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inspection with UV light (aka Black Light) did not reveal any obvious spot (*)

Trial 1: used Nature’s Miracle Hard Floor Cleaner, applied and wipes pretty much a few minutes later. next day the smell was the same.

Trial 2: applied the same product and let it sit a few hours. wiped. Next day smell is back. hard to say if it's the same or weaker, since we kept windows open, if there was any improvement, it was too small to declare success. My guess is the perfume hides some of the smell and in a few days the smell will be back full strength.

What's next, call the pro or replace the hardwood floor in that small room? luckily it's only 12x12 so even if it were $10/sq ft it should be around $1.5k. I have no idea what the cost it, but a guy asked about around $4/sq ft to refinish our floors last year (we decided to pass since they looked OK) so I guesstimate a replacement is around $10/sq ft.

(*) playing with that flashlight around the house we found many spots that were not painted properly, and we have 2 similar pictures with "identical" frame that were purchased as a set. One of them glows much stronger than the other, the difference is dramatic. I will NOT take this into a hotel room, since I will probably never sleep in a hotel again.

EDIT; I guess I forgot the main reason why I posted again. Wife asked what if it's not dog urine? what else could it be? this room is not well insulated, it's an extension between the main house and the garage, and I guess some of the wall are not well insulated since in the winter the temp is about 10F lower than in the house and in the Summer it's 10F hotter



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 07/13/2021 09:36PM by space-time.

If it's really coming from the floor then I suspect whatever is causing the odor leaked through the spaces in the floor and is underneath.

You could try an ozone generator (be careful not to kill yourself or family members).

(If that doesn't work and if it's not too bad then maybe just live with it for a while as it dissipates. Then again, maybe it won't really go away.)

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We had a cat and dog pee problem in one carpeted room. I had to rip the carpet and pad out. The urine had soaked into the plywood subfloor below. Two coats of oil based Kilz locked that in, and then we put down laminate 'hardwood'. They never peed there again.

It sounds like your peeing pups or other contaminant soaked through to the subfloor.

Are there stains visible from the basement ? Is there an odor from that area ?

I suspect you're misidentifying the odor or the source or both.

As much as people complain about cat and dog urine, they have organic sources and break down over time. How long have you been in this place? How long have you noticed the smell? Almost all the pee horror stories have to do with carpeting...but thats because its difficult to clean the pad underneath.

My prescription:

Put up with it for a year and see how it goes. Just leave the door to the room open.

Does the room need any other repairs? Do them.

A year later - is the smell still noticeable? Perhaps repaint the room. Don't tear out and replace hard wood. Refinish it AT THE MOST.

There might be something you're not accounting for.

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Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 07/13/2021 10:35PM by mattkime.

....urine.....the money.....????

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I reject your reality and substitute my own!

There might be something you're not accounting for.

That is the question....

we bought this place a year ago. We did notice a smell but it was not very strong. and we didn't use the room much. In the winter we started using the room but the smell was not that bad. since we opened the door a lot, the smell didn't seem noticeable. Now in the Summer we rarely use that room, so it stays closed for 2-3 days and when you enter it hits you.

animal pee that's been in hard wood a while is hard to neutralize, if at all possible.

could try:
Bona
OxiClean
PineSol dilute
ACV dilute
Hydrogen Peroxide (fresh bottle, not one laying around)
baking soda paste

if none of those work, I'd say replace the floor. This is what I resorted to in my 1st house. Renters let their dog pee in the down 1/2 bath.
It was so fierce that I just opted to replace. But that was only perhaps 36 sf.
Wasn't fun working on neked joists. But I did come up with some new 4 letter combinations.

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!#$@@$#!

If there are spelling issues, please pardon, Owen the cat is walking, standing or sleeping on my keyboard.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 07/14/2021 07:41AM by Fritz.

I've had great success with a product called My Pet Peed.

In the list Fritz posted was the very item I was going to suggest: concentrated H2O2, which I posted about in another thread... H2O2 will break down practically anything. (In that other thread, the countersuggestion was to buy sodium percarbonate, which is for sure more convenient because it's shelf-stable, but I'm not so convinced that it's as effective as the pre-made concentrated H2O2... and also you don't really know what concentration you're making with the percarbonate.)

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Freya says, 'Hello from NOLA, baby!' (Laissez bon temps rouler!)

OK will try some water with an extra Oxygen atom attached. Thanks.

Now that urine is in your head, I don't think any solution short of replacing the flooring and subfloor will be adequate. The smell might be in the drywall too. Similar to tobacco smoke.

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I’ll nuke it from orbit.

Ozone generator? Be sure it doesn't filter into the rest of the house.

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In tha 360. MRF User Map

Quote
space-time
OK will try some water with an extra Oxygen atom attached. Thanks.

Wear gloves, otherwise the 12% H2O2 will destroy the outer layer of your skin. It's powerful stuff. (But what's nice about it is that it breaks down to completely harmless H2O and O2...)

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Freya says, 'Hello from NOLA, baby!' (Laissez bon temps rouler!)



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 07/14/2021 12:35PM by PeterB.