Question about hardwood floors and cat pee...

A friend of mine has her litter boxes on hard wood floors and her boys have missed a few times. It's discolored the area so she's wondering if she can simply clean it, or if she's going to have to sand it down and refinish the area.

Any ideas?

Mods, if this is in the wrong place please move.

Probably have to sand it and revarnish the area. If it's stained it's stained into the wood. Depending on the damage sanding may not even work. Depends on how deeply it's soaked in.

I agree she's going to have to sand it down.

We have hardwood floors here and I've placed a small area rug (like a bath rug) underneath for added protection. Then I just wash that about once a month.

she'll likely need to sand it down and refinish it. Ammonia can ruin a hardwood floor. In the future- she may want to put down a big platic mat or rug under the litter pans or move them to a different location.

Does she know how the floors were orginally finished?? Ours are non-water based polyurethane. Actually its the same stuff that is used on gym floors!! I know the water based poly urethane doesn't hold up as well as whatever we have. Ox or Bobber have peed several times on the rugs in my kitchen without any damage to the floors.
Also it is "real" hardwood floors or that fake stuff that's only like 1/16" inch. That stuff will be almost impossible to refinish. I would probably contact an expert floor refinishing company.

Originally Posted by Natalie_ca

Probably have to sand it and revarnish the area. If it's stained it's stained into the wood. Depending on the damage sanding may not even work. Depends on how deeply it's soaked in.

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She's right, if it's really soaked in, I'm worried that the sanding and refinishing won't do much. I found a bag when I was cleaning that the kitten had a blast peeing on. It's soaked in deep and there is little hope for the spot unless I refishish the floor with dark varnish.

Ouch -- that's going to be an expensive mistake, not putting down something to protect the floor.

Actually there is a way to "remove" the stain. I saw it awhile ago on one of those DYI home improvement shows. I think they lightly sanded, then used hydrogen peroxide to bleach the wood. Of course you then have to restain to match the rest of the floor.

Try doing on google search on "stained hardwood floors" I am betting there are more solutions out there.

Thank you guys so much... we will figure out how to fix this so she doesn't loose her security deposit.

This is a DIY forum I visit once in a while: http://forum.doityourself.com/

They've got lots of expert advice there.

Sand & refinish is the only way to get rid of a discoloration in hardwood floors, and it's not fun if you've never done it before.

If it is deep, you can definitely bleach & stain. Floor companies will typically stain new wood to match existing wood, and you can usually get it pretty close depending on the floors. I've got Fir floors from 1880 in my house that are a deep brown/red with some crazy grain in spots, making it pretty hard to match, but the floor guys we had in last year did a pretty good job of fixing a bad patch (blah termites).

Anyway, the real problem is that you mention security deposit, which means she rents, which means the best course of action depends entirely on the amount of the deposit. If you or your friend have never refinished floors before, it's very difficult work, and hard to get right. If your friend does a bad job, not only is she out of the money it cost to get it done, but she STILL loses her deposit.

Originally Posted by EggyToast

Anyway, the real problem is that you mention security deposit, which means she rents, which means the best course of action depends entirely on the amount of the deposit. If you or your friend have never refinished floors before, it's very difficult work, and hard to get right. If your friend does a bad job, not only is she out of the money it cost to get it done, but she STILL loses her deposit.

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Very good point Eggy. I didn't realize that she was a renter until now. That is a big job if they are not experienced DIY's and they could end up making things worse not better.