This question is more about building and less about cats.
Coal peed in my 16 year old cat tree. Admittedly, I've never properly cleaned it before aside from spot cleaning. He's only done it once and was probably making a comment about something (recent vet visit? 3 other cats worth of smell? A forgotten litter pan while I was distracted with his FIV test results? Who knows?!)
I have tried soooo hard to get it out, and the more I clean the more the whole tree smells like soaps and animals. 16 years worth of carpet dirt is no joke! I have even run the mat under the shower (it is now disintegrating) and done the whole unit with just water after the soap because the smell was so offensive. Still stinks.
We have 2 options: buy or repair. I cant seem to find one that is sturdy and tall enough for my tastes to buy, so we are experimenting with reparing.
The thing I discovered tonight is that all of the very meticulously laid carpet is glued down. I managed to peel some carpet off by heating the glue with a hair dryer but the fumes were bad! I could however do it outside, but we will need a heat gun 100%. We were discussing the corners we could cut to make the process easier tonight, but im not sure it will be worth all the effort of stripping the thing, especially for the bed parts. I even considered just putting a layer of carpet over the carpet that's there, but that isn't going to solve my stink problems.
Does anyone have experience with these types of things that can share some wisdom? Am I being stupid? Should I just wait for something and purchase? It's just so sturdy and I hate throwing out things that could be fixed and reused. Maybe it's not worth it though! Here's some pics of the underside of one of the shelves where I peeled the carpet back. Glue everywhere!
Coal peed in my 16 year old cat tree. Admittedly, I've never properly cleaned it before aside from spot cleaning. He's only done it once and was probably making a comment about something (recent vet visit? 3 other cats worth of smell? A forgotten litter pan while I was distracted with his FIV test results? Who knows?!)
I have tried soooo hard to get it out, and the more I clean the more the whole tree smells like soaps and animals. 16 years worth of carpet dirt is no joke! I have even run the mat under the shower (it is now disintegrating) and done the whole unit with just water after the soap because the smell was so offensive. Still stinks.
We have 2 options: buy or repair. I cant seem to find one that is sturdy and tall enough for my tastes to buy, so we are experimenting with reparing.
The thing I discovered tonight is that all of the very meticulously laid carpet is glued down. I managed to peel some carpet off by heating the glue with a hair dryer but the fumes were bad! I could however do it outside, but we will need a heat gun 100%. We were discussing the corners we could cut to make the process easier tonight, but im not sure it will be worth all the effort of stripping the thing, especially for the bed parts. I even considered just putting a layer of carpet over the carpet that's there, but that isn't going to solve my stink problems.
Does anyone have experience with these types of things that can share some wisdom? Am I being stupid? Should I just wait for something and purchase? It's just so sturdy and I hate throwing out things that could be fixed and reused. Maybe it's not worth it though! Here's some pics of the underside of one of the shelves where I peeled the carpet back. Glue everywhere!
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