Do You Think of Urine as Your Enemy?

Gordon Hanks

Before talking about the tools and methods for urine detection, let's first review a few of the other aspects concerning urine contamination in our customers homes.

If you think of urine as your enemy you must make a change in your thinking. The removal of urine and related odors drives a multi-million dollar industry year after year. With the proper understanding of your smelly little yellow friend, you, the professional fabric care specialist, can share in the millions spent to correct the bad effects of urine while helping your customers in a very necessary way.

The problems that your customer may experience can range from a one-time accident of an animal, over-spray around the toilet (if you have children of the male persuasion, you understand) or a Great Dane who believes the living room carpet is his own special sandbox. A dog or cat that weighs less than 5 pounds will product more than 10 gallons of urine a year. If the animal concentrates most of that into an area of less than 100 sq ft., which many of them do, then the problem can be quite extensive.

Urine leaves the body (human or animal) in an acid state, with a pH of about 5 to 6. It is rather pure and generally contains no harmful bacteria, pathogens, or micro-organisms. However, it becomes the perfect breeding ground for such as soon as it leaves the body.

The main ingredient in urine is uric acid. It also contains yellow pigment, urea, cholesterol, enzymes, and small amounts of other chemicals. The uric acid begins to change immediately upon leaving the body. The warm acid state of the urine offers a perfect breeding ground for bacteria which also begin to flourish almost immediately. In this original acid state, the urine begins to oxidize and react with the carpet to create a color change which may become permanent if the urine is not properly removed from the carpet.

As urine begins to dry it forms crystalline salts, which take on an alkaline pH. When dried urine is remoistened it gives off an ammonia gas. One way to identify a problem area is by the odor. If smelled once, it is seldom forgotten. The source of odors associated with urine comes from two sources. The first comes from bacteria that grow abundantly in dark warm places with a never ending food source. The dog feeds the bacteria daily! This bacteria growth and breakdown of the urine creates amino acids. These complex organic compounds will often work deep into the fibers to a point of nearly becoming part of the fiber. This can present a challenging situation. The waste materials and gases from the decomposing urine create an unpleasant odor.

The second source of odor is a chemical odor that is present even when the bacteria has been killed. This explains the reason that more than disinfecting is necessary to neutralize odors from urine. Urine also presents additional odor problems when the relative humidity is high. The salts and crystals that are formed are hydrophilic and draw water to them. As the salts are reactivated by moisture they give off a greater proportion of odorous gases.

THE FIRST THING TO DO IS TO FIND THE SOURCE OF THE ODOR. If we don't successfully locate ALL of the odor sources, our result will be less than 100%. Because this step is so important, let's examine it in some detail.

Locating the urine source is done by our eyes and noses with an assist from moisture detectors and ultraviolet (UV) lights.

NOSE - Whether the nose is your nose or your customer's, this is usually the first tool that indicates the presence of urine. We enter a home or a room and immediately recognize the presence of odors associated with urine. Determining the precise location of the source is more difficult. Crawling around the room on your hands and knees while sniffing the floor may work but it is not the most dignified or professional way.

One key reason that it is difficult to determine the exact source of the odor is because air currents diffuse the odor. Closing any open windows, turning off ceiling fans, heating or air conditioning and other sources of air movement will make it easier to locate the source.
Remember that most women are more sensitive to odors than men. If you are a male technician with less than a great nose for odors, you may benefit from a female assisting you.

MOISTURE DETECTOR (Good) - You can use a moisture probe to examine all the carpet in question. As urine dries a chemical reaction creates an alkaline salt. Alkaline salts are hygroscopic, that is they absorb moisture from the air. In all but the driest conditions the salt residue will hold enough moisture to activate a moisture probe.

The probe, also known as a urine sensor, has two sharp pins on one end that can be forced into the carpet and even the cushion below. When the pins contact anything that conducts electricity - urine or the damp salts - a beeping or blinking or both indicate the presence of moisture.
If spots are scattered around a home, you will need to make many tests to be sure that you don't miss an area. You won't know if an area has urine or not if you don't test that place.

ULTRAVIOLET LIGHT + MOISTURE DETECTOR (Better) - Adding the ultraviolet light works well and can quickly locate numerous spots and stains within a room. Urine residue will fluoresce or glow under UV light. UV light is actually a range that includes many wavelengths. The most effective UV for locating urine deposits is the long wave UV around 385 nanometers.

Older technology, which has been around for years consist of ultraviolet lights in several intensities to help you locate urine deposits. However, low powered UV lights must be held very close to the carpet in a dark room. Medium intensity lights can work from a few feet away. Higher powered lights can quickly be used to check a carpet from several feet away. However, these powerful lights are often heavy. They require time to warm-up and cool off. They also need to be plugged into the wall.
ULTRAVIOLET LED FLASHLIGHT + MOISTURE DETECTOR (Best)- New technology, consists of UV or black light which may be produced by incandescent bulbs, specially treated florescent bulbs, or by LED's. Newer LED flashlights can focus illumination in a narrow band of wave lengths making them more effective. They deliver illumination equal to the most powerful lights currently used in our industry. These flashlights are lighter weight, more compact and not tied to an electric cord. LED UV flashlights also eliminate the warm-up time of standard UV lamps. For all these reasons, UV flashlights have now become the tool of choice for the modern technician seeking to locate and correct pet deposits. The LED Maglite works in full light!
All UV lights work best in a dark room but this is not as critical when using a more powerful light. When necessary, black plastic sheeting can be used to cover windows. Another option is for the technician to drape a sheet or dark blanket over himself while he is making the inspection.
Amber goggles are available that help intensify the glow from fluorescent areas. These are strongly recommended both for effectiveness and to protect the eyes.
* SPECIAL NOTE: Urine is not the only thing that will glow under a black light. UV may illuminate dust from printer paper, tonic water, vitamin B-12, detergents with optical brighteners and so forth. You will recognize urine by the shape of the spot and by its characteristic yellow (from dogs) or greenish (from cats) glow. A bluish glow may indicate urine stains where cleaning has been attempted with a product that contained an optical brightener.
* ADDITIONAL SPECIAL NOTE: Even after a thorough cleaning of urine contaminated carpet, some glow from UV light is likely to remain. The florescence will diminish in intensity, but it will remain. Certain chemicals bind tightly to the carpet fiber, especially with time. Just as you never expect to remove 100% of all the water you used in cleaning, you will not remove 100% of all the salts and other components of the urine dissolved in the water. A very small amount of urine salts can still produce a glow.

EYES - Of course a yellow stain on the carpet is a good visual indication of urine contamination. Where practical, a positive method for detecting urine is to disengage the carpet, turn it back and inspect the backing for stains. Stains will be most apparent on natural fiber backings like jute, but can be detected on synthetic backings as well. Water stains and/or white salt residues will be visible. The disadvantage of this method is the time and effort required to turn back the carpet. This inspection method makes sense when complete eradication of the odor, including removal of contaminated cushion (pad) and sealing the floor is being considered.

Use all your available tools - eyes, nose, moisture detector and UV light - to be sure you have located all urine deposits. Be sure to mark the location of all odor sources. You may use white chalk, pennies or some other markers. A diagram on graph paper will help you locate the problem areas if the treatment is being done at a later time. A diagram is also helpful to use when explaining to your customer what services are needed.

Without the proper tools for detection your treatment of urine contamination may very well be incomplete. Your customer appreciates the best professional care you can give. Using the proper tools when detecting the problem areas will impress them and go a long way toward verifying that you are indeed a professional and they are glad they called you.