Can pet urine delaminate carpet?

[bennyandthejets]

Went to prequalify a job, severe pet stains throughout....wholly dog piss!!! It was sooo bad that the smell of dog urine slapped me in the face twice, lol. Needless to say, it didnt take long to walk from that one. However, in doing my inspection, it seemed like the most severe areas were delaminated. It was clear that the primary and secondary backing had separated. Has anyone come across anything similar? I didn't know if it was from previous attempts of cleaning or if untreated and repeated pet urine can cause it?

 

[sweendogg]

Anytime you introduce a large amount of moisture to a carpet, you run the risk of delamination as the latex that bonds the secondary and primary backing is water based. However Urine can compound matters. It enters the carpet acidic but the bacteria that attack it force a pH shift from a mild acid to a very high alkaline. This alkalinity helps to dissolve the latex even further. And if I had a guess I'd say that A) the carpets continued to get traffic from the dogs during periods of moisture which will only serve to further weeken the latex. And B) the homeowner tried some powerful chems themselfs.. dousing it hoping for a miracle.

 

[J Scott W]

As I carpet inspector, I saw this several times. Used a UV light to confirm that pet urine coincided with delamination.

I think mostly due to the urine on carpets that had a lot of filler and relatively little latex in the adhesive. Agressive cleaning would have only made the situation worse.

I can't recall ever seeing this on a high end carpet that had quality adhesive. But I wouldn't say it can't still happen.