FUR! Hair shedding and animal dander are allergens that contribute to asthmatic symptoms for many people. Pet hair can be embedded in carpet, rugs, and furniture.
OILS! Pets secrete oil from their fur and hair that leave a residue on your floors and upholstery, which can lead to the accumulation of smelly, hard to clean soil deposits.
SMELLY ODORS! Have you ever gone into someone’s home that smells like ‘dog’ or ‘cat.’ Many pet owners do not realize their home has an odor problem because overtime they have acclimated to the malodors. Guests can tell immediately if you have a pet unless you are very diligent with cleaning. But that’s where we can help. Carpet Color Solutions can handle almost any pet odor or pet stain issue.
DIRT AND STAINS! Perhaps your pet decided to ‘readjust’ your landscape or yard and dug a hole or two, or they just rolled in, what truthfully, you are not quite sure. Maybe they could not find their bone, so they decided to chew on your ink pen!
URINE STAINS & ODOR! Pet Urine can cause permanent damage to your floors. It can also create an unhealthy indoor environment. Urine contamination often requires many steps than just ordinary, topside cleaning. Installed carpeting has many surfaces that can be affected. Not only is the top of the carpet or upholstery contaminated, but often times the backing, padding, and sub-surfaces, must be decontaminated or replaced before urine decontamination is successful. Another concern with urine is that the acid in urine may permanently change the dye structure of the carpeting. We can treat these with neutralizers, but please be aware that occasionally the dye structure will be permanently stained from urine. If the urine contained medicine, occasionally this will produce a stronger acid that could damage the dye structure as well.
A dog or cat that weighs less than 5 pounds will produce more than 10 gallons of urine a year. If the animal concentrates most of that into an area of less than 100 square feet, which many of them do, the problem can be quite extensive. Urine leaves the body (man or animal) in an acid state, with a pH of about 5 to 6. It is rather pure and generally contains no harmful bacteria, pathogens or microorganisms. However, it becomes the perfect breeding ground for those things as soon as it leaves the body. The main ingredient in urine is uric acid. It also contains yellow pigment, urea, cholesterol, enzymes, and small amounts of other chemicals. The uric acid begins to change immediately upon leaving the body. The warm acid state of the urine offers a friendly environment for bacteria, which begin to flourish almost immediately. In this original acid state, the urine begins to oxidize and react with the carpet to create a color change, which may become permanent if the urine is not removed from the carpet. As urine begins to dry, it changes its hydrogen content and forms crystalline salts, which take on an alkaline pH. Then the smell begins!
When dried urine is remoistened, it gives off an ammonia gas. This is one way to identify a problem area, by the odor. Odors associated with urine come from two sources. The first source is bacteria that grow abundantly in dark warm places with a never ending food source (the pet feeds the bacteria daily!). This bacteria growth and breakdown of the urine creates amino acids. These complex organic compounds work deep into carpet fibers until they’re nearly part of the fiber. This can present a challenging situation. The waste materials and gases from the decomposing urine create an unpleasant odor. The second source of odor is a chemical odor that remains even when the bacteria have been killed. This explains the reason more than disinfecting is necessary to neutralize odors from urine. Urine also presents additional odor problems when the relative humidity is high. The salts and crystals that are formed are hydrophilic and draw water to them. As the salts are reactivated by moisture, they give off a greater proportion of odorous gases.
Before Urine Can Be Treated, It Must Be Found.
We Use 4 Tools For Urine Identification.
Nothing is more frustrating than searching for the source of urine odor. Each spot must be identified and properly treated.
- Our Nose-As explained above, urine contamination will smell. Our nose will often lead us to the source of the problem.
- Our Eyes- Usually urine stains are visible to the eye. However, you will learn that the damage may be more sever than meets the eye.
3. A Black Light- A black light becomes a valuable tool in locating the exact areas in need of treatment because it makes use of special ultra-violet rays which are on the same wavelength as pet urine, thus turning a tedious task into a breeze. The crystalline structure of dried urine causes it to fluoresce a dull yellow color under ultraviolet or “black” light. Urine is not the only substance that will fluoresce. Some soaps and detergents have components that fluoresce, even after rinsing thoroughly, as well as some fabrics and lint. These will usually fluoresce a bright white or even bluish hue, not the dull yellow of urine. However even after the areas have been decontaminated the affected areas may continue to fluoresce.
4. A Moisture Detector- When bacteria attacks uric acid, the bacterium leave behind a crystalline waste which is ‘hygroscopic; meaning that it constantly draws moisture from the environment. Although the contamination may appear to dry to the touch, the moisture detector will ‘ping’ when it comes into contact with urine because of the minute traces of water molecules found in the bacteria waste crystals.
Our knowledge and training combined with our advanced cleaning products make it possible for us to remove many spots and stains. Pet stains,coffee, candle wax, make up, dark edges along walls, and kool-aid stains can all typically be removed.
Pricing for specialty spotting is based upon severity, condition, and time required for removing the spot.
Let us know if you have difficult spots or stains. We’ll tell you how we can help.
