, just make sure you disinfect 100% of every fiber of the carpet with Odor Master Quaternary cleaner (call 562- 4980 Warren and Sons for quaternary cleaner). Just spraying disinfectant is not enough. Check and disinfect tack strips. Replace them if they are rotted.

If with pad-The pad needs to be thrown away. It is just too difficult to properly disinfect padding. Infected padding is a health hazard. After removing pad, disinfect sub-floor, thoroughly disinfect with Odor Master Quaternary cleaner (call 562- 4980 Warren and Sons for quaternary cleaner), and then disinfect and clean carpet. Place floor fans under carpet. When dry, replace pad. Check and disinfect tack strips. Replace them if they are rotted.

Situation 5: Waste water from sewage or outside water that has dog waste in it.

All of our training tells us that these carpets and pad need to be extracted and then thrown away. There is just too much contamination to clean properly. If you insist on trying to salvage the carpets, you must take out pad, disinfect sub-floor, and disinfect with Odor Master Quaternary cleaner (call 562- 4980 Warren and Sons for quaternary cleaner) and clean carpets two or three times. Fans should be used to get the carpet dry quickly. Wood floor should also be painted with a good sealing paint such as shellac-based Kilz.

If you choose to have Power Clean take care of your water damage, we will be able to do this more quickly and with more certain results. We use high-tech tools to insure that we do the job properly. Our powerful van-mount units extract much more powerfully than a portable unit. We use the Water Claw floor tool which allows us to remove most of the water from the pad with out pulling up the carpet. We have and can use dehumidifiers to greatly speed up the drying time. We have many professional floor fans. We also have 30 years experience to know what to do.

If you choose to do this work yourself, we still invite you to call us and we will be glad to answer any questions that you have.

Website answers for soil infiltration

Soil Infiltration

What is soil infiltration?

Soil infiltration is that dark line you see at the base of the walls and around the heating vents. You will often see soil infiltration along all of the edges of your stairs. Soil infiltration is caused by minute particles of dust blowing through the home. Houses breathe, and air is forced under walls. This problem is much more prevalent in homes with forced air heating. The difficulties with cleaning soil infiltration is that the soil has saturated the carpets from the bottom to the top, the soil is so microscopic that it wants to cling to the fibers, and the edges of the walls are hard to access for cleaning.

How do you clean it?

First using the end of a vacuum cleaner hose or a special attachment, vacuum the edges thoroughly. There is a product called ‘Filter Free’, a super surfactant, meaning that it causes the fibers to become super wet and allows the microscopic soil to release. ‘Filter Free’ can be purchased at Interlink Supply (call 349-0911). Apply ‘Filter Free’ to the stains and gently massage into carpet fibers using a soft bristle brush, let sit for a few minutes, brush again, then flush out the soil and solution using either the upholstery attachment on a portable carpet cleaner or by spraying water on stain and then extracting with wet-vac. It takes patience to do this and the soil may not come completely out, and sometimes the stain may be gone but will wick back up from base of carpets. Repeated cleaning may take care of the problem.

How to keep it from happening.

The most important thing to do is to clean or change your filters on your heater on a regular monthly schedule.

Every time you vacuum, use the end of the hose or special attachment and vacuum the edges of the carpet. Keeping your house as dust free as possible, vacuum carpets at least twice a week with hepa filter vacuum, get your carpets cleaned at least once per year, and every 4-5 years have your heating ducts inspected and cleaned if needed.

What can Power Clean do?

We have had much experience cleaning soil infiltration. Unfortunately because this is such labor intensive, hands-and-knees work, there is an addition charge for us to remove soil infiltration. In most cases, we can do this for around $60, depending, of course, on how much soil infiltration there is.