u/LastNeonStanding

Wide open spaces out west. Undisturbed (no cops/vagrants/security) urbexing. A photographer/explorer’s dream. Then we found THIS in the backyard of an abandoned home.
Note: it was the only thing tagged in sight.

(There WAS a nearby abandoned hardwarestore but did not appear to be a jail/firestation/courthouse of any kind or decade)

Needless to say, we got the f outta there.

Reddit threads helped me SO much when we bought a 50s house with BAD cat urine smell and obvious urine staining, so I want to share what worked for us on the house:

1. Servpro odor removal and lots of ozone ($4,800)

2. Then we sprayed the walls with enzymatic cleaner. And painted them. (Yes I know about killz etc. but we chose this route because laziness and we believed 90%+ of the problem was in the floors)

3. For 3-4 days I went to the house 2-3x/day and alternated A B & C below: (using a bucket and electric sprayer)

A) hydrogen peroxide with 1 dot of of dawn soap and let it really get between the boards and into the subfloors. (Controversial in the hardwood world because it DOES lift some of the color and can ruin your floors. We practiced in the closets first to make sure it wouldn’t ruin the floors. Don’t let it puddle ON the boards. The goal is to get in between them and into the subflooring.)

B) odorcide 210

C) shop care Super Enzyme Urine and Odor Destroyer Gallon

4. ardwood refinishing. We chose an oil finish. $2300

5. hvac duct cleaning $400

This was in December. Now that we have had a whole summer and several days over 95 degrees, I feel confident the odor is actually gone. (I know some people say it can pop back up years later, so I will update if that happens. My wife knows we will start ripping our floors and hardwoods immediately if that happens.)

NOTES: peroxide served 2 purpose: removing odor AND I was able to photograph the whole floor and know exactly which boards we would rip out if we needed to start ripping them out. (I also used a black light to document the same thing.)

CAVEATS:
-most/all of this would not have been possible if we lived here during it. Due to chemical/ozone exposure and just access to the full floor.

-this was in December, so the floors being very cold (40-50 degrees) and having considerable gaps allowed a lot of the stuff I used in step 3 to soak in

-if I had it to redo, I’m not 100% sure Servpro was necessary. After inspection, the seller had to do full rat exclusion and replacement of all attic insulation, so we just wanted to throw everything at it we could because it was hard to tell where rat infestation (attic and crawlspace) musky smell ended and the previous owners’ 3 cats’ urine odor began.

- i am so glad I did not make “odor removal” a contingency for closing and got the cash to do it ourselves. It’s too subjective and easy enough to cover up long enough to close on the sale.

Anyway, I hope this helps someone else. We couldn’t have done it without combining advice and experience of several redditors.

BEFORE & AFTER IN PHOTOS

had to snap these pics and bail!

We almost fell through the floor and it was overrun by homeless. Not sure if it’s still standing, but I’d skip this one if you’re considering it. Anyway, here are 4 pictures I got before we bounced.