It’s a dog-eat-dog world—but your floors don’t have to smell like one
Dogs truly bless our lives, but they can sometimes bark up the wrong tree and have accidents where we really don’t want them to, like on hardwood floors. Even if you don’t spot the puddle quickly enough to stop it from soaking in, figuring out how to remove dog urine smell from hardwood floors isn’t too tricky and can be done in a relatively short amount of time, leaving you more time to play fetch and go for walks with Fido.
Throw open a window, gather your supplies (it’s always best to have your dog-urine cleaning supplies in an easily accessible location), and prepare to remove not only the unfortunate puddle you’ve been left with but also the lingering smell of dog urine from your floors.
First things first when removing the dog pee smell from your hardwood floors: you’ve got to fully clean the mess. Grab your paper towels and soak up the urine ASAP. Cleaning up spills quickly is an important part of maintaining your hardwood floor, and the quicker you can get rid of the pet urine, the less time it’ll have to absorb into the wood’s porous surface (and the less time you’ll have to smell it).
Hydrogen peroxide is the best cleaner for dog urine on hardwood floors if you’re looking for a quick DIY fix. Fill a small bowl with 3% hydrogen peroxide and a squirt of dish soap. Soak your rag in this mixture and gently wipe down the area, leaving the mixture on for ten minutes. Do not leave it on for longer, as this could cause warping, a common problem with hardwood floors.
Side note: This also works on cat urine and other types of pet urine, too.
After leaving the hydrogen peroxide and soap solution on the dog urine spot for ten minutes, take a towel and wipe it up. There’s no need to repeat this step even if you still smell dog urine—keep following the next steps to fully get rid of the urine smell on your hardwood floor.
After thoroughly cleaning the dog urine off the hardwood floor, it’s time to disinfect and remove the lingering smell. Baking soda is an excellent natural odor buster for pet urine, and you probably already have it in your pantry. Once you’ve blotted away any excess wetness, sprinkle baking soda over the area, making sure to cover it completely. Leave it overnight to absorb any lingering odors—to keep your furry friend away from the covered spot, consider setting up a temporary gate or blockade for the night.
The next morning, you can take a broom and dustpan to the baking soda to remove it from your floor and vacuum up any remaining powder. At this point, you can do a sniff test to see if the floor has any remaining pet odor. If not, then you can go play with your dog and forget it ever happened. If there’s still a smell, proceed to the next step.
If you can still smell the unfortunate mess your dear pet left behind, don’t panic: there’s another trick to remove dog urine smell from hardwood floors.
Dilute 1/3 to 1/2 cup of white vinegar into a 1-gallon bucket of warm water. Soak a rag in this mixture and gently rub at the spot. When considering how to get the urine smell out of wood floors, be aware you can use vinegar on small areas, but it might damage some varieties of wood floors. Always do a spot-check in an inconspicuous area before applying vinegar to your hardwood floors.
Note: Avoid using vinegar regularly when caring for your hardwood floor. Cleaning the whole floor with vinegar is a “don’t” on our list of hardwood floor maintenance do’s and don’ts, as this will wear away the finish over time.
Wipe down the area once more with a damp rag and pat it dry with a towel. Now it’s time for another sniff test. If there’s no more smell, go take Rover for a walk to eliminate any lingering stress. If you still smell pet urine and you’re dog-tired of the stench, don’t worry: You’ve got options in the next step.
For lingering stains and odors that just won't budge, your best bet is to hire a local wood floor repair pro to assess the damage and find the right solution for your floor, which could include refinishing your hardwoods or other repair techniques.
If your floor is too far damaged, the cost of refinishing hardwood floors is $1,900 on average. It’s a big job that doesn’t make a great DIY project, as there’s a high risk of gouges and scratches—and that’s just from the belt sander, not your dogs. For the best results, find a local wood refinishing contractor to help with the task.
Here are a few things that will make the problem worse, not better.
While your natural inclination may be to reach for a steam cleaner to keep floors clean as you would for your carpets, the opposite is true for hardwoods. Using a steam cleaner may damage the hardwood, causing it to warp from the excess moisture. Plus, the heat from the steam can set the odor even more by bonding the proteins.
Strong chemical odors, such as ammonia, can encourage your pet to urinate in the same spot again.
Vinegar can be a useful cleaner for dealing with dog urine, but you should never mix vinegar with bleach because the combination will release poisonous gas. You should also avoid mixing other common cleaners, such as ammonia, bleach, hydrogen peroxide, and vinegar.
You can save big by learning how to remove urine odors from hardwood floors yourself. Plus, mopping up accidents immediately rather than waiting for the professional to arrive reduces the chance of long-lasting odors or stains setting in. However, if you use the wrong cleaning products or process for the floor finish, you risk adding stains alongside the smells, permanently damaging your wonderful floors.
A professional floor cleaning service near you will have an arsenal of specialized tools and knowledge of tried-and-tested techniques to oust the odor for good, reducing the risk of your dog returning to potty in that same smelly spot.
DIY hardwood cleaning supplies and tools, such as a mop and bucket, won’t cost more than $25. Professional home cleaning costs an average of $180, but if your dog tends to have a lot of accidents, it might be worth spending the extra money to have this job done correctly.
Baking soda is an excellent choice for a natural dog urine neutralizer. You can sprinkle it on a stain, leave it overnight, and then vacuum it in the morning to help rid your hardwoods of the dog urine smell. Hydrogen peroxide is another odor neutralizer, but be careful not to mix it with other household cleaners.
Hydrogen peroxide is usually better for getting rid of urine smells on hardwood than vinegar. Unlike vinegar, hydrogen peroxide is odorless. This can be advantageous if you have a dog that likes to mark areas with a strong scent. Also, hydrogen is a strong oxidizer that can break down bacterial odors, and it is less likely to remove the finish on hardwood flooring than vinegar. Never mix hydrogen peroxide and vinegar. This creates corrosive and toxic peracetic acid.
