cat urine

[skeetstar]

Folks last year I made an occasional table from Oak as a house warming present. I finished the Oak with BLO, probably 4 or 5 coats, can't quite remember.

Anyway, the lady of the house has contacted me saying that their cat has managed to stain small parts of the table top with its urine, and could I look at it to restore it to its former glory.

I've not seen it yet and am hoping that a sand down and refinish will do the job, but does anyone else have any experience of this (somewhat surreal) situation, or any advice that might help me with the timber renovation?

Thanks all

 

[undergroundhunter]

I would scrape or sand the surface lightly and see if the stains go, other than that maybe a weak solution of oxalic acid (make sure you wash the surface of the wood down really well after using oxalic) lightly sand then refinish.

Matt

 

[novocaine]

step 1. kill the cat.
step 2. gloves
step 3. request large sum of money.
step 4. do as suggested in previous post.

 

[davin]

I haven't an answer regarding the repair, just a similar story.
Fitted acres oak flooring for a customer,,as well as Avery expensive hardwood door.
She has a very old incontinent cat which insisted on peeing on the same area of floor. Totally ruined the floor. I even tried sanding it back to bare wood, but could not get rid of the stains or the smell. She asked me to fit a cat flap on the front door. I said I would but it will ruin the door, she insisted. Fitted the cat flap, ruined the door then the cat died a week later...

 

[NazNomad]

novocaine does have a valid point with step 1.

I fear you'll be wasting your time preparing a lovely new surface for the cat to piddle on.

 

[Sheffield Tony]

Cat pee on your table. How gross is that.

Since the standard way of darkening oak is with ammonia, and cat urine contains ammonia, I would expect a difficult job. If you omit the job of rinsing off the oxalic acid, it might with a bit of luck just be enough to see off the cat ?

 

[dynax]

i doubt it will be urine, more likely the cat sprayed, so should be able to sand out and recoat,

 

[ED65]

I fear you'll be wasting your time preparing a lovely new surface for the cat to piddle on.

Could well be!

skeetstar I don't know cats well enough to know if a repeat is likely but refinishing with poly this time would be advisable if you want to help safeguard against staining if it does occur again.

 

[Racers]

They do like to mark their territory with a squirt of urine, and over spray other cats markings, so it might be the oner's cat or some one else's cat doing the spraying.
I find they don't like the smell of white spirit, it keeps them from using the gravel as a toilet.

Pete

 

[Nelsun]

Our female cat would spray (as in to mark territory rather than empty her bladder) assorted places round the home. It turned out the neighbor's cat was coming in through the flap at night, eating our cats food and, no doubt, claiming ownership of various places around the house. Once we cottoned on to this I put in a microchip activated flap so only our two could get in and subsequently our cat has stopped spraying. It's usually edges they go fo so the top of a table is a bit odd behaviour IMO.

I doubt this little nugget of near useless info will be of help but, IIRC, cat p*ss shows up under a black / UV light. It may help to show any residual pee staining that isn't obvious to the naked eye. Or maybe not

Edit: quick bit of YouTubing (it's a slow work day!) and I found this ditty about UV lights and cat pee. LED versions appear to be way better at showing it up too: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SRTIDH74esc

 

[Morten]

You can use enzymic odor remover from the pet supply store, like the Natures miracle. and wash with a bleach solution.

 

[stevep]

My ex next door neighbour had several cats, and when they left the new owner completely gutted the whole house. He ended up having to replace all of the floorboards downstairs to get rid of the smell.

 

[thick_mike]

I once made the whole of Swindon smell of cat's urine.

I was a paint chemist and changed the formula of our clear coat that we supplied to a bumper painting plant in Swindon that supplied Honda. Their water treatment from their spray booths contained bugs that digested the new solvent in the formula and converted it into felinine which is the chemical that gives cats urine it's odour. I went down for a spiky meeting to discuss the problem, parked up around a mile from the plant and the whole place stunk of cats. Very embarrassing.

 

[skeetstar]

Thanks for the help and views so far folks. I will get to look at the table tomorrow or Friday so have a better view of the extent of the staining. Apparently the cat is (according to the vet) suffering from stress and so is being somewhat incontinent..

ED65, if I can fix it, it will get a much better finish - poly or yacht varnish maybe.

Will let you know how things go.

Thanks all

 

[ED65]

ED65, if I can fix it, it will get a much better finish - poly or yacht varnish maybe.

I don't suppose it matters hugely for this piece but my money would always be on poly for this sort of thing. Just in simple terms: yacht varnishes aren't made for interior use. I also loathe the colour of them, but that's obviously a YMMV kind of thing.

 

[skeetstar]

Well folks, I scraped off the finish on the affected parts, but that didn't help at all, the staining had penetrated that and was into the wood. I have started sanded with fairly heavy grit paper and that seems to have done the trick, on the worst part, one of the legs, I have got it back to 98% clean. I am hoping that with a new finish applied (polyurethane) that the table will look like new again.

Thanks again for all the help and advice.

 

[novocaine]

and how's the cat?

 

[Cordy]

Cat tail soup

Yummy ! :twisted:

 

[skeetstar]

Sadly the cat retains all of its bodily functions...