Pet Urine & Odor Treatment
That smell is not on the carpet, it is under it — what shows on the surface is a fraction of what soaked into the pad. Spiker starts with a blacklight inspection to map the true extent before any water goes down, then floods the area with enzymes and extracts. It is a genuine attempt to treat the odor at the source, never a masking spray and never a guarantee — when an animal has gone in the same place for years, nobody knows how deep it went until it is opened up. Pricing is $30 per 3×3 area of contamination, mapped by UV, because urine spreads wider than the visible spot; pet enzyme treatment is $25 per room where the whole room needs it. A $200 minimum service charge applies.
What actually matters
That smell is not on your carpet. It is under it. A single accident spreads outward and downward — what you see on the surface is often a fraction of what soaked into the pad, and urine follows gravity and seams, so the contaminated area underneath is usually larger than the visible spot.
Here is the part most people do not know: urine is alkaline when fresh and becomes more alkaline as it dries and crystallizes. Those crystals are what release odor every time humidity rises — which is why the smell comes roaring back on a warm damp day months after you thought you handled it. Perfumes and deodorizers do nothing to crystals. They have to be dissolved and extracted.
UV inspection in a darkened room shows us the actual map. Dried urine fluoresces, so we can see the full extent of contamination including spots nobody knew about and spots that are invisible in daylight.
Then we are honest with you about severity. Light contamination responds to enzyme treatment and sub-surface flushing. Heavy or repeated contamination in the same area may require pad replacement and subfloor sealing, and no amount of cleaning changes that. We would rather tell you that upfront than take your money for a treatment that will fail.
The blacklight comes before the cleaning, not after, and the order matters. We darken the room and go over the floor, the baseboards and the walls with UV before any water goes down. Clean the room first and you spread and dilute the very thing you are trying to find, and you reactivate dormant crystals doing it. The inspection comes first, the treatment plan comes from what the light shows, and the general room cleaning comes last.
Where the light shows contamination we do a flood and flush. The enzyme has to go down in enough volume to reach the depth the urine reached, down into the pad, or it only ever treats the top. Then we draw as much of it back out as the machine physically can and let the enzymes work on what is left. That is a genuine attempt at the problem and it resolves a great many of them. We never guarantee it, because when an animal has gone in the same place for years nobody can tell from the surface how far the contamination travelled.
Here is the part most companies will not put in writing: Spiker does not pull carpet, does not pull padding, does not seal subfloors, and does not replace baseboards or sheetrock. That is construction work and it belongs to a carpet installation or restoration company. If your situation has reached that point we will say so plainly rather than keep taking your money to try again.
One more thing, and it is the advice most companies will not give you: do not pay to pull padding and seal a subfloor while the same animals are still doing the same thing. You will spend that money and end up back where you started. While the source is still active a flood and flush is the right call, because it buys you time until the animals are gone or trained. Until then, anything more expensive is good money after bad.
Urine also reaches tack strips, baseboards and sheetrock. If an animal has been marking the same corner for years that material swells and holds odor, and no carpet cleaning reaches it — those baseboards have to be replaced. You deserve to hear that early rather than after you have paid for a cleaning that could not have solved it.
What is actually included.
Ours, and the cheap version.
| Spiker | A very low advertised price | |
|---|---|---|
| Price you are quoted | $30 per 3×3 area, $200 minimum, published before you call | Advertised figure; the real number arrives once somebody is in your living room |
| What counts as a room | Up to 15×15 ft, stated in writing. A staircase is one room | Commonly undefined — hallways, closets and foyers become rooms on arrival |
| Dwell time | Real dwell before extraction; chemistry needs minutes to break an oil bond | The first step cut, because it looks like standing around |
| Acid rinse | Always. Neutralises the alkaline and carries residue out | Usually skipped — the customer cannot see it on the day |
| Pre-vacuum | Every job. Free if you do it, $25/room if we do | Often assumed to be part of the machine |
| Furniture | We clean around it and say why moving it back onto damp carpet causes mildew | Moved and set back the same day |
| Pet urine | UV-mapped first, then flooded and extracted — an attempt, never a guarantee | Surface pass, often sold as removal |
| What you are told | What will not come out, before the work starts | After the invoice |
How we do it.
Same four phases, every job.
Inspect
We walk the job with you before anything gets wet. Fiber identification matters more than most people realize — a burn test or a close look at the pile tells us whether we are dealing with nylon, polyester, olefin or wool, and each one takes a different chemistry. We find the traffic lanes, the filtration lines along baseboards, the spots you have already tried to treat, and we tell you honestly which ones will come out and which ones will not. A stain that has been sitting in a jute backing for two years is a different conversation than last week’s coffee, and you deserve to hear that before we start rather than after.
Pre-treat
Pre-spray goes down matched to what we found in the inspection, and then it sits. Dwell time is the step cheap jobs skip because it looks like nothing is happening, and it is the step that does most of the work. Chemistry needs contact time to break the bond between soil and fiber. Spray and immediately extract and you are just rinsing the surface. On heavy traffic lanes we agitate with a groomer to drive solution down to the base of the pile where the soil actually lives.
Clean
The machine stays in the truck. That is not a detail — a truck-mount produces heat and vacuum that no portable unit can approach, and vacuum is what determines whether soil leaves the building or settles back into the fiber as it dries. We work in overlapping passes with dry strokes between wet ones. Hot water extraction is the method the Carpet and Rug Institute and most major carpet manufacturers publish, and for most carpet it is the method required to keep the warranty valid.
Protect
We groom the pile so it dries standing up instead of matted flat, set up airflow, and apply protector where it makes sense for the fiber. Then we walk it with you and tell you the truth about the next twenty-four hours — what will look different when it dries, what might wick back and need a second pass, and how long to stay off it. Most callbacks in this trade are not cleaning failures. They are expectation failures.
Pet Urine & Odor Treatment questions
we actually get asked.
$30 per 3×3 area of contamination. We price by affected area rather than by room because urine spreads outward and downward — the contaminated zone under the carpet is almost always larger than what you can see. UV inspection maps the true extent before we quote. Pet enzyme treatment for a full room is $25 per room. Every job is subject to a $200 minimum service charge.
Yes, when the source is treated instead of the surface. Urine moves through the carpet into the backing, the pad and sometimes the subfloor. Surface cleaning makes the smell disappear for a week and then bring it back. We map it, treat the contamination, and flush below the surface.
Because dried urine crystallizes, and those crystals release odor when humidity rises. That is the mechanism. Deodorizers only mask it. The crystals have to be dissolved and physically extracted.
We darken the room and use ultraviolet light. Dried urine fluoresces, so we can see the true extent of contamination — including spots that are completely invisible in normal light and spots nobody in the house knew about.
Sometimes. Light and moderate contamination responds well to treatment. Heavy repeated contamination in one area often means the pad is saturated and the subfloor is affected, and at that point replacement and sealing is the honest answer. We tell you before we start, not after.
It helps significantly, because animals return to a spot they can still smell even when people cannot. Removing the source removes the marker. It is not a training program, but it removes the invitation.
No, and anyone who tells you otherwise is not being straight with you. When an animal has been going in the same place for years, nobody can tell from the surface how deep it went — carpet, pad, subfloor, tack strips, baseboards. What we do is a flood and flush: map it with UV, flood with enzyme in volume, draw as much back out of the pad as physically possible, then let the enzymes work. That resolves a great many situations. It is an honest attempt at the problem, never a promise, and we say so before we start.
Pulling the carpet, pulling the padding, sealing the subfloor and starting over. That is construction work done by a carpet installation or restoration company. We do not do it and we do not want to — it is not our trade. Everything short of that, including what we do, is an attempt at the problem.
No. We do not pull carpet, pull padding, seal subfloors, or replace baseboards or sheetrock. We are a cleaning company. If your situation has reached the point where that is what it needs, we will tell you honestly instead of taking your money to keep trying.
Not yet, and this is the advice most companies will not give you. Sealing a subfloor while the same animals keep marking the same floor is money spent for nothing. If the situation is ongoing, a flood and flush is the right call — it buys you time until the animals are gone. Until the source is fixed, anything more expensive is good money after bad.
Then carpet cleaning will not fix it. Urine reaches tack strips, baseboards and sheetrock, and if an animal has been marking the same corner for years that material swells and holds odor. Those baseboards have to be replaced. We will tell you that when we see it rather than let you pay for a cleaning that cannot reach the problem.
There is no fixed schedule. Two adults with no pets and no kids will usually go 12 to 18 months. Add animals and it moves to 6 to 8 months. Animals plus children is closer to every 6 months, with protector annually or sooner. The real answer is the carpet — when oils build up enough that the traffic lanes look grey, it is already overdue.
Now the numbers.
Every one up front.
Extras, priced the same for everyone.
Why this is not optional
Animals leave body oils in the carpet wherever they lie down. That is the source of the smell people describe as wet-animal — not the fur, not the surface soil.
What happens if it is skipped
We will not run hot water and high pressure across contaminated carpet without treating it first. Heat and moisture without an enzyme spreads the contamination through the pile instead of removing it, and the room smells worse afterward than it did before. This is the single most common reason a homeowner says their carpet smelled bad after a cleaning.
What we do
An enzyme goes down across the carpet face before any extraction begins. Enzymes are not deodorisers — they are biological agents that digest the organic material producing the odour. They need contact time and they need moisture to work. Those same animal oils are also what sand sticks to, so this step protects the fiber as well as the air in the room.
Where the urine actually is
Not on the carpet. Through it. Urine passes the face fiber, through the backing, and soaks into the pad — and on a large or repeated accident it reaches the subfloor. What shows on the surface is a fraction of what is underneath. You will not find it in daylight. Animals go where you are not, and older deposits often leave no visible mark at all while staying fully active.
Why it has to be dealt with before cleaning
Cleaning over urine spreads it. Water carries the contamination outward into carpet that was clean, and it wicks back to the surface as the carpet dries. So the flush happens first, and only then does the room get cleaned.
What we do
Map the real extent with UV. Flood the area with enzyme in enough volume to reach the depth the urine reached — the pad has to be flushed, not misted. Then draw as much back out of the padding as the machine physically can. This is a genuine attempt and it resolves a great many of them. It is never sold as a certainty, because until the floor is opened nobody knows how far it travelled. Pulling carpet, pulling pad and sealing a subfloor is construction work and Spiker does not do it.
▸ ADD-ONS ARE ON TOP OF BASE RATES · $200 MINIMUM SERVICE CHARGE
Pet Urine & Odor Treatment across
six cities.
Ready when you are.
One call. Cleanest floors you've had.
GALT (916) 919-7642 · LODI (209) 663-0823 · MON–SAT · 9AM–5PM
$200 MINIMUM SERVICE CHARGE · WE DO NOT MOVE FURNITURE · PRE-VACUUM REQUIRED