Home can you remove dog pee stains from real wood flooring

Fawn
by Fawn
How can you remove pet pee stains from hardwood floors?
  5 answers
  • Without sanding and redoing your floors, the stains are usually set in. The previous owner of my home let their animals use the hardwood floors as their toilet and the original floors have black urine stains which go down to the subfloor. Urine etches and eats into the finish and the wood and therefore there is not simple fix that I have found. To remove the odor from the wood floor to try and prevent further accidents- you need to buy some enzyme eater or try white vinegar (which sometimes works). Good luck and if it is a habitual thing, put an object to keep the dog away from the area.
  • RB MacKinnon RB MacKinnon on Oct 21, 2014
    Sadly, the only way is to sand the floors and re varnish it. There is no magic solution, no matter what they may say. Our whole main floor had dog pee stains when we moved in and removed the carpets. I had to sand down the floors to remove them.
  • Denise Rankin Denise Rankin on Oct 23, 2014
    The day my husband and I moved into the first house we bought, I spent sick to my stomach and crying my eyes out for just this reason. We ended up sanding, bleaching, staining, (with a dark reddish color), and sealing two rooms, 17 ft X 25 ft. And we still ended up with several black splotches that forever smelled faintly when it rained for more than a day. Which was frequently as this was in Southern GA. After investigating for 5 years on how to get rid of the problem completely was to totally replace the floor. A very expensive solution for 100 year old floors. It was not just the wood that need to be replaced but as there was NO subfloor between the sanding ground and the floor boards, any change would have had to bring it up to code. A total rebuild of the house! So we just lived with it and lit candles during the rainy season. Good luck!
    • See 1 previous
    • Denise Rankin Denise Rankin on Oct 25, 2014
      @RB MacKinnon We could only do so much. As it happened, we did increase the value of the house with other projects, completing a second story, new roof, everything painted, new heating system, adding AC, new kitchen, etc... We still lost money overall because of what upgrades and repairs done, cost more that what we could ever get upon the sale of the property.
  • Sherrie Sherrie on Oct 26, 2014
    Animal urine etches through the finish. Is it a black or a dark spot? If it is your going to have to sand around the area and use wood bleach to bleach it out, re-stain, and apply the finish that's on your floor. It depends what kind of wood floors you have, if it's oak and sealed with poly you can feather this in the area.
    • Sherrie Sherrie on Oct 26, 2014
      I didn't finish before it was posted! But if all your floors need to be re done you can rent floor sanders. We have done ours, and many others. It is cheaper than having a company come in. We moved everything out of the rooms with wood which is most of our home. We sanded, cleaned it up, and the owners before us had urine stains in the floor. Me used wood bleach and it has to be wood bleach to bleach out the stains. Where you rent your sander they will give you detailed directions how to sand your floors and what each step you need to take. It cost us about $350.00, but if it is a few spots you can do it without stripping the whole floor. It takes a little time but well worth it.