Some information on mattress cleaning and dealing with urine stains / odor / contamination -
Dealing with Urine Stains on Mattresses
The results will depend a lot upon the material the mattress ticking (covering) is made from. The most common ticking is cotton with a sizing material added (rather like starch). But there are many new types of mattresses with new coverings in the last 15 years or so.
When cotton ticking gets wet from any source, the sizing material can be dissolved in the water. Then the sizing travels with the water and stops at the outer edge of where the water spread. Sizing is normally a very light brown color and evenly spread across a mattress is not noticeable. But when a lot of it collects at one place, it can leave a dark ring. This is typically the most difficult part of a stain to remove.
Usually the goal in mattress cleaning is to either remove dust mites and slow down their return and thus reduce allergies for those sensitive to a protein in the dust mite droppings.
When mattresses are cleaned after a urine stain, the goal is to improve the appearance (but never to make it perfect), to remove or reduce odor and most importantly to make the surface sanitary.
Cleaning the mattress like any cotton upholstery is the best help. But upholstery cleaning only cleans the surface fabric. In addition, you can inject a bio-enzyme such as Bio-Modifier Extreme to digest urine that has penetrated down into the filling material. Bio-Modifier Extreme also deodorizes.
Finally, you can spray a heavy mist of a disinfectant such as Benefect, Sporicidin or Microban to make the surface sanitary. Get the fabric just damp, not wet. Avoid making new and additional water rings.
There are two strategies that can improve the appearance of the stain but not remove it completely.
1. After vacuuming, spray the entire surface with distilled water. Try to get everything evenly damp. Then clean. Keep it evenly damp throughout the cleaning and drying process. The sizing will be dissolved in the distilled water and will spread evenly across the surface removing and spreading out the sizing that caused the lines. However, it is difficult to get everything evenly damp and then evenly dry, so there will usually still be some uneven coloration.
2. A mild oxidizer such as 3% hydrogen peroxide (applied with cotton swap) or Stain Zone mixed with distilled water (half or slightly more than half water and the rest StainZONE) can also remove the staining. But it also weakens the cotton and makes it more likely to tear.
Mattress Sanitizing – A mattress that has been stained with any liquid including urine will general still exhibit a ring or water mark after cleaning. This is due to removing some of the sizing on the new mattress ticking.
The mattress can be cleaned using portable cleaner with upholstery cleaning attachment. Use any upholstery cleaning product and rinse. Avenge Fabric Prespray with Avenge Clean Rinse would be good. If there are any issues of sensitivity to chemicals or allergies, the Anti-allergen Prespray and anti-allergen rinse would be acceptable.
Vacuum before cleaning. If allergies are a concern – Lean across the width of the mattress and make cleaning strokes from the far side toward the center. Repeat from the opposite side. This assures no contaminants such as dust mites or their feces ends up in the carpet but instead gets extracted.
To prevent new water marks – evenly mist the entire side of the mattress with your prespray. Clean evenly and dry evenly. Water marks can appear where there is a significant change from a wet or damp part of the mattress and a dry portion of the mattress.
Use the hottest water available.
The above will provide a sanitary surface to the mattress. Another concern will be urine that has penetrated the surface (ticking) layer and gotten into foam or padding. Extraction of the surface simply can not clean this area that it can not reach. Urine remaining in these interior layers will still have an odor and will eventually wick its way up to the surface and recontaminate the outer layer. There are two ways to deal with the urine deeper inside the mattress. Either of these steps should be done before cleaning.
1) Mix Hydrocide at 4 oz. per gallon of water. You can also add Bio-Modifier Xtreme to this formula. Saturate the area that was wet with urine with the Hydrocide mixture. The goal is for the Hydrocide mixture to reach everywhere the urine did. To be sure all areas are reached may require a significant amount of solution and drying time will be slow.
Use a Water Claw spotting tool and your body weight to extract as much of the solution as possible.
Use a fan, air mover, turn up the heat or whatever means are available to facility drying.
2) Using a hypodermic syringe, inject Bio-Modifier Xtreme through the mattress ticking into all areas that might be contaminated with urine. Each injection should be 1 to 2 oz. Make injections one inch apart. Figure the one inch in any direction up/down, side to side, end to end.
Allow as much dwell time as possible before cleaning. Twenty minutes minimum. For maximum effectiveness, make the injections a day or two before cleaning.
Bio-Modifier Xtreme works faster if heated to 110 to 115 degrees before injecting. One way to do this is to put about 2.5 to 3 gallons of water in an empty 5 gallon bucket. Insert a bucket heater and a thermometer. Loosen (but do not remove) the lid on the Bio-Modifer Xtreme and let the jug float in the bucket until the water is hot enough.
