Way Way OT Urine Smell

My Aunt passed away last spring at 93. She was the oldest of my grandparents children, had no kids. When grandparents went into the nursing home, she took all the pictures and valuable stuff to her house for safe keeping. As she got old and senile, all the pictures and valuables got tossed into a closet corner and covered with clothes and blankets. Her cats decided it would make a good litter box. I was given a container that has some old photos, Grandma's Bible and a few other things that reeks of cat urine. Does anyone know if the smell can be gotten out? It's setting in the machine shed right now, don't want to bring it into the house. The moral of this story is, if you have family valuables, pass them on before it's too late. Her husbands daughter said they had to throw many pictures and books away because they were sopping wet with cat urine. Chris

Call a cleaning service and see what they might have

Try some stuff called 'Fabreeze'. It will kill most of the smell rather well, and isn't too costly.

There's a concentrated liquid called "STOP ODOR" that is sold by Fuller Brush Co. . The smallest quantity that they sell is 1 gallon. Follow the dilution instructions on the jug. This stuff is great, I've used it for many, many years.

Doc

Cleaning old photographs will ruin them. I would consult a photo restoration company for advice.
If nothing else works, they can be copied on a good quality [u:bd09ff7113]color[/u:bd09ff7113] photo or document copier. It wouldn't be quite the same as having the originals, but beats throwing them away altogether.
Other items that can't be washed may be best opened up to air out for an extended period. The smell may never go away completely, but that should help some.

Myron

Don"t know if it would work in such an extreme case, bit you might try putting them in an enclosed container with a couple of boxes of baking soda.

To carry that idea a bit further, if there are books involved, try putting some soda in a large salt shaker and spread some on each of the pages. Might work or might not, but worth a try.

Myron

Get a good digital camera and shoot the photos--then photo shop--I have found that sometimes new photos can look better than the orginials

Not good. Years back was repairing a 600 pair telephone cable that was a ring around the outside of a prison. Back at the sally port were dozens of cats that the officers used to feed. I don't know why they did, but they did. I sat my tool belt down behind me to open a pedestal to get at a splice, and no sooner than I did, one of the cats came up behind me and pee'd all over my belt, but I didn't see it happen. Found a pair I was looking for, grabbed a buttset to go up on it, clipped on, put the buttset up nect to me face..."God D#@*!!! FU%^ING CATS!!!" and tossed the buttset. It's not good to run to the truck, grab a gun and start shooting at cats on the outside edge of prison walls, so I didn't. I could have and if it hadn't been a prison, I might have lost it long enough to get at least 6 of them. Those tools and belt went into the trash.

I'm a dog guy. Not a big cat fan. Just not. Out in or around the barn, ok. Other than that, don't got a lot of use for them. Good luck.

Mark

been there done that ,,
first build a vacuum chamber old large pressure cooker canner works great drill and tap for a fitting on top (mine matches the A/C line on the vacuum pump) place stuff inside and pull a vacuum for a day or so the smell boils off !!!!

Surprised no one has suggested an ozone generator?

You might try activated charcoal. Place papers in a closed plastic bin, space them like you're sticking green lumber, add the charcoal. Ordinary charcoal might work to some degree, maybe even kitty litter.

Bought a 2nd house last year with same problem. It was so bad, the realtor made prospective buyers sign a waiver before they entered the house. Realtor had it professionally cleaned but you still couldn't be in the house w/o the doors open. Within a half hour of closing on the house, we were in there ripping out the carpet. I'd say that improved the situation 75%. Used a product called Odoban. Took all the molding off, scrubbed it, sprayed the space behind it, floors, drywall with Odoban, painted the floor and 6" up the walls with Killz. Put down hardwood flooring and ceramic tile throughout the house. Painted every wall/ceiling. Scrubbed every fixture, cabinet, refinished cabinet doors.

I'm finishing up the last room now (laundry room) and was going to re-use a piece of trim molding from a door. Cut it with my chop saw and there was that smell! Needless to say, I through that piece of molding out.

Daughter is now living there and house is "fresh as a daisy".

What I don't get is how people could live in that house like that. Neighbors say they would gag if they had to visit them.

Cat pee is by far the worst odor I've ever dealt with.

For the photos, see an expert.

Its the enzymes in the urine that cause the smell and you have to "destroy" the enzymes to get rid of the smell.

Odoban is excellent for removing pet urine odor. So is a 50/50 mix of vinegar and water.

Fabreeze will cover the odor for a while, but I have never seen it actually get rid of the odor.