Carpet Stain Removal
People from Minnesota spend lots of time entertaining people in their homes during the cold winter months and that usually involves serving food or drinks. We do the best we can to prevent spills and keep carpet from getting stains but it is still inevitable that someone will spill something on your carpet and you will have carpet stains. Removal of stains while they are fresh can sometimes be tricky because most carpet stain removal tips actually set the stain into the carpet.
A red wine spill on carpet is a very common problem and there are many remedies to remove red stain from carpet that can damage the carpet fibers or set the stain and ruin the carpet. Most carpets these days are stain resistant but you still need to treat the spill to minimize the damage.
The best DIY carpet stain removal tip is to use clean white absorbent cloths like towels to blot up the spill as soon as possible. Do not rub or scrub the spill.
After you have absorbed the spill you can rinse by changing to a new cloth and using cool water to blot more of the stain up. As the cloth absorbs the liquid change to a new cloth so you absorb the most liquid and don’t spread the stain.
As you blot apply more pressure to get the deeper layers of the spill. If the stain lingers, mix 3 cups cool water with 1 cup white vinegar and dip the cloth into the solution and blot the spot, repeat if necessary taking care not to saturate carpet padding.
Take a clean cloth and blot up the solution until mostly dry. Red wine is organic and is one of the easiest red stains to get out by your carpet cleaner.
Please be aware that spot treatments such as the method above do not fully remove all the wine. Even if you can’t see the stain anymore, it can remain a food source for bacteria or an attractant to other contaminants. Your Commercial Steam Team carpet cleaning professional can remove the rest of the spot so a stain does not reappear!
Although over the counter carpet cleaners and home remedies to remove carpet stains seem convenient and cheap they are not a “one formula fits all solution” and they are not a long term fix for spot and stain removal. Also you may want to consider your health and how OTC products contain many different types of harmful chemicals that you may not want lingering in your carpet or the air you breathe.
Many of the home remedy tips I’ve read make the spot worse. For example some DIY tips recommend using peroxide on stains. Hydrogen Peroxide is bleach. If you use bleach on your carpet you are removing the dye from the rug, so now you have a stain AND a bleached area. Additionally, hydrogen peroxide is a propellant used in rocketry and is also thought to slow healing by affecting tissue growth.
OTC carpet cleaning and homemade stain removers do not address the specific types of solutions needed to work on specific spills therefore they are mostly ineffective, leave excessive chemicals on your carpet and only get what is on the surface.
Blotting up a spill and calling a trained professional carpet cleaner can help prevent the stain from setting in your carpet for good.
Call Commercial Steam Team today at 952-224-7222 to discover how to keep your carpets clean the easy way!