The previous owner had moved out, but was nostalgic enough to leave a little something behind just for us. His cats. Or, remnants of them, I mean. (not literally... but almost.)

The room that was to become our office had a little odor - it seems that the cats had a few 'accidents' in there. We peeled back the carpet to see if it had soaked through (if so, we wouldn't be able to save what looked like a new carpet). Not only did it soak through, but (in Dan's words) "it looked like someone had poured buckets of iced tea around the perimeter of the room." Every single centimeter was marked! Even against the closet doors, and even inside the closet! Wherever the wall met the floor, there was evidence. It was as if a den of mountain lions were using the room as their personal litterbox. (I have to wonder... how did this go unnoticed??).

They had 2 cats for 2 years... so:

I've never seen anything like it. We tore up the carpet and heaved it out. (We had to touch it to do this!)

Underneath lay a vinyl composite tile. It was glued down, I mean REALLY glued down (except for the perimeter, where the urine attacked the glue's adhesive properties. Cat urine is pretty strong stuff!).

We mopped with Pine Sol. It wasn't enough. (what were we thinking?). We attacked it with Ajax. No good. Dan poured gallons of bleach on it. You could still smell it! We bought a special enzyme solution that promised it would eat up animal odors & accidents. It didn't. We went to a special chemical supply store and bought the heavy-duty commercial enzyme stuff. It seemed to work a little... but the ugly truth was that nothing would be good enough until we ripped up the floor. Every last bit. (It was now 3 days till moving day.)

The black stuff is the rubbery glue that held the tile in place. It's about 1 a.m. here. (Doesn't Dan look happy?) We discovered wet urine stagnating under the tile. No wonder it still reeked!

Ripping the tile up isn't enough either. We had to treat the floor with Ajax, pure bleach, and enzymes. It took several scrubdowns before it was ready for the sealant.