Exposing the Myth of “Quick and Painless Home Remedies” for Removing Cat and Dog Urine Odors

At Odor Medic, we have more than a decade of experience fixing cat urine and dog urine odor problems in numerous surfaces, materials and environments. From a commercial service standpoint, we have fixed over a thousand pet-related odor problems. In addition to physically performing the work ourselves, we have helped thousands more pet owners through the sale of our products and free step-by-step consulting.

From our experience, the myth of quick and painless home remedies is a very real problem costing pet owners significant expense when it comes time to undo the damage caused. In approximately 70 percent of the homes we have fixed, a pet urine odor problem was made significantly worse through the use of either an enzyme-based product from the pet store, or some other type of home remedy such as vinegar, peroxide, baking soda, Listerine, bleach, etc.

At its core, the problem is rooted in the application process of simply pouring on and saturating the contaminated area with one or more of these unproven remedies. (In most cases, they are nothing more than marketing gimmicks.) For instance, in the vast majority of problems where a pet has peed on the carpet, the source of the odor is not only in the carpet fibers, but also much deeper down in the backing, behind the baseboard, under the wall, and in the sub-floor.

So, in reality, simply pouring on chemical makes the problem worse by flushing the urine deeper, and wider, into the fabric (consequently making more work and incurring additional expense to fix the now larger problem area).

Every problem has its own unique set of circumstances and the key to successfully removing cat urine and dog urine odors is in the process used to remove them. The process is just as important as the product, and this is particularly true when treating carpet, rugs and upholstered furniture.

At Odor Medic, our proven processes have been perfected over a decade from using them everyday to fix pet odor problems in homes, businesses and vehicles. And in that time, what have we learned? We’ve learned that there is no quick and painless remedy to permanently eliminate pet urine odors.

It absolutely can be done—your furniture, carpet and wood floors can be saved, but it does take a bit of work. We’ll work with you every step of the way so that things are done in the right order and to ensure that the problem gets fixed in the least amount of time and at lowest possible cost.

If you use our products and take advantage of our free consulting, we guarantee permanent odor elimination or your money back!

Customer Testimonial: Eliminating Severe Cat Urine Odor with Odor Medicine O.F.

Below is a letter from a customer with whom we developed a custom plan to fix a severe cat urine odor problem. The situation combined two of the most difficult obstacles to overcome:

• Severe cat urine odor from multiple cats in several different surfaces
• An extreme sensitivity to odors

This use-case testimonial does an excellent job of outlining the importance of "process" when eliminating cat urine odor, as well as reinforcing why simply "pouring some product on" doesn't work for permanent odor elimination.

Following the testimonial, our response includes tips on how to address any residual scent and improve the quality of the air inside your home.


"Hi David,

We have finally been able to use your product and are very happy with the results. This was no small project that my husband started therefore it was a bit longer than anticipated to get rid of all the contents etc... I was not able to go help him as I just couldn't tolerate the cat urine smell, a good thing that the house is vacant.

We started with the big problem which I had mentioned before, an area in the basement, on concrete. My husband soaked the area twice and there is absolutely no odor left. For the rest of the house he used a garden sprayer. People that had been in the house before it was sprayed and we can't believe the difference.

I was able to get a black light through ebay and my husband has been doing one room at a time, all floor coverings througout the house have been disposed of and in the worst rooms he replaced the subfloor 2 feet around the perimeter, we just didn't want to take a chance. The bedrooms have been done in September and is now odorless.

He has sprayed the living/dining/kitchen areas but I find that there is still a bit of an odor left. It could be that it is coming from a few pieces of furniture that were left in the room and it took on the odor of the house. The pieces of furniture are antiques and we will be moved to the garage until we can get rid of them. Walls have been taken down or opened for the new floor plan and we have the drywall people coming in next week.

All the new kitchen cabinets have been ordered and will be installed before xmas. My husband keeps telling me that once the drywall and paint are done that we won't be smelling anything. I just don't want to take any chances so what do you think we should be looking for to make sure that it is not urine that we are missing.

Because I wasn't in the house during the most part of the spraying it could be that I am relating the smell of your product to the urine odor. How long does it normally take for the smell of the product to be completely gone? This is my only concern now as I just do not want to have all the hardwood floor installed and to still have this odor.

Hope you can get back to me with your comments.

-Louise"


"Hi Louise,

Thank you very much for the feedback! We really appreciate it. The scent left by the natural ingredients in Odor Medicine O.F. concentrate usually dissipates within 3-7 days. However, some people have incredible sensitivity to specific scents and may notice it for a longer period of time.

Your husband is correct when he says the painting any surface such as a concrete floor that has been treated will eliminate any remaining scent, but some paints have a strong odor, especially the oil based sealers that are most effective at sealing in any vestiges of odor that might remain. (You might want to consider using latex paint which is water-based to minimize paint odor.)

I can also recommend another means of minimizing odors and particulates that you may be sensitive to. Honeywell makes a great air purifier that has a charcoal pre-filter that eliminates odors. The Hepa filter eliminates dust, viruses, bacteria, etc. that makes our indoor air so polluted. We find them especially helpful in the winter when the house is closed.

Thanks for the business and testimonial. It is very rewarding for us to receive this kind of feedback from our customers."

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Odor Medic's new-generation Odor Medicine products contain essential oils derived from exotic plants and work on entirely different scientific principles than the enzyme products. The natural ingredients bond with odor molecules and break them down at the molecular level—permanently destroying the ability to generate odor in as little as 24 hours. Not only are these new-generation compounds more effective, but they’re also more reliable due to their tolerance to temperatures and ability to work where other chemicals, soaps AND enzyme products had already been applied.

Another benefit, our Odor Medicine products are absolutely safe to use around humans, pets and plants. They are non-toxic, non-staining, biodegradable and have a neutral pH. For added value, they’re highly concentrated and very economical to use—when mixed with water, just one quart of concentrate turns into multiple gallons.

In 11+ years of fixing odor problems as a commercial services company, we have not found anything better. We’ve done the research for you and only offer proven products along with our proprietary processes and personalized service.

We guarantee permanent odor elimination or your money back!

Our advice is FREE! Don't hesitate to call us at +1 612-270-2953 to discuss your specific problem, or by email at sales@odormedic.com

Seven Things Not To Do When Trying to Eliminate an Odor Problem

I am continually amazed at the misinformation floating around out there that ultimately results in making a home or vehicle odor problem exponentially worse. Here is a list of things NOT TO DO when eliminating some of the most common odor problems.

Pet Urine Odor in Carpet

Don’t use enzyme-based products.  The more of these that you pour on your carpet, the deeper you wash pet urine into the pad and sub-floor. 

Don’t pay a carpet cleaner to get rid of pet urine odor as it’s a total waste of money if your carpet is not properly prepped for treatment.  Pet urine has a low surface tension and penetrates into the backing of the carpet and, if the problem is with cat urine, some spots may have a tremendous amount of urine that penetrates deeply into the sub-floor because cats tend to pee in the same places repeatedly. 

Don’t paint concrete or any sub-floor in an effort to seal in the pet urine odor. We consider painting with an oil-based sealer like Kilz to just be cheap insurance against any vestiges of  pet urine odor that might be noticeable on a hot, humid day.

Don’t live with pet urine odor because it isn’t good for your health!

Pet Urine on a Hardwood Floor
Don’t sand the floor before treating. Sanding causes the cracks between the boards to be filled with sawdust, which prevents our chemical from contacting the pet urine that has run between the cracks. Treat first and then sand if desired.

Cigarette Odor in the Home
Don’t paint to eliminate nicotine odor! The absolute worst thing to do is paint over the walls or ceiling hoping to cover up the odor. Latex paint has minimal ability to seal in cigarette odor and, while a bit better, oil-based paint will not seal in all of the cigarette odor either—especially in heavily contaminated areas. What’s worse, the new paint acts as a barrier and effectively seals out any method of eliminating the odor source.

Cigarette Odor in a Vehicle
Don’t take it to a car dealership! Only one in a hundred have put any effort at all into figuring out how to fix this problem. All they do is try to cover it up—usually making the problem worse. Some will put a small ozone machine in the vehicle which will temporarily create a fresher scent that doesn’t last.

Eliminating these common odor problems is not rocket science, but if you do the wrong things, or even the right things in the wrong order you can make the problem much more expensive in terms of both time and money.

Learn more at, http://www.odormedic.com/

Why Enzyme-based Odor Removal Products Don't Work on Cat Urine Odors

In this post we’ll cover the most common, offensive, and difficult odor to eliminate…cat urine odor. Removing cat urine odor makes up about 50 percent of our business due to the offensiveness and permeability of the odor. Part of the reason for this is that the urine itself has a very low surface tension. So, when the problem is in carpet, the urine immediately penetrates into the carpet backing and seeps behind the baseboard. If your cat has gone in the same spot repeatedly, as they’re prone to do, the urine will soak through the carpet pad, into the sub-floor and will actually run under the wall. 

This is why you can clean the surface of carpet until you go blind without accomplishing anything except for wasting your money, time and ultimately wind up making the problem worse.

A little over 11 years ago, my wife’s cats (when they’re bad…they’re her’s!) peed on the carpet in my Man Cave and no one could fix it.  So I decided to do some research and wound up testing nearly a dozen different products. What I discovered over a three-month testing period really opened my eyes to why some products work and others don’t. There are basically two classes of odor elimination products readily available to the public: the “New Generation” organic compounds that work, and “Stone Age” products that don’t. The primary ingredients of the new-generation products are essential oils, whereas the Stone Age products are enzyme based.

Theoretically, odor-eating enzyme products should work, but the fact is they’re very inconsistent and unreliable. Each new bottle that leaves the factory contains millions of live enzymes capable of consuming the odor causing bacteria from organic materials such as cat urine, dog urine or even human urine, but they have some real-world problems. For instance:

• Enzymes start to die off as soon as they’re bottled reducing potency
• Enzymes are fragile and die when exposed to extreme temperatures
• Enzymes are not discriminating as to what they attack. They’re just as likely to attack dried soap residue in your carpet as they are the offending cat urine salts and urea.

The end result of pouring unreliable, and possibly dead, enzymes on the cat urine stain is washing the urine deeper into porous surfaces and spreading it over a larger area. Plus, it re-hydrates the dried urine, which will make the smell worse. 

Our new-generation Odor Medicine products contain essential oils derived from exotic plants and work on entirely different scientific principles than the enzyme products. The natural ingredients bond with odor molecules and break them down at the molecular level—permanently destroying the ability to generate odor in as little as 24 hours. Not only are these new-generation compounds more effective, but they’re also more reliable due to their tolerance to temperatures and ability to work where other chemicals, soaps AND enzyme products had already been applied. 

Another benefit, our Odor Medicine products are absolutely safe to use around humans, pets and plants. They are non-toxic, non-staining, biodegradable and have a neutral pH.  For added value, they’re highly concentrated and very economical to use—when mixed with water, just one quart of concentrate turns into multiple gallons.

In 11+ years of fixing odor problems as a commercial services company, we have not found anything better. We’ve done the research for you and only offer proven products along with our proprietary processes and personalized service. 

We don’t have ANY unhappy customers.

odormedic.com

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How to Keep Your Washing Machine Free from Mildew Odor

No matter if you have a brand new front-load washing machine, or a 10 year old top loader, mildew odor can develop as a result of using too much detergent and/or fabric softener. Over time, the excess build up of these materials will act as a bed for the growth of mold, mildew and bacteria. This moist residue is especially prevalent in front-load washing machines that do not drain completely—making a perfect environment for the rapid growth of these unwanted visitors.

If your washing machine, and washables, smell like mildew, there is a fix short of replacing the machine! For less than $20.00 USD, Odor Medic's proven smelly washer formula, Odor Medicine SWF, will eliminate the source of the odor. For fast and permanent results, simply run Odor Medicine SWF through a wash cycle per the instructions and it will destroy the offending odors.

Once the machine is odor free, the following tips should help keep it that way:

• Depending on the size and how dirty the load, reduce the amount of detergent by at least half. (If you have soft water, you might want to reduce the amount by one-third of the recommended amount.)
• Use one-half to two-thirds less fabric softener
• Leave the door open between washes
• Use hotter water to help dissolve chemicals and residue
• Make sure the drain hose is clear

These tips should help keep your washer and clothes smelling nice and fresh.

We guarantee permanent odor elimination or your money back!

Our advice is FREE! Don't hesitate to call us at +1 612-270-2953 to discuss your specific odor problem, or by email at sales@odormedic.com

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Common Mistakes to Avoid When Removing Cat Urine Odor from Wood and Concrete Flooring

In this article we will cover two common mistakes to avoid when getting rid of cat urine odor from concrete and wood flooring. These mistakes can make eliminating the cat urine odor much more difficult, and in some cases unfixable.

Painting Over a Concrete Floor Contaminated with Cat Urine
When the cat urine is in concrete flooring, a common mistake is trying to seal in the odor by painting over it. This is a critical mistake to avoid because the gaseous odor molecules will work their way through the paint—leaving a situation that’s untreatable because the paint acts as a barrier and effectively seals out the larger molecules of the treatment solution. Plus, due to low surface tension, the cat urine will seep into places that you can’t paint such as in between the baseboard and wall.

Once a surface has been painted, the only alternatives are to keep applying coat after coat of paint, or removing the paint so that the contaminated floor can be treated.

Laying Down New Wood Flooring Over Surfaces Contaminated with Cat Urine
A much worse scenario occurs when a new wood floor is put down over a contaminated floor that has been painted over and is seemingly odor free. In this scenario, the only course of action to remove the cat urine odor is to pull up the floor, grind off the paint, treat the floor with a proven odor elimination solution such as Odor Medicine OF, and then reinstall the floor.

At Odor Medic, we stress that the application process is just as important as the product. Our successful formula for permanently eliminating cat urine odor combines our proven products and processes with free personal consulting and custom treatment plans.

We guarantee permanent odor elimination or your money back!
Our advice is FREE! Don't hesitate to call us at +1 612-270-2953 to discuss your specific problem, or by email at sales@odormedic.com

Avoid These Common Mistakes When Trying to Remove Cat Urine Odor

There are a few common mistakes that are made when trying to remove cat urine odor from carpet. In reality these make fixing the problem more difficult and, in some cases, unfixable. In this article we will cover mistakes to avoid when removing the smell of cat urine from carpet and other fabric surfaces such as furniture.

Removing Cat Urine Odor with Home Remedies
Some of the most common mistakes are home remedies comprised of various household items such as vinegar, baking soda or peroxide. While sometimes offering temporary relief, these remedies are short-lived and don’t permanently eliminate the smell. In reality, they only succeed in making the problem worse by spreading out the contamination and washing it deeper into carpet, carpet backing, carpet padding,rugs and furniture, etc.

It is essential to “pull out” as much of the cat urine from the fabric as possible, and then apply a proven odor eliminator solution such as Odor Medicine O.F. so that it’s able to come in contact with all of the contaminated surface area.

Fixing Cat Urine Odor with Enzyme Solutions from the Pet Store
Another common mistake is pouring gallons of enzyme-based odor eliminators on the spots. These products don't work and make the problem worse in most cases. They are intended to work by consuming the contaminate, but one drawback is that the living bacteria begin to die from the moment they are bottled for sale—immediately reducing effectiveness. Furthermore, when applied to a contaminated surface such as carpet, they are unable to determine the difference between the cat urine and other residues such as leftover soap from your last carpet cleaning.

The result is that the carpet, carpet pad and sub-floor get saturated and stay wet for months—causing an offensive ammonia-like odor to develop (in addition to the odor from the cat urine). Enzyme-based products are outdated solutions and we have yet to find one that proves effective.

At Odor Medic, we stress that the application process is just as important as the product. Our successful formula for getting rid of difficult odors combines our proven products and processes with free personal consulting and custom treatment plans.

We guarantee permanent odor elimination or your money back!

Our advice is FREE! Don't hesitate to call us at +1 612-270-2953 to discuss your specific problem, or by email at sales@odormedic.com