DIYbanter - View Single Post

In article , says...

Open up house (all windows..), pull up and discard all carpet and strips, etc.
You may need to pull up other flooring, too. Possibly even some
wallboards/sheetrock if you see water-discoloration marks.

Anything you may need to discard due to cat odor is repairs you'd need to do
anyway. So you might as well start by getting that stuff out.

Yup. When we moved into our place two rooms were in bad shape from (mostly)
cats but also a dog. One room was bad, the other, especially the closet, was
horrendous.

Not knowing how big a problem it could be, we tried simple sprays and a carpet
cleaner.

Nope.

So, out all of the carpet came. And the tackboards. And the floor moulding.
Down to bare slab. We painted the walls, using Killz primer (real oil-based
stuff) as a base coat, then washed the floors, etched with Muriatic acid, and
used the Killz as a seal on the floor (saving money there instead of getting
something specific.) No issues years later. No smells at all, even in damp
periods--and we've got two cats who might just decide that if an area smells,
it's the place to go.

Lots of work, but you need to make sure you get more than just the surface
layer or the smell will work its way back from the subfloor and the like.

-Tim