cleaning the basement floor

[Noah & me (GA)]

It's a little slow today so I thought I'd post this now. It does have a direct effect on both yours and your cat's health.
Over the last 20+ years we've had 14 cats in our home and a cluttered but cat-proof basement. Wait long enough and you'll find where someone puked last year or had diarrhea the year before in that far off corner. I once dragged our power washer down there and just made an even bigger mess.
Walmart sells 1 litre jugs of hydrogen peroxide and 2 kg boxes of baking soda at a fairly low cost. Mix the two together into a peanut butter consistency, work it in, let sit overnight and then scrape it away with a big putty knife. Wash the floor with dish soap and you're done.
Concrete is porous so it will never be completely clean but this is better than some toxic goo. The triple strength vinegar never worked for me.

 

[John & Henry]

The litter box is in my attached garage and when we had a big storm a bunch of water got under the garage door and mixed with some litter that had been knocked out of the box, and its been a nightmare to try and remove. Scraping it with a garden hoe is the best I've been able to do, but it still looks pretty bad due to (as you pointed out) the porous concrete. I've always heard muriatic acid is supposed to clean concrete, but I haven't had the stones to try it yet because its so heavy duty/toxic. I'll give the peroxide/baking soda a go.

 

[Lisa and Witn (GA)]

Also because concrete is porous, if there are any odors left after cleaning you can also spray enzyme cleaner on it afterwards. If you get it from a janitorial supply store they carry the concentrate in gallon jugs. Then you can mix it with water to the strength you need.

 

[Noah & me (GA)]

Wet litter One day someone will figure out a way to pave highways that way.
Daniel is a healthy cat, never had worms or a UTI but he just won't use any of our four boxes. He hates plastic so I have to stack everything a certain way.
We're not slobs or hoarders and we managed just fine in our tiny apartment.

 

[Noah & me (GA)]

Sorry for the bump, I should have added "dust control" to the title.
We have an unfinished basement and four litter boxes that are not at the far end of the basement. The simplest solution for that was to hang a sheet of 6mil poly around the boxes so dust doesn't fly everywhere. That was the easy part.
Years ago Andrew went in for a tummy X-ray and by either luck or coincidence there it was in his GI tract, a staple. We think the staple fell from the insulation above the boxes into the litter, Andrew got it stuck in his paw pads and after grooming himself swallowed the staple. He was not the idiot cat that was prone to swallowing whatever he could bat around the floor. Lucky for us he just pooped it out. If you're going to do this use finishing nails that won't fall out.
I had a friend who came home one day to find his rental house burned to the ground, no one hurt. The fire marshal found a staple that went through some wiring, eventually it worked it's way loose and poof, no more house. Stuff like this does happen, don't be the next person to find out.