How To Use Pet Stain Remover

Pet stains range from simple surface accidents to deep, long-term contamination.
This guide walks you through both situations step by step — the same process I use as a professional carpet cleaner.

Follow the instructions carefully, use common sense, and you’ll dramatically improve your results.

For Light To Moderate Pet Stains

1. Remove excess contamination. Blot liquids, scoop solids. Don’t smear mess deeper into carpet.
2. Spray Pet Stain Remover onto stain. Saturate, but don’t soak.
3. Allow product to dry. Do not blot, scrub, extract, or use fans. Be patient and let the product work. Stain should disappear within 3-6 hours. 
4. Repeat if stain or odor remains. 

For Moderate To Heavy Pet Stains

NOTE: There are limits to what any cleaning process can fix. Carpet that’s been extremely damaged by urine may not be salvageable. As a general rule, if urine stains affect 20% or more of a room, the damage is considered “severe” and replacement is recommended.

1. LOCATE

Before you can treat urine in your carpet, you must find it. That might sound obvious, but you can’t always see urine. Start by looking for visible stains.  Inspect not only your carpet, but also baseboards, walls, furniture, bed skirts, and anywhere else a motivated pet might have hiked a leg.  A thorough inspection can offer valuable clues.  For example, if you find urine on a baseboard, there may also be urine hiding in the surrounding carpet. 

If you don’t see visible stains but you suspect urine in a particular area, you might be able to find it by turning off the lights and using an ultraviolet (UV) flashlight.  In theory, urine spots should fluoresce, or glow, when exposed to UV light.  However, this is only a rule of thumb.  Not all urine glows under UV light.  Conversely, many other things do glow under UV light, including some food and drink spills that are otherwise invisible.  So areas that glow or don’t glow only give clues to the location of urine, not definitive proof. 

Therefore, you’ll have to use your nose…  literally.  Crawling around and sniffing your carpet is one of the best ways to find urine.  Yes, it’s gross and looks ridiculous, but it’s accurate.  So don’t be shy—stuff your sniffer in that carpet and go to town. 

Together, visible stains, UV light, and your sense of smell form a potent combination that will help you find urine. 

It’s the exact technique I use as a professional.  With common sense and effort, I know you’ll be successful!

2. DETERMINE

Next, you need to determine if the urine in your carpet is fresh or old.  This isn’t an exact science so use your best judgment.  For example, if you notice a new pet stain and it’s still wet, you can assume it’s fresh.  If you move a sofa and find dried urine around the legs, it’s probably older. 

Generally, pet stains less than four weeks old are considered fresh.  All other pet stains should be considered old. Why does this matter? Because fresh urine has a different pH level than old urine.  One of the basic rules of cleaning is to neutralize the pH level. 

For example, let’s say you’re washing dishes. Most food is acidic.  That’s why dish soap is alkaline. The alkalinity of dish soap attacks the acidity of food, making it easier to wash dishes.  Now let’s apply this concept to pet stains. 

Fresh urine is acidic, while old urine is alkaline.  To control odors and keep stains from reappearing, urine must be neutralized, just like food on a plate.  Therefore, fresh, acidic urine should be treated with an alkaline cleaning agent.  Old, alkaline urine should be treated with an acidic cleaning agent.  Make sense? 

Neutralizing the urine in your carpet will make cleaning easier because you’re using pH to your advantage.  Neutralization also helps prevent stains and odors from reappearing. 

This is yet another reason why enzyme, oxy, and other products are not the best option.  They don’t account for the pH difference between fresh and old urine.  Instead of wasting time and money on these products, let’s discuss how to neutralize pet stains with stuff you probably already have around the house.

3. NEUTRALIZE

Now that you’ve located urine spots and determined whether they’re old or new, it’s time to neutralize them.  Neutralization makes urine easier to extract and helps prevent stains and odors from returning. 

To neutralize urine in your carpet, saturate each spot with the appropriate cleaning agent.  We know fresh urine is acidic, so we’ll neutralize it with an alkaline cleaning agent.  Does this require some expensive, specialty cleaning product? 

Absolutely not!  Instead, we’ll use regular ol’ dish soap, which is a powerful, affordable, alkaline cleaning agent and degreaser.  Here’s how to use it… 

Stir about 15 drops (roughly a tablespoon) of dish soap into a gallon of hot tap water.  Resist the temptation to add more soap.  Too much will create a foamy mess, and it will be impossible to rinse all of it from your carpet. 

After a few stirs, pour the mixture directly onto fresh urine stains.  Don’t flood your entire home, but mix up enough solution to saturate each urine deposit.  If you have a large pet, keep in mind urine may have penetrated the padding under your carpet and spread out.  It may be necessary to saturate a larger area than what you see on the surface.  Allow the soapy mixture to dwell for 20 minutes before moving to the next step.

This will give it enough time to dissolve and neutralize urine at a fraction of the cost of enzyme and oxy products.  Now let’s address old urine stains. 

As urine ages, it biodegrades into a salty alkaline.  That means we want to dissolve and neutralize old urine with an acidic cleaning agent.  Again, does this mean you need some expensive cleaning product?  Nope!  All you need is white vinegar.  You probably already have white vinegar, but if you’re treating more than a few small urine spots, you may want to buy more.  White vinegar is dirt cheap and easy to find, so stock up.  It’s better to have too much than too little, and it will still be cheaper and more effective than enzyme and oxy products. 

As long as you’re using regular, household vinegar (the label should say four or five percent acidity) there’s no need to dilute it.  Pour it directly onto old urine spots and let it dwell for 20 minutes before moving to the next step. Again, saturate the spots, keeping in mind they could be bigger underneath the carpet than what you see on the surface. 

Between dish soap and vinegar, you have everything you need to neutralize urine stains. Does this mean you should never use enzyme, oxy, or other products?  Of course not. They work great, assuming the pH level is appropriate for the type of urine you’re treating.

The problem is, enzyme, oxy, and other products cost much more than soapy water and vinegar, and they don’t always advertise the pH level.  In contrast, dish soap and vinegar are safer, simpler, more affordable, more effective, and can be tailored to the type of urine you’re treating.  I think you’ll be delighted by how well they work. 

But before we move to the next step, here’s one word of caution… 

Saturating carpet with liquid can be risky. It’s important to consider what’s underneath the carpet.  For example, if you’re upstairs and you pour too much liquid on the carpet, it could leak through the ceiling below.  Use common sense, proceed cautiously, and you’ll be fine.

4. EXTRACT

Extraction is vital to controlling pet stains and odors.  It’s how pros achieve the best results, and you can too. Extraction simply means we use suction to pull urine from the carpet. It’s the only way to ensure stains and odors don’t return.

All you need is a wet/dry vacuum, whether it’s a Bissell, Rug Doctor, or even just a Shop-Vac.  If you don’t have a wet/dry vacuum, then buy, rent, or borrow one.  Beg if you must because you cannot skip this step.

Thankfully, this isn’t complicated.  After you’ve neutralized, use your wet/dry vac to extract as much liquid from the carpet as possible.  If you have an upright machine like a Bissell or Rug Doctor, follow the operating instructions.  Keep in mind you only need suction.  It is not necessary to use the machine’s solution tank because you’ve already saturated urine deposits with soapy water or vinegar. 

If you have a Shop-Vac, an open-ended hose may work better than attachments.  Push the hose into the carpet and you’ll feel it sucking up liquid, which it will pull from six to eight inches away.  After several seconds move the hose to a new area, if necessary. But don’t drag it because the friction can damage carpet fibers.  Instead, pick the hose up, move it to a new area, and then push it back into the carpet. 

To ensure you don’t leave behind urine, work methodically and take your time. You’ll never extract all moisture but keep going until you can only remove trace amounts. 

It’s important to get the carpet and padding as dry as possible.  The drier it seems, the more urine you’ve extracted.  Once you’re satisfied, move to the next step.

5. REPEAT STEPS 3 & 4 IF NECESSARY

Small to moderate amounts of urine may only need one neutralization and extraction.  Heavier urine may need to be neutralized and extracted multiple times. How will you know?

After the first extraction, get close to the carpet and give it the sniff test.  If you still detect urine odors, neutralize and extract again. 

It may be necessary to repeat these steps several times.  It could even be a good opportunity to switch from soapy water to vinegar or vice versa if you have fresh and old urine in the same area.

Not to beat a dead horse, but this is why soapy water and vinegar are the best options.  Since they are so much more affordable than enzyme and oxy products, you can keep neutralizing and extracting until you’re satisfied. 

Once satisfied, move to the next step.

6. DRY

After extraction, it’s important to thoroughly dry the carpet and padding.  The quicker it dries, the better it will look, smell, and feel. 

Carpet that takes too long to dry can look dingy, smell musty, and feel crunchy. 

Warm, dry, rapidly moving air is the best way to accelerate drying.

Keep the room or area as warm as possible and use as many fans as possible.  Keep in mind weather conditions can have a drastic effect.  If it’s warm outside with low humidity, feel free to open windows.  However, if it’s cold or humid outside, close windows and crank the heat or air conditioning.  Yes, air conditioning is cold, but it produces very dry air, which is helpful on humid days. 

No matter the weather, use lots of fans if you have them. And don’t forget there’s padding under your carpet that also needs to dry.  Even if the carpet feels dry, the padding may still be damp. 

For that reason, it’s best to continue drying a day or two longer than you think is necessary.  Depending on the weather, the size of the area you’ve treated, and the thickness of your carpet and padding, drying can take anywhere from a few hours to a few days. 

7. REMOVE STAINS

Here’s where things get fun.  Now that your carpet is clean, urine-free, and dry, you’ll probably notice leftover urochrome stains. 

In case you forgot, urochrome is the yellow pigment in urine that permanently stains carpet. Even if you’ve successfully removed the urine, it’s normal to have leftover urochrome stains. 

This is where enzyme, oxy, and other products completely fail.  Since they aren’t oxidizers, they cannot remove urochrome. 

Oxidation is the only why to remove urochrome. That’s why you need Pet Stain Remover. It contains professional-strength hydrogen peroxide (11%), a strong oxidizer that attacks urochrome and other organic stains.

Spray Pet Urine onto visible stains. Saturate, but don’t soak. Allow the product to dry. Do not blot, scrub, extract, or use fans at this point. You want Pet Stain Remover to stay in the carpet, not evaporate. Be patient and let the product work. Stains should disappear within 3-6 hours. Repeat if stains or odor remain.