I’m working on removing the active smells of my senior dog. I’ll take on the cosmetics after he passes. As long as my house doesn’t smell like a kennel, I think we should focus on keeping him comfortable moreso than how the floor looks.
Based on my internet searches, the H2O2 works with multiple long periods of soaking, and long periods of drying. The short spurts of chemicals without the patience do not seem to work. Obviously the chemicals work better on an unfinished floor, as the purpose of varnish, etc is to protect from water penetration. It just slows the work of something like peroxide. I am going to say peroxide over oxalic acid, as I use peroxide to remove carpet pet stains and odors routinely. I do not pay for the expensive spray products, and just have 3% H2O2 in a sprayer available. It takes out any colored stain. Peroxide is oxygen bleach, ie “OxyClean” in a bottle that is super cheap-99 cents per liter on sale. Forget the branded stuff. We have white carpets that are 21 years old and have had every kind of stain from blood to red wine, liquid poop, chocolate, red soda, and 4 dogs worth of piss stains. Still beautifully white-until the next accident, which is frequent. Just pretreat and use the carpet cleaner. My husband is super fussy, and he does not even notice any odor.
Wiping it doesn't do anything. Soaking 3 layers of paper towels for several hours is key. I mean soaking wet. You need to look for the urine soaking up into to paper. Once you see quite a bit of yellow brown, change the paper, add more hydrogen peroxide. Keep doing this until it barely bleeds out. That's literally the urine leaving the wood. The paper towels are like the vehicle to which it can leave.
Drum sander rental from Home Depot. Looks like the model is American Sanders EZ-8. Used 24 grit on the problem areas, then 36, 60, 80, 100, 120 grit on the rest of the floors. Orbital sander for the edges. Good luck!
Thanks for the video! We are going to tackle a similar spot (with a full floor refinish, also), and I was worried this stain wouldn't come up. Of course it's right in the walk-way entry, not in the middle of the room where it could be covered with a rug if need-be. We ripped up OLD carpet (from the early 80's?) and found these same spots. Any change of a before and after shot of your floor finished?
hey good luck with your spots. I felt lucky it came up, I was not expecting it to. These spots were maybe 5-6 years old but I would think as long as they haven't penetrated too deeply into the wood, the age of the stain shouldn't matter. As long as the wood is thick enough to withstand 50-ish passes with an aggressive grit. Not sure how I could easily post a pic on YT but we stained + poly to match an adjoining room and it came out fine. Good luck!
I used paper towels and then a piece of plastic (not shown) over to reduce evaporation. Not sure if there is a window of time where HP works on stains like this, but this stain was years old
That is what worked for me in the end, along with doing a ton of passes (50+?). If I had not had access to the 24 grit I think the 36 may have worked with a large number of passes
10-4 ❗️ Message received ! Go directly to sanding and skip that unnecessary fore play with chemicals !
Good job!
With dark stains like that we normally just remove the boards then sand them flush.
I was amazed you got that out
Thanks, when I saw it start lifting out after a few passes I was pumped!
Thank you. Getting ready to try this on some pet stains. Thank you for the detailed before and after photos.
I’m working on removing the active smells of my senior dog. I’ll take on the cosmetics after he passes. As long as my house doesn’t smell like a kennel, I think we should focus on keeping him comfortable moreso than how the floor looks.
Based on my internet searches, the H2O2 works with multiple long periods of soaking, and long periods of drying. The short spurts of chemicals without the patience do not seem to work. Obviously the chemicals work better on an unfinished floor, as the purpose of varnish, etc is to protect from water penetration. It just slows the work of something like peroxide. I am going to say peroxide over oxalic acid, as I use peroxide to remove carpet pet stains and odors routinely. I do not pay for the expensive spray products, and just have 3% H2O2 in a sprayer available. It takes out any colored stain. Peroxide is oxygen bleach, ie “OxyClean” in a bottle that is super cheap-99 cents per liter on sale. Forget the branded stuff. We have white carpets that are 21 years old and have had every kind of stain from blood to red wine, liquid poop, chocolate, red soda, and 4 dogs worth of piss stains. Still beautifully white-until the next accident, which is frequent. Just pretreat and use the carpet cleaner. My husband is super fussy, and he does not even notice any odor.
Save the extra time and go right to sanding. Good call!
Wiping it doesn't do anything. Soaking 3 layers of paper towels for several hours is key. I mean soaking wet. You need to look for the urine soaking up into to paper. Once you see quite a bit of yellow brown, change the paper, add more hydrogen peroxide. Keep doing this until it barely bleeds out. That's literally the urine leaving the wood. The paper towels are like the vehicle to which it can leave.
Have you had luck doing this with old stains? This was hidden by a rug and unknown for years
try using Bar Keepers cleaner to scrub it. It has oxilic acid in it that is the basis for bleaching wood.
you have to let it sit until it completely dries (not just 20 minutes), and it can take many treatments of doing this.
Thanks for the video research 👌🏼
Just a side note, H2O2 has a pretty short shelf life, maybe good for a few months once opened.
what sander did u use? I'm about to take the same kind of job
Drum sander rental from Home Depot. Looks like the model is American Sanders EZ-8. Used 24 grit on the problem areas, then 36, 60, 80, 100, 120 grit on the rest of the floors. Orbital sander for the edges. Good luck!
What about the finish after the sanding?
Thanks for the video! We are going to tackle a similar spot (with a full floor refinish, also), and I was worried this stain wouldn't come up. Of course it's right in the walk-way entry, not in the middle of the room where it could be covered with a rug if need-be. We ripped up OLD carpet (from the early 80's?) and found these same spots. Any change of a before and after shot of your floor finished?
hey good luck with your spots. I felt lucky it came up, I was not expecting it to. These spots were maybe 5-6 years old but I would think as long as they haven't penetrated too deeply into the wood, the age of the stain shouldn't matter. As long as the wood is thick enough to withstand 50-ish passes with an aggressive grit. Not sure how I could easily post a pic on YT but we stained + poly to match an adjoining room and it came out fine. Good luck!
You have to do it several times a day for weeks but it does help...eventually
God damn dogs! Grats on removing the stain and this helpful video. I'm about to tackle the same job, but my stains are darker.
good luck!
nice that sanding worked. I wonder if oxalic acid would have worked better than peroxide if sanding wasn't an option.
probably worth a shot? I'd imagine any sort of chemical solution that removed the stain would also affect the surrounding wood & finish
Did you sand the entire floor or just the damaged spot? If it’s the later, did the finish match with the old?
The former. I was tackling this as part of a full floor refinish. Sanded the entire floor after I dealt with this problem area
Whoa, there is hope for my floor!
Did it work?
Two solutions. Oxalic acid or hydrogen peroxide at 30%. Use a pet pee pad to reduce evaporation.
I used paper towels and then a piece of plastic (not shown) over to reduce evaporation. Not sure if there is a window of time where HP works on stains like this, but this stain was years old
Bar Keepers Helper has oxalic acid in it. Use it after the hydrogen peroxide.
So are you just saying to use a 24 grit on the sander?
That is what worked for me in the end, along with doing a ton of passes (50+?). If I had not had access to the 24 grit I think the 36 may have worked with a large number of passes
i seeit does nothing for stains. how about odor ???
We never smelled this stain. Was hidden under a carpet, we didn't know about it
Throw rug
Ahha so just borrow a sander then. Oky doky lol
Home Depot rental. People do it every day.
Just replaced the boards man lol.
No.
Ahhhhhhhhh stop the madness!!!