How to Find and Clean Pet Urine Stains in Carpet
In this post, I will explain how to use a UV flashlight to locate and clean up pet urine stains on the carpet.
Urine is composed of various molecules, such as urea, uric acid, creatinine, citrate, sodium, potassium, ammonium, calcium, magnesium, oxalate, sulphate, phosphate, phosphorous, urobilin, and potentially bacteria.
Each of these molecules has distinct properties. For instance, yellow comes from a molecule called urobilin, while other substances like bacteria and urea contribute to the odour.
Pet urine stains can be identified under an ultraviolet (UV) light, as they will fluoresce or glow when exposed to it.
Introduction
Urine stains on carpets can be easily located using a UV flashlight due to phosphorus molecules in urine. These molecules absorb UV light and emit visible light, causing the stains to glow. For best results, use the UV flashlight in a dark room.
UV and black lights can make various stains on your carpet glow, not just urine. Stains that glow under a black light include urine, blood, cleaning products, turmeric, coffee, beer, and milk. To clean up pet urine on the carpet, use white cloths or paper towels to absorb as much urine as possible by applying pressure to the cloth. Keep repeating this process until the urine stops coming out of the carpet.
Locating Pet Urine Stains
When cleaning biological messes and odours, using an enzyme cleaner is crucial. Biokleen Back-Out Stain + Odor Remover is my top choice for this purpose. Simply saturate the affected area, let it sit for five minutes, blot, and repeat if necessary. No rinsing is necessary. When selecting a cleaning solution, the best option is to use an enzyme cleaner.
Enzymes are present in plants, animals, and our digestive systems. They break down organic matter by acting as catalysts. This makes enzyme cleaners perfect for cleaning biological messes like urine, blood, vomit, and feces.
Enzymes also effectively eliminate odours by breaking down the molecules that cause them. Most enzyme cleaning products contain urease, which attacks and breaks down urea molecules, eliminating urine odours.
My preferred enzyme cleaning product is called Biokleen Back-Out Stain + Odor Remover.
The directions for using Biokleen Back-Out are simple:
1) Saturate the affected area with Biokleen Back-Out.
2) Let it sit for five minutes or more.
3) Blot the affected area with a rag.
4) Repeat the process if necessary. It does not need to be rinsed.
Using a Black Light
The stains that appear under a UV light are not permanent. They can be removed by breaking down the phosphorus molecules that cause them to glow using an advanced oxidation reaction.
When urine, beer, or other phosphorus-containing substances enter carpets, the phosphorus molecules become permanently bonded to the carpet fibres.
Even though the phosphorus molecules cannot be cleaned out of the carpet, there is generally no real reason for them to need to be removed. When a urine stain on a carpet is thoroughly cleaned, most of the urine molecules will come out of the carpet, but phosphorus molecules will typically easily bond to the carpet fibres.
Phosphorus is harmless, odourless, and colourless. The only way you would know it is in the carpet is if you use a black light or UV light to detect it. My recommendation is to just clean the urine accidents using an enzyme cleaner and not worry about removing the phosphorus.
However, if you still want to make these glowing stains disappear, I can show you how to remove stains that glow below a black light.
Cleaning Pet Urine Stains
To remove carpet stains that glow under a UV light, you can use an advanced oxidation reaction to break down the phosphorus molecules that cause the glow. You will need 3% hydrogen peroxide and a UV light. The UV light causes the hydrogen peroxide (H2O2) molecules to split into hydroxyl radicals (OH-), which then break down the phosphorus molecules. Once all the phosphorus molecules have been broken down, the stain will no longer glow under a UV light.
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pet urine odour removal, carpet cleaning for pet stains, eliminating pet urine odors, removing pet urine from carpet
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