Often times when professional carpet cleaners are called
upon to take care of stains or spots in carpets the first question will
inevitably be “can you get it out”? If the first response out of the tech’s
mouth is a resounding “yes”, then you might want to look into hiring someone
else. The truth of the matter is not all stains are removable. The person you
hire should always tell you that up front. The better response would be “let’s take a look at it and if it can be
removed, we have what it takes to get it out”.
Most dark colored, brown or black, spots are sugar or oil
based. These can be removed 90% of the time. Stains in this category include
colas, tea, coffee, and non-red juices. With cola stains a traffic lane cleaner
is usually the way to go and will take care of the problem almost always. Tea
and coffee are sometimes a little more difficult and may require an acid rinse
in conjunction with the traffic lane cleaner. Juices like apple or orange are
relatively easy to get out. The problems occur when you get into the red juices
such as grape or cranberry, especially on light carpets. Red juices fall into
the red dye category and sometimes the only way to get those out is a heat
transfer dye process. This process is usually reserved as a last resort and
even then there are no guarantees.
So what about stains such as blood, vomit, and urine? Well
these, like all stains, need to be addressed quickly. The sooner you get them
removed the better. The trick with blood is to not clean it with hot water or alkaline
cleaning products. You might think you’re helping the carpet tech out by trying
to remove some of the stain yourself but these treatments will actually set the
blood into the carpet. Your best bet is to leave it to the professional. Vomit
and urine are similar in that they are removed through a process. And it is
very important to get urine up as soon as possible. The longer it stays the
more it will continue to deteriorate the carpet. These types of spots are
usually removed by utilizing a pre-treatment that breaks down the stain. Then
the spot is thoroughly extracted. These steps will be repeated as necessary and
afterwards an enzyme is sprayed that will continue to break the spot down.
Sometimes you can get stains through no fault of your own. These
would include stains from yellowing, water rings, and filtration soiling.
Yellowing is one of those stains that can either be easily neutralized or
impossible to remove. It is very common and can be treated with citric acid or
an acid rinse. Water rings are also sometimes hit or miss. They are treated
with traffic lane cleaner or an acid rinse. Filtration soiling is usually found
in hallways near air conditioning units or where the carpet meets the
baseboards. These are black lines that are caused by the carpet “filtering”
soil. Getting rid of these stains requires using a special spotter and manually
scrubbing the area with a towel. Due to the extra labor involved, this process
may cost a bit more than you would like.
The bottom line is that there are no guarantees with spot
removal. What seems like an easy to remove stain could prove terribly
difficult, and vice versa. But if approached correctly and in a timely manner
your odds of getting rid of that nasty spot can increase greatly.