Everyone has come across a stubborn stain on their carpet that they’ve struggled to remove. Thankfully, there are many carpet cleaning tips that can help you get out even tough stains. You just have to know what you’re working with and how to counteract it.
A Few Carpet Cleaning Mistakes
Before we even get into stain treatment, there are a few things to point out that you shouldn’t do when cleaning stains from your carpet.
- Never scrub hard! Always dab out stains. This helps to prevent spreading them all over or ruining the fibers of your carpet.
- Never pull on carpet fibers! Sometimes people will grab their carpet and pull upward while dabbing out stains. You want to draw the stain out, not rip out the carpet fibers.
Carpet Cleaning Solutions that Work
There are many carpet cleaning solutions on the market that work well, but if you are trying to save money or aren’t big on the chemicals that are inside of them, most stains can be removed using a simple solution of warm water and mild detergent or white vinegar.
This will help you get out water soluble stains like:
- Dirt and mud
- Alcoholic beverages and sodas
- Most food dyes
- Urine, feces and vomit
- Ink or paint (latex or acrylic)
- Wine
Getting Hard Substances Out
Things like candle wax, gum, dried glue as well as other hard, sticky substances can be more of a challenge. We wrote a specific guide to getting wax out of a carpet (you can read it here). The long and short of it is:
- Use a butter knife to gently scrape up some of the substance.
- Use an iron (with a towel placed between it and the carpet) to melt the substance. The towel should help absorb it.
- Repeat steps 1 and 2 until the substance is out.
- Clean the carpet as usual.
For something like nail polish, you can simply use nail polish remover on a cloth. It’s best to avoid pouring the nail polish remover directly on the carpet.
Contact Professionals for Extra Hard Stains
If you encounter a stain that is just too stubborn to be removed, save yourself the headache and contact a professional carpet cleaning company for help. At SOS Cleaning and Restoration, we are trained to remove even the toughest stains from your carpet, leaving it looking better than it ever has. Call today to schedule your cleaning.
