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Becky asked: How do I clean urine spots from hardwood floors? I am litter training my rabbit. He has had a few accidents on the hardwood floor, and there are several whitish spots. How do I lift the stain.
Urine
stains can turn hardwood floors either white or jet black. Either way, the urine must be pulled up and peroxide does the trick. Here is a removal method that has been successful for many.
You Will Need:
- Hydrogen peroxide
- Paper towels
- Baking soda
- Cat litter
- Plastic
- Tape
- Spray bottle
Steps to Remove the Stain:
- Cover the stained area with paper towels.
- Moisten the towels thoroughly by spraying them with hydrogen peroxide.
- Allow the peroxide to sit on the stain for a couple of hours.
- If the paper towels dry out too quickly, either apply more peroxide regularly or cover with plastic and tape down the edges.
- After several hours, remove the paper towels and cover the area with an absorbent material. Baking soda or cat litter work well because they will absorb both odors and moisture.
- After the moisture has been absorbed, scrape away the litter or baking soda and dispose of it.
- Allow the area to dry.
- If the stain persists, repeat the process. It may take several applications to fully remove the stain.
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Additional Tips and Advice
- Sometimes the white marks are left from the moisture only. In this case, use the removal methods found in our guide How to Remove White Rings from Wooden Furniture.
- If the protective coating is removed during the cleaning process (it should be, but you never know – you can test the solution in a small hidden area of the floor first to be sure it’s safe), it will need to be refinished in that area. This can be completed easily by lightly sanding away the damaged surface and applying new finish. If you contact the company that sold you your floor, they often offer finish “touch up pens” that make this very easy.
I had a black spot where my older dog was going potty and I didn’t notice it right away. It left a black spot on my hardwood floors. I used the top of using hydro-peroxide. I just poured the peroxide on the spot, wiping it up after a few hours. I repeated this about five times. THE SPOT IS GONE COMPLETELY> I couldn’t get over that I didn’t have to have a “specialist” in. The cost was under a dollar!
My dogs are getting older and becoming too lazy to go downstairs and outside to go pee. They have had a few accidents on our ENGINEERED hardwood. Does anyone know if this process will work the same way on this type of wood vs. REAL hardwood or will it cause more damage? If anyone knows how to fix it, please let me know. Thank you!
I’m duly impressed with this technique for removing pet urine from hardwood floors. My pet rabbit, who has free run of my kitchen, has certain corners that she marks periodically (much to my displeasure). I had read that it’s not possible to remove the stain, but the technique described here worked quite well! Thank you!
Does this trick remove the smell too?
Tasha,
The peroxide should remove some (if not all) of the odor, but baking soda will finish the job well; it is a common odor remover.
If just removing the smell/odor (from the spot where our dog peed last night), do you use all these steps above?
Raquel,
Just cleaning the area with peroxide normally should be enough to disinfect the area. For the smell, cover the area with baking soda for a couple hours, then vacuum it up and repeat the process if needed.
At the risk of sounding stupid, does this work without removing the finish on the floor first, or would we have to sand off the finish, and then use this method?
Ann,
This method can work without removing the floor finish. However, if the peroxide does remove the finish, then the floor would need to be sanded and refinished. You do not need to remove the floor finish first in order for this method to work.
My dogs have urinated and severely damaged antique hardwood flooring. It is really soaked in… Does this baking soda trick work for bad odor urine smells? I’m desperate!!
Mary,
It should, baking soda is a natural deodorizer. It may take several tries though to completely remove the smell if it went that deep. If the baking soda doesn’t work, try Nature’s Miracle Hard Floor Cleaner. It’s a pet enzyme cleaner designed for hard floors; it can usually be found in large pet stores and some major supermarkets as well. Good luck!
Most of the time our dog let’s us know that he has to go outside to pee, but sometimes, when we’re occupied, he’ll just pee on something that’s on the floor, doesn’t matter what it is. Last time he peed, it went unnoticed and left a black spot on the hardwood floor. I tried this method and it did remove the black spot effectively. We do have to re-stain the area though because it is now white, but that’s okay. We can easily fix that!
Hello there,
My dad has a cheap chocolate leather blanket box that he’s had on his hardwood timber (blackbutt) floor (it’s a medium honey-color stain).
Unfortunately, it’s left a big stain ring around the perimeter of it and we just can’t work out how to clean it off.
Would you have any suggestions on how to clean it?
A million thanks!
G
Our dogs (we have 3) have the urgency to urinate wherever they please. We try to potty train them, but on rainy days, they won’t go outside, as they are very petite dogs. A few weeks ago, we noticed an ammonia odor coming from a closet we rarely go into (storage) and it looks like they peed on a blanket that was sitting in the floor. I lifted the blanket and the natural-stained hardwood floor had what seemed as black burns on them. I didn’t know what to do. I was going to buy sanders and re-varnish the floor. I came across this article and seems as though it would work, but no one has mentioned that they have black stains as a result of a garment on top of the urine. Will this process work?
Roberto,
This is the article that you need: How to Remove Black Marks Left by Urine on Hardwood Floors.
How do you remove urine stains on hard wood floors? There’s a black stain in six spots on the hardwood floors. Thank you.
Kayla,
This is the article that you need: How to Remove Black Marks Left by Urine on Hardwood Floors.