How Urine Damages Upholstery

Pets are a part of the family. They liven up the home, are fun to hang out with, give you unconditional love, and are also protective. With Fluffy around, you have a loyal companion for your day-to-day life. Everything is all fine and dandy- up until when there will be a urine stain. 

Why Pets Urinate On Sofas

The spots can be caused by anything from that new puppy that just came home and hasn’t quite picked up on the training, all through to your furry friend simply being overwhelmed and having a urine accident. Without being fully house-trained, pets will urinate on the sofa simply because they don’t know any better. In some cases, it is due to diseases, such as when dogs suffer from urinary tract infection, diabetes, internal parasites or bladder infection. Monitoring your pet’s behaviour is key to assess whether there is an indication of a health problem. In other cases, it is territorial marking. Basically, the dominant dog wants to assert itself, and will urinate on the sofa because they feel their territory is being threatened. On the other side are the pets suffering from anxiety or submissive behaviour. Here, the dog may urinate when you walk into the room or even stand over them. This is usually due to the pet having been through some past traumatic incident, and requires retraining in order to prevent them from urinating submissively. There are cases of pets suffering from separation anxiety- such as when they are stressed out after the owner leaves the home. Ever heard of jealous dogs? This too is a contributing factor to pet urine stains. Basically, when Fluffy is used to being the only dog around and you bring another one home, he may get increasingly jealous, and urinating on the sofa will be a form of acting out. Aging pets may be suffering from incontinence. In this case your furry friend doesn’t have the ability to control passage of urine, hence will urinate involuntarily- like when they are relaxed or asleep.

Why The Urine Stains Are A Problem

Let’s get into some chemistry:

When the urine first gets onto the upholstery, it has a pH of 5-6. This is slightly acidic. At this point, the stains are easy to remove, if attended to while they are still fresh. 

Over time, the urine chemically breaks down. It oxidises, reacting with the upholstery material and even causing colour change.  As the spot dries, it becomes alkaline, getting to a pH as high as 10 or even 12. The spots become more difficult to treat. 

The odours from the urine stains come from two sources:

• Firstly, it is due to the bacterial action on the urine. When warm and fresh, with the urine at the acid stage, it provides conducive breeding grounds for bacteria, which immediately start flourishing.  As they breaks down the urine, amino acids are formed. These get deep into the upholstery, even becoming part of it in some cases. The waste materials that are formed by the decomposing urine result in unpleasant odours. When the dried urine gets remoistened- like when water spills on the spot, or when one uses wet cloths to attempt to wipe it, ammonia gas is released, with its characteristic pungent smell. 
• Secondly, there is the chemical odour that remains behind even long after the bacteria have died off. Components like uric acid that are formed as the urine breaks down can stick around for months. In fact, the smell gets worse with time. In cases of high humidity levels in room, the salts that are left behind as the urine dries will absorb moisture from the environment since they are hydrophilic. As the moisture evaporates later on, it increases the concentration of the ammonia gas being given off by the spot. Hence it is vital that the urine salts and crystals that are within the upholstery and cushions to be removed. As such, simply getting rid of the existing urine spot is not enough. During the cleaning one may note increase odours- this is as a result of the humidity levels going up, but it decreases as the salts are removed and the upholstery dries. 

Dealing With Pet Urine Stains

Our sofa cleaning crew assess the condition of the sofa, and determine the level of treatment that will be required to get rid of the spots. Situations vary from those cases with light urine damage, where quick cleaning will be effective, to those of medium and heavy urine damage, where deep saturation processes and extraction systems are required to deal with the issue, getting to the urine spots that have penetrated deep into the sofa material. Enzyme treatments are incorporated into the process.

With us, you can be sure that you’re getting professional services each time. Our crew have been trained in the different aspects of the job, and have years of experience. We handle sofa cleaning jobs for both residential and commercial clients, and have also invested in modernised systems for the task. These enable our crew to provide the sofa cleaning services to the expected standards of results, in as short a time as possible. It reduces the disruption to your day to day life, allowing normalcy to resume fast in your home or business premises. 

Preventing Future Pet Urine Accidents

It’s not just about preventing your pet from getting on the sofa- which may not be effective in the long run since they will hop onto it at one point or another- especially when you’re not home to chase them down. Proper training will be needed to prevent your pet from urinating on the sofa. For the territorial or submissive dog, working with a professional trainer will greatly benefit them. When you bring home a new puppy or dog, ensure that you give the current one just as much attention. That way, the established dog will understand that its position in the family is not under threat. When it comes to the medical conditions- from the urinary tract infections to the bladder infections, a visit to the vet will solve your troubles. 

How Urine Damages Upholstery