Cat Odors

[No One]

Inspected a house yesterday for a reverse mortgage and the lady has at least 20 cats. The smell was not good to say the least. Does FHA/HUD consider this to be a safety issue? Not sure I would complete this report as is due to there is just no way to know the extent of repairs needed to get rid of the smell. The carpet is the original carpet and it needs replacing at a minimum but that may not do it. Any thoughts?

 

[Riick]

Once the urine has soaked into wood floor, or subfloor, you have to tear it out to get rid of the odor.
Back in the 90's, a friend bought a REO owned by cat lovers, she had to pull carpet & subfloor t/o the 1st floor,
and, worried that she should have replaced some joist. Nasty stuff, some of the plywood was disintegrating.
I wouldn't ignore the situation, you might want to ask for a specialist -of some sort- look at the property for damage.

 

[Rlong]

The cat pee specialist..

 

[Meandering]

Cat pee is mostly ammonia. In its natural state, ammonia is hazardous, as cat pee its going to depend on the sensitivity of individuals.

A strong odor will impact the marketability of the home. so as is, it mostly will be near the bottom of the range. Finding "smelly comps" will be difficult unless you know a bunch of sales folks and can find one with a war story to tell you about a smelly house they sold.

Costs to repair can be difficult, as cats mark their territory by spraying, which could mean the lower 2-3 feet of sheet rock, top and sub floors, base cabinets, and all furniture. It's going to be your judgment based on what you saw. If there are no Toms, likely, it'll be the flooring near the litter box and some furniture damage.

 

[Michigan CG]

Cat pee will go into concrete. Cost to cure? Bulldozer perhaps?

 

[J Grant]

I would recommend a property inspection in case the pee has soaked through into any wood or eroded any surfaces...depends how bad it is, or could just be smelly carpet and litter boxes and they pee on furniture.

Is it a hoarding situation? Maybe after report is delivered, call animal control to visit the property ( or have someone else call).

 

[erockinaz]

http://www.petodorremovalservice.com/home

Cat pee will go into concrete. Cost to cure? Bulldozer perhaps?

Michigan is right, they offer a service to get cat **** out of concrete. Didn't realize it could get that bad.

I once had a similar situation with cigarette smoke. The walls and sheet vinyl were stained yellow and the smell permeated the carpet, cabinets, sheet rock. After some research, I hit it with a significant cost to cure.

 

[Mark K]

Cost to cure for a couple cans of Lysol, no problem.

Actually a couple good coats of exterior polyurethane or KILZ will seal concrete or wood to the point where you can't smell cat pee.

Years back I had several rentals and it never seemed to fail that someone would ignore the "no pets" section of the lease every now and then. The above procedure worked well each time. Obviously the carpet and pad were trash but the sealing cured the smell.

 

[Riick]

Actually a couple good coats of exterior polyurethane or KILZ will seal concrete or wood to the point where you can't smell cat pee.

I'm curious; What was under those carpets? plywood, flakeboard, hardwood finish floor, concrete ?

 

[Mr Rex]

I'm curious; What was under those carpets? plywood, flakeboard, hardwood finish floor, concrete ?

It doesn't matter. Use oil based Kilz and either the odor of the paint overcomes the smell or the Kilz encapsulates it. The professionals also use ozone generators and enzymatic products to neutralize the odors. I suggest the OP and the peanut gallery talk to a local fire,smoke,flood reclamation contractor like ServPro or similar before they suggest the only cure is a bulldozer. Cat **** is just another smelly day at the office for these folks.