Hard Wood Floor Cleaning ·Mar 02, 2023

How to Remove Urine Odor from Wood Floors

One of the main causes of a bad odor on wood floors is urine. This may have been caused by dogs or cats in the home. And if you have a baby or toddler in the home, there’s even more risk of this problem. Regardless of the cause, you need an effective remedy for how to remove urine odor from wood floors.

Despite your best clean-up efforts, the lingering smell of old urine can be a challenge to eradicate. But we can help. Just follow our guide to removing urine smell from wood floors, and your home will once again smell clean and fresh.

What this article covers:

How to Get Dog Urine Smell Out of Hardwood Floors
How to Remove Cat Urine Stains from Hardwood Floors (and Odor)
How to Get Human Urine Smell Out of Hardwood Floors
How to Prevent Damage to Your Floors from Future Spills and Stains

How to Get Dog Urine Smell Out of Hardwood Floors

Unlike cats, dogs don’t use a litterbox, so there’s always the chance that dogs allowed inside the house will pee on the floor. This is virtually guaranteed if your pet is still a puppy and not house-trained yet. Even if you mop it up straight away, even a trace of urine can lead to a bad smell later on.

A few urine stains later, your hardwood floors will become very smelly indeed! But you don’t have to stress. Simply follow these steps to remove dog pee odors from wood floors in next to no time.

This method will do wonders for dog urine smells on your wood floors. And it’s just as effective for cleaning dog diarrhea from hardwood floors.

You will need the following:

Hydrogen peroxide (3% strength)
A small bucket
Water
A cleaning rag
An old towel
Baking soda (optional)
Broom or vacuum cleaner

how to get urine smell out of wood

Wipe With Peroxide Solution

If it’s a fresh urine stain, blot up as much as possible with paper towels, and dispose of them in the trash. Next, fill the bowl with a strong peroxide/water solution.

Dip the cleaning rag into this solution, and wipe the stained area down. Don’t soak the floor too much, and don’t leave the solution on the floor for more than a couple of minutes.

You can also use this remedy to get a pee smell out of the subfloor after lifting a badly stained carpet.

Blot The Area Dry With The Towel

Using the old towel, blot the area dry. Leave the floor to dry further, naturally. It’s best to have the windows to the room open during this process, as it will allow the smells to dissipate, and will also encourage air circulation.

Baking Soda To The Rescue

If there is still a faint odor, don’t worry; baking soda does the trick. Just sprinkle a layer of it over the affected area. Leave it there overnight, or for a minimum of 3-4 hours.

Then sweep it up or vacuum the area to remove the remaining baking soda residue. Feel free to try this when you have to remove dog urine from wood furniture.

How to Remove Cat Urine Stains from Hardwood Floors (And Odor)

It’s harder to get the smell of cat urine out of wood than it is to clean up dog urine. The reasons for this are twofold. Firstly, cat urine generally has a higher ammonia content.

And secondly, cats are more prone to ‘spraying’ urine to mark their territory in the home than dogs are. While cats are lovable pets, they can make your floors smell bad. So follow these steps to remove cat urine stains (and smells) from your hardwood floors.

This method is not only great for cat urine stains but is the top way to get odors out of hardwood floors no matter the cause.

You’ll need the following items to clean your cat's urine-stained wood floors:

A bottle of ordinary white vinegar
Bucket
Water
A microfiber cloth or another soft cleaning rag
Old towel
Baking soda (optional)
Vacuum cleaner or broom

Wipe With Vinegar Solution

Like with the dog urine, blot fresh stains immediately. This is even more important than with a dog urine stain, as cat urine can be far smellier. But whether it’s a fresh stain or you have to clean dried cat urine from the wood floor, the process is the same.

Then add half a cup of white vinegar to a 1-gallon bucket of water. Dip your cleaning rag into this solution, and wipe the area thoroughly.

But as with any liquid solution, don’t soak the floor or leave it wet for long. Vinegar can be abrasive, and harm your sealed finish if used aggressively or too often.

Dry The Area With The Towel

Blot the floor dry with the old towel. As this will not remove all moisture from your floor, be sure to open the windows and let the floor air dry. Vinegar has a strong smell, but it will disappear fairly quickly.

As before, you may use baking soda to remove any lingering odors. If, once the floor is dry, you still smell a trace of urine odor, sprinkle baking soda, leave for a few hours, and vacuum or sweep it up afterward.

This baking soda trick will also remove a cat urine smell from wood furniture or even upholstery and carpets.

How to Get Human Urine Smell Out of Hardwood Floors

Even if you don’t have pets in the home, you may still have the problem of urine smell on your hardwood floor. Have a baby or toddler? You’ll need a safe and reliable method to remove human urine smell from the wood floors.

Wood floors and baby pee don’t make a great combo, and before long you’ll have an odor that just gets worse with time. But you don’t have to worry about that anymore, because we have the solution to remove pee odor from wood floors.

Fortunately, either of the above methods will work for this purpose. But usually, this is the best way to deal with human urine smell on wood floors:

If it's a fresh stain, mop up the spill immediately with a wet cloth. If it’s a dry stain, use a cloth or mop soaked in warm, soapy water. Don’t saturate the floor, and mop up excess moisture with an old, dry towel afterward.

Any lingering odor can be treated by following up with the baking soda trick mentioned above. Sprinkle baking soda over the area, and leave for 3-4 hours before vacuuming up.

Pet urine stains are much smellier than human urine stains. The thing to remember with both is to clean them up promptly. This prevents moisture damage that may be irreparable later.

How to Prevent Damage to Your Floors from Future Spills and Stains

Now that you’ve treated the malodorous hardwood floors in your home, you’d like to keep them protected from future stains, right? We have the ideal product for the job. Rob’s Solvent Sealer will seal all the surfaces in your home. What’s more, it will not affect the texture or breathability of the surface.

But there are many products suitable for finishing wood floors, and we highly recommend that you consider them.

Sealing a hardwood floor will protect against spills and stains, prevent water damage, and make cleaning and maintenance far easier. Our Flat Mop Finish Applicator makes the job so much easier, too. You can use this product for all your floor cleaning and finishing needs.

Use The Right Equipment When You Clean Your Wood Floors

One of the biggest causes of smelly floors is inadequate cleaning. Cleaning by hand is not only extremely labor-intensive, it just doesn’t do as good a job as a machine does. So get the right tools for the job. Get the Orbot vibe package for all your cleaning needs.

The Orbot Vibe is specially designed for scrubbing and polishing all kinds of floor surfaces like wood, stone, tile, and even linoleum. And you’ll get an effective clean without using any harsh chemicals, making it safe for any home with children or pets.

And don’t stress about your carpets, either. This machine will give them a deep clean too. It’s certified by the Carpet and Rug Institute (CRI) as a Deep Cleaning System for your home or office.

Conclusion

Hardwood floors can be beautiful, but only when they look clean and smell fresh. Urine stains can not only cause damage to your hardwood floors, but they also leave behind a pretty nasty smell. Fortunately, there are ways to tackle this common problem.

And with our wide range of floor cleaning and maintenance products, you’ll never have to worry about floor stains again. We have all you need to keep your wood floors, carpets, and even tile or linoleum looking good and smelling great.

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