How to Clean Pet Urine from an Oriental Rug?

Oriental rugs are a popular investment in many living rooms and guest areas. They come in various patterns and colors, making for fantastic floor covering. You can easily just enhance the beauty of any room by adding in an oriental rug.

Although they are quite worth buying, oriental rugs happen to be expensive. This is especially due to the intricate designs and accessories. So, it is important to care for your investment. However, living with a pet can make it hard to keep your oriental rug in top-notch conditions at all times.

Not to mention, all pet owners experience pet urine, along with stains and odors on their oriental rugs. If you do not immediately treat pet urine, feces, or vomit, it can cause long-term damage to your precious investment. In case you’re dealing with pet urine stains or urine odor on your rug currently, read on to find out what you can do about it.

Why is Pet Urine Bad for Your Oriental Rug?

All kinds of oriental rugs that are made of wool or a blend of cotton or wool are susceptible to permanent damage from pet urine. However, some other oriental rugs that contain silk fibers are especially vulnerable when it comes to pet accidents.

Urine stain is not just an unpleasant sight, but it can also cause permanent discoloration and damage to the quality of the rug. This makes it important for you to take immediate action and treat the urine stains. Not to mention, being quick to clean pet urine will also get rid of any urine odor.

Oriental rugs are quite colorful with exquisite patterns and shapes. While the use of unique patterns and colors is what makes the beauty of an oriental rug, slight damages can also affect your rug’s appearance. The colors are patterns created by carefully weaving fibers of cotton, silk, and cotton. But, the dyes giving an oriental rug its vibrant and bright colors are only soluble to a certain extent.

Your pet peeing on the rug can largely affect these dyes causing permanent staining and discoloration. The uric acid in pet urine causes the color of the dyed wool, cotton, or silk fibers to fade away. In some other cases, the colors also begin to bleed together. This causes a distortion in patterns and vibrancy of colors.

Let’s look at some ways of cleaning pet urine from your oriental rug. If you’re unable to save your rug on your own, don’t forget to choose professionals with the right equipment to protect your investment from further damage:

Use a Towel and Warm Water

It is important that you immediately address the pet accidents on your rugs, especially in the case of an oriental rug. Why? Well, an oriental rug is made with super-absorbent materials like wool and cotton. This suggests that your rug will be quick to absorb pet urine.

While other kinds of floor coverings only get stained on the surface, oriental rugs can easily absorb the material deep in them. The longer you wait after the pet accident, the worse stain will be. So it is best to opt for a safe and quick method that can help prevent urine stains.

For this, you will need to use a towel with some hot water. Gently dab and blot the affected area of your oriental rug with a wet, warm towel. Make sure you’re not rubbing the towel on the rug as it will cause the urine to get deep into the rug fibers.

Use a Warm Water and Vinegar Solution

In some cases, warm water isn’t enough to completely absorb the urine from a rug. To avoid your oriental rug from developing urine stains, you might need to go ahead with another step. This involves using a solution of vinegar and warm water. It will not just remove the material from your rug but also reduce urine odor.

Make sure you keep the size of the stain in mind while creating warm water and vinegar solution. Take a small amount of white vinegar to add to warm water. Preferably, you should use a few tablespoons of vinegar and one or 2 cups of warm water to effectively get rid of urine stains as well as urine odor.

Once the solution is ready, use this to blot and dab the stain as you did with warm water only. Some people try to add other cleaning products to their solution too. However, this is most likely to worsen the stain due to the strong presence of ammonia.

Get Help from Professionals

It is always best to use a wet, warm towel immediately after your pet has urinated on your oriental rug. This helps absorb the urine that can cause urine stains and discoloration of the rug. Further, using vinegar and warm water solution can prevent stains while also getting rid of urine odor. Although these tips are quite effective and work for most professionals, stains may be very stubborn at times.

In such cases, professional Oriental rug cleaning is a great choice. Not only will it remove the stain that is already there, but it will also protect your oriental rug from further damage. Their efficient and trusted methods are similar to ones that dry cleaners use, ensuring no signs of stubborn urine stains.

Some Additional Tips

Here are some tips for you to take better care of your oriental rug in case of pet accidents:

• Clean the mess as soon as you can, preferably right after the accident
• Use vinegar and warm water solution within the first 24 hours
• Do not rub the area with a wet towel but dab it instead
• Test a small area of your oriental rug before blotting it with warm water or vinegar solution
• Contact a professional pet stain removal service in case of color changes during warm water or vinegar treatment
• Do not use ammonia-containing cleaning products on your oriental rug
• Sprinkle the area with baking soda, use a warm water and vinegar solution and vacuum the rug after it has dried

Bottom Line

Oriental rugs are an expensive household investment. However, many pet owners find it hard to protect their oriental rugs at all times. It is no surprise for a pet to urinate on rugs. While it may not be as bad for carpets, oriental rugs tend to lose color and get stained. Not to mention, the dyes may also bleed in some cases.

It is important to immediately treat the affected area in order to prevent urine stains. In case you’re unable to get rid of the stain and pet urine odor by yourself, be quick to hire a pet stain removal service.