First of all, I would open all the doors and windows. If it is really cold where you are, turn down the furnace so that you are not heating the streets. And change the furnace filter at the same time. Then see what you think after airing out the house for a half hour or so.

I haven't used Pooph. It looks promising. Can't load a link.

i have to wonder how long the previous owner lived in the house and whether or not they actually cleaned up any pet accidents properly. urine can and will seep through carpet/pad and go right into the flooring. by the time it gets to that point, i don't know of a product anywhere that would actually solve the odor problem.

https://www.pooph.com/

if you scroll down to the FAQs, you will see that this stuff must come in contact with the source of the odor for it to be effective. you'd have to pour gallons of it everywhere for it to work the way they say it does.

"Pooph™ requires a 1:1 ratio of the odor creating molecule to Pooph™’s odor eliminating molecule. So if you’re using Pooph™ on a fresh accident by your pet, you will use less Pooph™ than you would on an old accident (and maybe an accident your pet has had multiple times in the same place). As long as Pooph™ can reach the source of the odor and there’s as much Pooph™ as there is stink, Pooph™ will get it and dismantle the odor."

When you replace the carpets and pads, you will be able to see the stains on the sub floor. Use a good sealer and seal them before putting in other flooring.

I hate being the one to break your bubble for an instant fix, but if its pet urine you may have to live with it until you can lift any carpet and underneath pads.

My sister bought a townhouse and on a warm day when she'd return home from work, the smell upstairs at the bedrooms level was unmistakable. Not noticed when she was purchasing. She borrowed a black light (?) of some kind from a pet store and found the cats had been spraying the wall in the upstairs hallway - it had been painted over but still showed with the light. She had to take up the carpets, have the drywall sealed (a couple of lower sections replaced and repaired), paint again.

There are ways it can be handled, but most of them messy even if DIY. Friends bought a home that had a fire, doable for them as he was in construction to begin with. They gutted a lot of it then sealed every surface in that house, painstaking and time consuming. They ended up with a lovely house they later saw a very nice profit on when they sold, but it was months before they could move in and live there themselves - although the scents of any burning materials really were GONE when they did.

Of course yours isn't that extreme, but products to cover the scents are temporary at best and will change with heat and humidity levels.

If the urine has penetrated all the way down to the subfloor, that too will need to be replaced. Putting new carpet & pad over a smelly subfloor is a waste of money.

Sigh!! Thanks everyone for the hard truth! 😅😭…. It looks like we’ll just have to save up and replace the carpets and do all that for the flooring! Ugh! Being homeowners is expensive! And we haven’t even moved in yet ughhh

If it's really offensive, I would pull up the carpet and pad to see what you are dealing with underneath them (likely stains in the subfloor). I would then treat what I find with a product designed to neutralize those odors, then i would paint the floors with a paint designed to seal in odors (like Kilz or similar), then paint the floors with floor paint. Then buy some inexpensive area rugs or use a stencil and/or paint a pattern on your floors.

" It looks like we’ll just have to save up and replace the carpets and do all that for the flooring! "

As mentioned above you very well may be changing the subfloor as well.

Learn how to paint so you have the money for carpeting (and maybe some new subfloor). All new houses need a lot when you first move in to make it your own. But this is a really uncomfortable reality. You should consider carpeting your first big investment in your new home so you are happy.

Keep us posted. If nothing else, we can provide emotional support.

Thanks so much everyone!!

Do you know what kind of floors are underneath the carpet? If there are hardwoods, pulling up the carpets (and whatever tack stripping was used to install it) is generally a pretty easy job, assuming previous owners didn’t do crazy things like glue the carpet padding down to the floor, etc. I’ve been in a few houses where the hardwoods didn’t even need refinishing once carpets were removed. My point here is: you might be able to rip the carpets out to get rid of most of the smell and have a livable space without having to pay for new carpets. If the hardwoods are in bad shape, you could try either refinishing them (which probably won’t get deep pet stains out), or as previous commenter suggested, just painting & sealing them and using rugs.