Help with De-Catting my apartment

Ok I am sure you are wondering what the heck I am talking about. I am in the process of packing to move out of my apartment. I have 6 cats when I am allowed 2 (oops!). Two have done some damage.

~I have a bathroom door with scratches and chips all over the bottom. I am thinking about replacing the door since it is probably cheaper then leaving it and having the landlord charge me for it! Plus my BIL has all sorts of tools and builds and fixes things for a living.

~The carpeting is basically destroyed underneath the stairs. This is from Miss Bowie who is too cool to use her litterbox like the rest of the cats. I removed the carpet padding and tackboard from underneath, I am just going to use my friends professional carpet cleaner and clean the carpet and then replace the padding and tackboard. The apartment removes all carpet when anyone moves out, BUT they also charge you if you damaged it! Go figure!

~I also have damage to the counter top, this is completely not cat related. Knife marks in the surface. Is there anyway to fix or at least hid that?

Anyone have any suggestions? Ways to hide that there were so many cats here?? LOL. THANKS!

Wow sounds like you are going to do a lot more work then you need to!!!

You might be able to buy one of those door protectors and screw it on the bottom to cover up the scratch marks. They have plastic ones that are for just that.

As for the carpet, I think you are making the right choice.

Counter top.....no ideas there

I can see why you are worried though. I spent 5 hours cleaning our 1 bedroom 700 square foot apartment and the landlord told me that it was so dirty she couldn't show it to ANYONE!!!! Yeah right.....

Just say you had 2 naughty cats - they can't prove otherwise

lol, good point! two naughty cats it is! But I am still going to try to undue as much damage as I can. I think I am screwed on the counter tops!

Is the countertop Corian or some other material that's the same all the way through? if so, you can use rubbing compound to smooth the knife marks a bit... but if it's Formica or some other layered material, you'd have to be awfully careful not to go through to the next layer! (I've never done this myself -- only saw it on a home-improvement show once.)

Originally Posted by sarahp

Just say you had 2 naughty cats - they can't prove otherwise

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The problem is it's the landlord's discretion whether the place is acceptable. With 6 cats I don't think it's even possible to have it NOT smell like cats no matter how much cleaning you do (within reason of course). some of that just takes time to get out.

To Jen,

I think you're on the right track, but I think before you pay for a door you should get an impartial person to walk in and smell the place. . Just be sure. You could end up buying a door AND losing your deposit which isn't going to be a happy day!

I think I would try to find a way to smooth the top of the counters, even if its just temporary! You just need to buy enough time to get the H out of there! LOL so, I would clean up the carpets and make them look pretty, then either replace the door or use a cover to it with some wood paint and see how it looks! Door are pretty cheap if you're not looking at the nicest one in the bunch! I was lived in a apartment with 2 cats, and I decided to redo the bathroom, the whole building closed down a month later and we were forced to move out and when I did, they charged me for redoing the bathroom and not the cat damage! Ticked me off pretty good!!

Originally Posted by fastnoc

...With 6 cats I don't think it's even possible to have it NOT smell like cats no matter how much cleaning you do...

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Hey, watch it! WE have six cats and our house smells fine! No, seriously, we've been lucky -- the one kitty who has a litterbox problem has chosen to live in the kitchen, so her accidents have always been on tile. A carpet-accident kitty would make it a lot more difficult to keep things fresh.

This is just a thought, not something I've tried, but... if you just packed baking soda around the bad area of the carpet and let it sit for a few days before scooping/vacuuming it up, I wonder if that might lift out some of the odor. Baking soda is amazing stuff.

When you remove the carpeting from the steps buy a quart can of polyurethane and coat the steps. This will mask any odor that may have permeated the wood. When we ripped out our carpeting upstairs I sealed the wood subfloor with a strip of polyurethane about 12" away from the walls around the perimeter of each room and the hallway.

For the coutertops there is a product at hardware stores called gel gloss that might help with the countertops. Or stop in at a cabinet/countertop maker and ask for recommendations.

You could buy a black light from a pet store to look for urine stains on the carpeting too.

Okay when I read the thread title, I though it said help de-clawing my cat. Then I saw it was you Jen, and realized I needed to give it a quick re-read.

The baking soda idea is fantastic for carpet. Also you may want to go out and see if you can rent a Dyson or other professional model vacuum cleaner to get all the cat hair out of the carpet. If you can't find one give your carpet the best vacuum of it's life and then go over it on your hands and knees with a Swiffer sheet. It will pick up all the hair you left behind.

Good luck. I hope it all goes well for you.