Some of those pet odors can be downright NASTY. I talked to someone a while back--she had to replace a bunch of flooring and drywall to get rid of cat odors.

I wonder if it might be worth trying to seal the area--especially since it's going to be covered with carpet anyway. Perhaps a paint such as KILZ might be worth a shot. I would definitely recommend making sure the problem is pretty well solved before putting on new carpeting--you don't want the odor coming up through that new carpet!, yuk! If the subfloor is made of plywood, I would think replacing the smelly section would be a lot easier, more productive, and a whole lot more pleasant than trying to sand out the odor.

Best of luck, and hopefully home ownership will improve soon for you!

Thanks for the reply. Someone else had also mentioned Kilz. Another mentioned actually using tar paper to seal the odor away from the carpeting.

I think I messed up my terminology on my post, though, under the carpeting is hardwood -- not floorboard.

Any other thoughts from anyone? Thanks.

Some thoughts about the soiled hardwood flooring:

1. I'm not sure I'd be too worried about maintaining the "look" of the hardwood floor at this stage--as you'll be carpeting anyway. Good quality carpeting realistically puts off any future flooring decision (say, re-finishing the hardwood) for perhaps 10 years. (I think the average person is in a house, what, about 7 years?)

2. What's more, the stained portion of hardwood flooring may have to be replaced anyway when/if you refinish down-the-line. (Again, perhaps 10 years off!)

Obviously it depends on your situation, but given the above, I'd be tempted just to cut out the soiled section, replace with a strong and properly-installed plywood "patch", carpet and enjoy!...and worry about fixing the hardwood down-the-road when/if you deal with it then. The hardwood will probably need other TLC then anyway.

I should mention that I don't say "just cut the hardwood" lightly--as I'm currently looking at a lot of work on fixing up an old (20 yr) oak floor myself...

Again, good luck!

We had this same problem in the house we just bought. I can tell you, this stuff works, it's from Sherwin Williams called SF 1.

This whole house stunk like you wouldn't believe, so we got a gallon, ( It's not cheap ) and tried it first. Then knowing that it was going to to the trick, we bought the house. We also painted 3 feet up the walls and removed all the door trim etc and painted behind the trim area.

We amke sure to ask any new visitor if they can smell dog, and they can't. A 5 gallon bucket was a little over a 100 bucks.

Thank you -- I just called Sherwin Williams and they tell me they've had a lot of success with that product. I'm going to buy some this weekend and give it a try next week!

How did the SF1 work? We have the same situation, except on a concrete basement floor.

Our fear of sealing is will the odor migrate to the untreated portions of the floor and eventually come through there? Over half of the basement is finished, and we don't want to tear up all of the carpeting if we can avoid it. Does anyone have any thoughts?

We used the SF-1 on concrete too and it worked very well. Make sure you open the windows cuz it's potent.

Hello everyone -

I did use the BIN (sherwin Williams) on the floor in the living room and it seems to have stopped the odor substantially. Like the post from Roses, though, I'm concerned about using it in other areas -- fearing that the odor will permeate through the bottom of the floor to the downstairs area. I'm going to try it anyway, though.

Just wanted to let everyone know it works well!!!