So far I've tried oxiclean+cold water, then 92% isopropyl alcohol, then hot water and vinegar solution. Feel like it masks the smell for like 4-6 hours before it comes back. Usually spraying this stuff on pretty heavy, letting it soak for 10 minutes as I agitate it with a scrub brush, then suck it up with a hand shampoo machine. Smell was worse than ever today coming back home with the windows closed. I still can't exactly pinpoint the smell, it might be the underpadding.
Haven't tried vodka, or anything like Resolve Gold, Nature's Miracle, Clorox Urine Remover, Odoban, industrial enzyme-based stuff, etc. yet. I don't give a fuck about the carpet colour so don't worry about anything harming the colour, I care about removing the smell right now.
Edit: tempted to hit it with an enzyme cleaner hard, section by section, and then get an ozone generator off AliExpress and tactical nuke the house afterward with ozone (in moderation). I'm not even sure it's just cat smell, it's like a blend of smells from different places that I think have all combined into one super smell. The front entrance has a rusted metal closet railing on the floor that smells fucking awful. I think it's the coating, using vinegar just makes it worse unlike what people online have said. I've tried to remove it but the screws are rusted to fuck and I'm probably going to have to drill it out. The unused air registers smell really bad too, I've tried dumping cat litter in there and shopvacc-ing it out with very limited success. The carpets have brown stains over them that seem to pop up increasingly every couple weeks. I'm assuming that's cat pee or spraying, the brown plastic legs of the old-ass love seat had a stain like something wet was hitting the legs and then the plastic maybe had dye leech out into the carpet below it a little. I think it's telling that the bedrooms where the cat(s) don't got are mostly unscathed though.
I honestly wonder how true this is, it’s the only thing I’ve not really tried (but luckily my problem cat, who is fixed, just sprays in the spring and it’s not super hard to find where she’s doing it and use enzyme). I do wanna buy a machine and blast my room though.
My first exposure to the ozone machine was when I was detailing cars. Some young guy was transporting some gasoline in the backseat of his car, and the gasoline spilled. We tried everything to get it out. Finally the boss found someone with an ozone machine and and we ran it in the car for about an hour. When we checked back, the gas smell was completely gone.
Later when I worked at a paint store we had a customer who used them for cat piss. Typically, because the urine soaks into the carpet, the pad, and the subfloor, the carpet and pad need replaced, and the subfloor needs coated with a shellac-based primer, as it is one of the only things that will seal in the odor. This contractor I believe used the ozone machine instead. Or at least, he used it in conjunction with other steps in the process. I dont totally recall.
I dont know that an ozone machine would be an easy, one step, no fuss solution. The fact that it knocked out the gasoline smell, admittedly after a fair amount of cleaning in which the gas smell was still full strength by my memory, leads me to believe that with cleaning the carpet with a good enzyme cleaner, and then following with the ozone machine, you could get much higher abatement of the odor than with just a cleaner, if not total abatement.
It can be tricky to find someone who has one though. I'd def try it out first before purchasing one, or see if you can rent one somewhere. They really are incredible. My understanding is that the ozone dislodges the odor particles from virtually any surface. I'm not an expert but I think it is a solid avenue to investigate
Yeah, they're like $80 off AliExpress here meanwhile rental is about $85 for 2 days for an ozone generator. My dad's a chronic smoker and I'm tempted to get one so he can nuke his travel trailer too since he ruined that with cigarette smell.
You can buy them online, they aren’t that expensive. Funny enough I also worked at a car rental company, where I learned about using the ozone machine as the final maneuver when all else fails. I’ve been wanting to try one on my room but haven’t gotten around to it (and it’s gonna be an ordeal as ozone isn’t good to breathe in, so it’ll take sealing off my room as much as possible as well as keeping the cats far away)