Stewarsh:I am acquiring a rental property where a dog was allowed to urinate in the basement. As you can imagine, the rest of the house is in pretty rough shape and will need a major cleaning. Is there some sort of gas treament/service that available to deodorize and desinfect the whole house?
Greg, Rochester, NY
Hey Greg....Greg here. :) I have been off for a while but saw this and wanted to reply. I did floor care for 10 years and specialized in Pet Urine problems. There are 2 things you are going to need to do. And something you and everyone else needs to know. Concrete is like a sponge. It is highly porus and absorbs everything, from liquid to odors out of the air. I have actually watched after days of rain, water coming out of a basement floor litterally with pressure. Was amazing site to see. To know what I mean, take a sponge, and hold your hose to the bottom of it (outdoor or sink sprayer hose) and turn on the water. From the top, you will see water coming out with a force. This is what it was doing. It made me quickly learn to deal with concrete and cement.
1) You MUST kill everything down there. Do this with a BLEACH cleaning. 1 part bleach to 25-30 parts water. Best way to do this, is get 5 or 6 five gallon buckets and fill with water. Cold or hot, doesn't matter. Add 1 gallon of bleach between those buckets. If there is a drain down there, and MOST basements have a drain somewhere, dump the buckets around the room, and start pushing the water around with a broom. Scrub all areas well with the broom (straw broom works best.) Make sure any windows are open down there and you may wish to wear a respirator if you are sensitive to bleach. I usually don't, but will go outside every few minutes for a few minutes. A fan blowing across the room towards a window or door will help with the fumes. Once the water is all over the floor, allow it to sit for at least 30 minutes. Longer is better. (note: I usually take a hose with me to a basement and spray it constantly to keep it wet.) Add some more bleach to any really bad areas....but make damned sure you are NOT staying down there with the fumes for more than a few minutes at a time. Some will say there are products safer than bleach, but fact is, NOTHING will kill urine like bleach. NOTHING! After 30-60 minutes, you can spray the floor off towards the drain, suck up with wet/dry vac, or just allow to air dry using fans.
2) Next, and people will try to get around this...and here is something you and everyone else must hear: YOU CAN NOT SKIP THIS STEP WITH ANY URINE CONTAMINATION!!!!!!!!!!! You must get a product called BIN. It is like KILZ, but much much better. KILZ will NOT work for urine. You then must paint the floor with the BIN. All areas that were urinated on must have BIN painted over and at least a foot outside the areas. If not carpeting the floor later, you should just paint it all. One coat will usually be enough if you put it on moderately, but 2 coats is better. If the animal urinated next to walls or even on the walls, you need to paint at least 6 inches up the wall in that area, but I recommend 9-12 inches. This is true for cement or drywall. Drywall must be 12 inches. Once that is dry, you are done, safe, and AllClene.
Please know, this is an area I trained for and went to school for. I did more than 500 urine contamination clean-ups a year. The above will work and is the only method that is approved by health inspectors and home inspectors.
If you need any more help, let me know. There are some other products you can use now, but it depends on what you wish to spend. Some of them are about $40.00 a gallon, and for a 600 square foot basement, you would need 4-5 gallons. Bleach is 1.29 a gallon or less. But if you wish to know the other products, email me.
Hope that helps...
Greg