We all love our pets, and we all know that accidents happen–sometimes more often than we’d like. Handling pet stains and odors is a fact of life for pet owners, and it is possible to keep things under control. This means using smart DIY tricks on a routine basis while scheduling regular professional cleanings to keep your home looking and smelling its best. And when it’s time to replace stained or aging carpets, there are some terrific new pet-friendly options.

How Can I Get Pet Urine Stains Out of My Carpet?

We have been helping families choose and maintain the best quality flooring for decades, from carpet to hard surfaces. One of our suppliers, Mohawk Flooring, has some great tips for cleaning pet stains on your own and also recommends a professional cleaning every 12 to 18 months. Here are some tips for removing pet urine stains from your carpet:

• Act quickly when possible: your goal is to keep urine from soaking through the carpet to the padding and the base floor below.
• Blot– don’t rub: this is a recommendation with all stains but is especially important when it comes to pet stains as rubbing tends to grind stains into the carpet rather than lift them out.
• Use a white towel or paper towel, and never use colored material. This helps to prevent discoloration.
• Start out by blotting the area with a solution of water and clear hand dishwashing liquid and continue until the stain and detergent have been removed.
• If the detergent step doesn’t remove the stain, use a mixture of white vinegar and lukewarm water and continue to blot.
• Avoid DIY steam cleaning for urine stains since this can spread the smell to other areas.

The Scoop on Poop

Getting to pet poop as quickly as possible is key since some of the acids in animal feces can damage your carpet. With solids, the process is a little different than with urine stains:

Remove as much of the solid poop as you can with a spoon or scraper (we recommend using rubber gloves for the whole process). Don’t blot until you’ve scooped up all of the material so you avoid pushing it deeper into carpet fibers.
Spray with a pet stain remover and leave for several minutes.
Blot with a mixture of water and liquid dish soap as with urine.
Deodorize the spot with a white vinegar and water mixture, rinse and blot with a white towel.
Once the area is dry, sprinkle with baking soda and vacuum.

Pet Stains: Is Professional Carpet Cleaning Worth It?

The short answer is: absolutely! While DIY solutions are good to have in a pinch, if you have a persistent problem or a significant stain, professional cleaning is always the way to go. At Loudoun Carpet Care, we invest in top-quality professional equipment that does a much better job than a home carpet cleaner or even a rental. Our truck-mounted equipment offers ten times the cleaning power of a home cleaning system, and our employees are fully trained in getting your carpet or flooring really deep-down clean, instead of just moving dirt and germs around. Professional cleaning is usually less expensive than clients realize and well worth the cost.

Should I Wait to Get My Carpet Professionally Cleaned?

So many of our clients put off professional cleaning, and it seems like there’s always another threshold to be crossed: let’s wait until our puppy is trained or until our senior pet crosses the rainbow bridge. But if you have a pet stain problem, the time to address it is now. Here are some of the problems with leaving pet stains partially treated:

• It creates an unhealthy environment that allows viruses and bacteria to spread.
• It creates an uninviting ambiance in an otherwise lovely home as guests are greeted with unpleasant odors. Often, you’ve become used to these odors that are very obvious to guests.
• It may encourage your pet to continue leaving messes in the same spot.
• It can cause permanent damage to your carpet and to the base floor below it.

Time to Replace? Consider a Pet-Friendly Option

If you’re an animal lover, we have some excellent pet-friendly options when the time comes to replace that aging or pet stained carpet. Pulling up old carpet and starting fresh is a great way to break bad cycles and create a healthier environment for your pet and alleviate pet odors. Two of the best options are new stain-resistant carpet or stain-resistant hard surface flooring options. Loudoun Valley Floors, the parent company of Loudoun Carpet Care, offers a range of flooring options with pet owners in mind, many with AllPet protection plan. Some of our top recommendations for pet owners are:

SmartStrand Carpet: SmartStrand is soft, durable and stain-resistant. It’s made of a high-tech synthetic material called Triexta that is incredibly easy to clean. It’s exclusive to Mohawk and is getting rave reviews from pet owners. SmartStrand offers a lifetime warranty against domestic dog or cat urine, and the premium line also carries a warranty against feces stains.
Luxury Vinyl is all the rage for so many reasons, and stain resistance is a big one. Pergo Extreme is one of our top products for pet owners, offering luxury vinyl that looks like wood or stone but is waterproof and easy to clean thanks to a unique protective outer layer. Pergo Extreme’s multi-layer construction and joint system create unmatched water resistance, and its protective top layer guards against bacteria build-up that can come from urine accidents. Pergo Extreme is not available in big box stores, and Loudoun Valley Floors is an exclusive retailer in our area.

Pets and Your Floor: One Stop for Maintenance and Replacement

When pets are part of your home, professional carpet care (and eventually replacement) should be one of the elements you factor into your life. It’s essential for hygiene, comfort and peace of mind. When your flooring company and carpet care company are one and the same, it makes life that much easier. Loudoun Carpet Care is a division of Loudoun Valley Floors, one of the region’s most trusted names in flooring. With decades of experience caring for carpets, we can help keep the pets you love from becoming a source of stress and let the joy and fun of pet ownership shine through.