Surface Treatment of Urine Odors

If you've done a reasonably thorough inspection of most urine odor situations, you'll likely have found that most urine odor contamination problems require more than just a surface spray application or cleaning.

However, once your customer is made aware of the cost involved in either Subsurface Treatments or Total Restoration of urine contamination, some will ask you to "just spray something on the top, because I can't afford to do that."

You must be VERY careful before you give in to this seemingly reasonable request.

If urine contamination has penetrated into carpet backings and cushion, not only will a surface treatment rarely work, more often than not your cleaning will actually make the odor worse! If this happens, your customer will rapidly forget their "reasonable request" and they might actually insist that you now completely treat the carpet at no additional cost, because it "smells worse than ever now!"

This trap reminds me of what happens to cleaners who dry clean furniture because the customer is fearful of the "S" code that insists on dry cleaning. Only when the fabric doesn't clean up well (most often the case) do they THEN want it to be cleaned with water, but of course at no charge.

To avoid this trap, make certain that in your initial inspection that you show your customer the extent of the damage from urine. Remind them that surface treatment and cleaning will likely (not maybe) make the odor worse. Have the will power to refuse to do the job wrong for less money.

Because ultimately you'll be doing the job "right" for free later if you don't!