REVOLTING CLEANING QUESTION: ancient wee-sodden armchair.

[MadamAnt]

We've moved into a rented house. It has an old (antique?) armchair that smells very strongly of wee. I've spoken to the letting agents about it, and for various reasons I have offered to try to clean it myself, rather than getting them to reupholster it.

I've tried scrubbing the surface with water + furniture shampoo, but it hasn't worked. The wee has obviously seeped into the wadding.

It's a sunnyish day here, so I'm tempted to try a drastic soaking (the chair can't be ruined any more than its current state, and the letting agents have given me the go-ahead).

Any tips? I'm thinking of making a bicarb / hot water / lavender oil solution. Does that sound sensible?

bicarb of soda!

I put bicarb over the carpet where ds weed and it did the trick!

and when ds wet the bed bicarb worked again!

I love it.

could you not put the chair in the loft??

Yes collision, I thought bicarb would be a good idea. I bicarb too. That and WD40.

There is no space in the storage room for it, unfortunately. We've filled it with the rest of the landlord's junk belongings.

What sort of ratio of water:bicarb, do you think? I usually bung a tbs in with the nappy wash, but this is going to be an industrial job.

RR - don't tempt me

I would get drastic with the bicarb. First I would get a bucket of warm water, few drops of tea tree oil (creepy crawlies and bugs hate it, freshens too) and a whole tub of bicarb tipped in. Use that to "soak the material thoroughly. With a scrubbing brush/old nail scrubber I would brush away at the fabric with a paste made of another tub of bicarb with enough warm water to turn it into grainy toothpaste consistency. Scrub away and see what happens. Make sure all the fabric is wet evenly first to avoid any water marks making it look worse first.
Rinse thoroughly, let it dry out and see whether it will need further treatment.
Good Luck

THROW IT AWAY. Call landlord/letting agent, say 'this chair has SOMEBODY ELSE'S WEE on it, would you rather come and pick it up or shall I take it to the tip?'

[shudder]

JoyS - I know that would e the obvious route But for reasons too long and tedious to elaborate on, I can't do that.

Very wet armchair is now in garden, with small children doing a war dance in the pissy-water puddles around it. Ugh.