Rugs, Carpets and Carpeting - carpet and cardboard layer?

I just bought a house of nightmare horror...The previous owner's cat had pee in the carpet, so this will be taken out..Underneath it, there is 1/2" cardboard/carton layer, this is horrible..I bet the urine has soaked in here as well....I noticed that cardboard is in square sections and is nailed but dont know if is nailed to the plywood, which will be a disaster :wall:

Any suggestions, please for a new homeowner

rip it out. Never seen a cardboard layer before. I live in the land of concrete substrates, so my guess it was used as some kind of insulation from gaps in the slat boards used as a subfloor.

Gee, then my best bet is to put a new layer of plywood (same thickness of the cardboard layer) which i was going to do anyway....Is this okay or should i forseen any problems?

thanks again Carpet Done Wright

It is probably homasoat. A soundproofing insulator. It is readily available and relatively cheap.

I've had some experience with cat and dog and probably human urine in rental houses and its tough to deal with.

As everyone says, rip out the cardboard. Then get your nose close to whats underneath the cardboard. I would at the very least use Bin to seal up the subfloor and might consider replacing it.

Urine smells come and go. On a humid day, the smell will come back if you haven't sealed or removed it.

It is probably homasoat. A soundproofing insulator. It is readily available and relatively cheap.

Bulleyes....This is what my inspector told me it was..It is going to be a mission to take all of them out....Why do they build houses with this material? they should ban it...
Daniel, Do you know if homasoat can inhibit or exaggerate bad smell? Hope the urine didnt soak into the homasoat? but i wonder if homasoat produces a bad smell of its own during the summer months due to humidity?

It won't exagerate an odor, but it will sure soak up urine like a sponge and hold onto an odor. I've never seen, or should I say smelled an odor from the homasoat itself. It is cheap and easy to replace. It is also the same material that Harley-Davidsons are crated in for shipping.