Pet urine in hardwood floors of "new" home. Has anyone dealt with anything like this or worse? (hardwood floor, Lowes)
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I looked up the EPA "warning" and found nothing mentioned about decaying carpet backing. However, this is a direct quote from the notice:
When inhaled, ozone can damage the lungs
I specifically said, "you cannot be in the house" - Use it when the house is unoccupied.
The claims have not been scientifically proven that it will kill mold and it is NOT an air-purifier. HOWEVER, there is enough anecdotal evidence to support the claims on SMELL eradication. The EPA article also discusses how the extra oxygen molecule in ozone binds with other chemicals and thus returns ozone to it's "safe" oxygen but, in commercial settings, where toxic gases are already present, the extra oxygen particle may bind and create an even more hazardous gas. THESE substances are not present in the ordinary house AND they are not in high enough concentrations to be harmful especially since THE HOUSE IS NOT OCCUPIED at the time.
thanks for replying. Well, we got the bill for the new flooring. It is going to cost us over $4700 to install the new flooring (that is not including fixing the subfloor, primer, etc.). We can't sand and finish the wood because the urine soaked into the wood and subfloor. I feel sick from this. We are thinking we are going to try a letter to the seller and then small claims court. We have pictures of the damage including pictures of our twins covered in the flea bites. I am so mad. This money was suppose to go the fencing or ac unit when it breaks down. There is no way in h#ll these people didn't know about this. What can we do? Another problem is that the previous owners were good friends with all the neighbors. This has caused our family so much stress!
You'll probably take this the wrong way and I would also certainly be pissed if I bought a house and had to replace floors, subfloors due to pet pee, but honestly you need to suck it up, pay for the work if it bothers you that much and move on.
Do you really think that trying to deal with the sellers and then going to court is going to cause you any less stress? Also, do you think the sellers really knew that the pee had leaked all the way to the subfloor? They had no way of really knowing that.
Yes, the probably knew that there were pee stains on the floors and yes, the knew that their pets were peeing on them, but they most likely did not know the extent of the damage. I don't have pets - thank goodness, but in my experience a lot of people who have them don't "smell them" the way non-pet people do.
These people had to know that their animals were peeing this much. We took the pictures to the attorney and just based on the pictures he said that these people knew it. It was that much damage. The urine is everywhere. yes, we are stressed about this because now we are going to be stuck trying to sell a "cat ****" house if we have to move. Also, we are trying to do all this work with twin 3 year olds, no family support and not much money for that (that money was suppose to go to other things in the house).
Last edited by nutraveler; 11-20-2010 at 07:15 PM..
I guess I am just really upset with the whole thing. We shall see on Monday. If the floor look beautiful, it might lessen my anger a little. We will see at the end of this whole ordeal.
I think the owners knew darn well too. And I still back up my blacklight idea (After all, it's $20 well spent). Just last night I decided to do a walk through on my NEW laminate floors and, sure enough, found a couple of accidents with the black light. Fortunately, they were easy enough to clean up. They disappeared under the black light. Whew!
I knew darn well how bad this house got with my two dogs. I just had other things on my mind (like health issues and my dad dying) so I sort of threw up my hands and thought I'd deal with it later. I knew one room was really bad but had NO idea just how bad the whole house was. It wasn't until I did the blacklight thing that it was very apparent there WAS NO salvaging the situation. So I've been up since 4 a.m. this morning ripping up padding and trying to get up tack strips as this guy I've had do most of the house has become too unreliable. And I do have a backup guy I can call on too.
With the economy the way it is, I'd get several estimates. I'd also write the former owners a letter and threaten them with court unless they cough up the money. They should have disclosed this to you.
Nuttraveler, You might want to pull your heating grates up and check inside the vents if they are on the floor to make sure there's no poop residue there.
You can try small claims but your chances may be rough. You i'm sure had multiple viewings and had a professional inspector out. If after all that no one noticed, you're likely SOL. Pet urine is like acid on hardwood floors and unfortunately the only want to get it out is to replace the floors unless you lucked out and it's very mild, then it could be sanded. Otherwise there is nothing you can just spray or scrub in to get it out, it's embedded in the floors and possibly even the subfloors.
You have asked a legal question it seems as opposed to a home improvement question. There being no legal forum here I would suggest this be posted in the real estate section to see what the agents over there think. One would really have to see your contract, know the state or city law on disclosure and see any inspections that were done.
thanks for the replies. we already consulted with an attorney who said that we do have a case. i was just wondering if anyone else had gone through this bad of a situation. it wasn't just the cat urine, we were also left with fleas (that attack my 3 year olds very badly) and a yard filled with dog poop. these problems were not apparent when we were looking at the house. we found out after we moved in that the owners had 3 dogs and 10 cats. when we looked at the house we saw no dogs and 2 cats that were outside.
we are still finding urine soaked areas. we just found a section in the guest bathroom. we are pulling up all the floors.
anyway, i will post this in the real estate section. thanks.
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There is no way in h#ll these people didn't know about this. What can we do? Another problem is that the previous owners were good friends with all the neighbors. This has caused our family so much stress!
