i was having the floors done today when he called my father flipping out. saying i did not tell him there was cat pee all over. these floors need to be ripped up etc etc. he was rather rude so i’m not to mad he’s not going to do the job. for those of you who have done rehabs where there have been dog or cat urine on the wood floors. how often does it need to be ripped up? was this guy just trying to get more money outa me? maybe it was a little more work required and he didnt want to do it?
any info and shared experiences would be great.
He may be right…cat urine is hideous to deal with. Sometimes it can be neutralized, sometimes not…
Keith
his comment (as well as others) was that some boards were black and that the urine just eats through. he said it would be better to just replace the wood than to put in patches (once again im guessing he just doesnt want to be bothered) if it truly does need to be replaced, i have no choice…however we’ll be using somebody else. he did not act too professional at all. i even mentioned to him to come look at the job and his reply was “i don’t have to see it” hmmm maybe that was the first red flag i neglected.
"i don't have to see it"
That is not necessarily a red flag. I have had that before. He was relying on what you told him. He quoted you a straight forward fix up and you threw him a curve with this cat pee. My flooring guy will give me a price without coming out (especially with the high cost of gas). I do, however, let him know if there is something unusual he needs to know about.
I see. Well this wasn’t my intention. I did mention it was a rehab, I’m not exactly certain if I did mention the cat and dog piss. I honeslty believe I did mention this but can’t say for certain. Therefore I will take blame for not informing him, but not for his actions. If he spoke to me prior to speaking with my pops, I would have asked him…“ok, what do you suggest we do?” and then taken it from there. at any rate, this is water under the bridge, i’m hoping that i will not have to replace it all and at most there will be some patch work required…i guess i’ll find out shortly.
ryan
In the long run you will probably be better off replacing the flooring…if the urine smell cannot be neutralized it’s going to 1 be a detriment to selling and 2 cause you more money out of pocket to go back and fix it after the fact.
There are also certain stains that go right through the wood. Some water stains are like that and the only way to get rid of it would be to replace some of the wood. I didn’t worry about it too much, went ahead and had the floors sanded anyway. I just say it gives the place a little “character”. Probably not good if you’re going to live there, but it was good enough for a rental. At first glance it’s not too bad, only if you stare hard do you really notice the stains.
Ya if they’re only stained by all means sand away…normally it’ll look fine…but with Urine…YUCK who wants to buy a house that smells
i was actually under the impression that the oil poly would seep into the wood more than the water based ones. i don’t mind if there are some spots that do indeed give it “character”. the smell is my biggest issue. i was hoping after it’s sanded that the poly would act almost as a sealent.
replacing the whole floor would be a huge pain, maybe we can get some patch work done…at least one can home.
ryan
I wouldn’t do business with the guy eather.You can’t act like that when you have a business that you beal with the public.We have a carpet business and there have been plenty of times we have walked in a house the the carpet is all peed up.If its a problem you call the customer and just talk about what needs to be done or what can be done and do it.If its going to cost more money then you let them know that and go on with the day and get the job done.Some people are so unprofessional!!!Michele
Call the Wah-mbulance for this guy. What a whiner. He’s right that the smell will come through eventually but what an attitude.
Pull up the carpet and pad and scrape off the staples with a flat shovel.
Trundle over to a Pro paint shop and pick up a 5 gallon pail of their Ooops paint. It’s the stuff they mixed wrong and can’t really sell so they gotta throw it out. Might cost $10 at most. My paint store just gives it to me.
Grab that semi crappy roller you’ve been saving for three years because you think you’ll use it some day but when it gets right down to it you know it’ll mess up a paint job. Then just roll out the entire floor to seal in the odor. Might take you an hour. Lay down some bleach/water mixture first if you feel you must (and let it dry).
Then call another floor guy.
D.
dkaras1,
is that sarcasm or does that techinque work? why would i put paint on the floor and then just sand it off? i’m not quite following, but if there is a method to that madness…i’m all ears ;]
…i have another floor guy comming tomorrow, i hope he has a different opinion of what needs to be done. we’ll see.
ryan
He was not talking about sanding off the paint. He was talking about painting the bare floor and then putting carpet pad and carprt over it.
Are you using hard wood flooring?
yes these are hardwood floors with no carpet on them.
i was thoroughly confused for a minute there ;]
ryan
I just bought a house for a rehab and encountered the same problem…hardwood floors with worn finish and several spots stained with pet urine. Our solution was to open the windows, sprinkle baking soda on all of the affected areas, and refinish the floors. The baking soda helps soak the remaining moisture in the wood floor.
I’ve had some folks tell me that pet urine causes irrepairable damage. In my case, we’re yet to see if our solution is effective. Just thought I’d pass it on to you.
-RFG
much appreciated RFG, please keep me posted and i think i’ll give it a shot…can’t hurt.
ryan
My Bad! I guess I was a little over-caffeinated.
I completely missed that it was hardwood floors. Thought we were talking about carpet with wood-underlayment. The technique works great if you have peed on carpets soaked through teh padding and subfloor. Doesn’t work very well for hardwood floors.
D.
if it was carpet and i was replacing carpet…yes i would get a whole thing of Kills and put that down then do what you said…i’ve never done this, but that would be my first instinct.
ryan
Ryan,That is what we do for carpet too.We put down baking soda.It really works good.I didnt want to say anything about it because i didnt know if it would mess up the hardwood since you didnt want to cover them with carpet.If its nice out open up the windows and soak up the pee with the baking soda.I hope they turn out looking good as new for you.Michele
thanks michele66, its a great idea and i plan on doing it. i hope it helps a bit…although the stains are pretty dark ;/