Carpet stains are unsightly, that’s for sure. You may have moved into a new unit to uncover that the quality of your new carpet is less than desirable. Or you may have simply had an unfortunate accident with a bottle of wine or a pet.
No matter how your stains arrive, it’s getting them out that seems to get the most focus. And for good reason—depending upon the type of stain and mess you’ve made, standard cleaning product and scrubbing aren’t going to be enough.
Of course, we always recommend blotting out carpet stains as soon as they’re made to prevent substances from making chemical bonds with the fibers. But if it’s too little, too late to do so, call a professional carpet cleaning technician or try out the following carpet cleaning hacks to finally say good riddance to that unsightly stain.
The Heat Method
We all know that heat and flame are great ways to break down substances. And while we need to be careful not to set our carpets ablaze, using heat is a great way to make sure you’re approaching your stains in the right way.
If you’ve got an iron laying around, pull it out now. You’re going to need it. First, find a towel or shirt that you don’t mind getting ruined and soak with warm water for as long as you can. Then, once it is ready, place it on top of the part of your carpet that’s got a stain on it.
Once you have, crank up that iron to a medium heat setting and get to work. The idea is to steam, not to burn, so if you’re smelling something smoky, crank down the heat and try again.
Provided you’re patient and willing to perform this action as needed, you can remove most stains in a few passes. If you can see the stain fading, take a break and come back in a few days to pick up the rest.
The stain should transfer from the ground to the towel in either case, which can then be tossed into the laundry to remove the stain entirely.
The Cream Method
This method is perfect for stains that might not be hard to pull out, but those which haven’t come out completely or have simply faded. Raid your husband’s medicine cabinet and pull out some shaving cream, and get ready to get to work.
To utilize the cream method, douse a liberal amount of shaving cream onto the stain in question. You may also want to make sure you’ve gone around the stain and over it by several inches.
Leave this cream on the carpet for about 10 minutes or so; possibly longer for bigger stains. Then, take your towel or shirt and blot the cream away from the carpet. Be careful not to scrub, either. We’ll get into the issue of scrubbing in a moment.
How’s your carpet look? If you’d done all of the steps correctly, you should be faced with a respectable carpet, sans-stain. If not, try, try again.
Stop Your Scrubbing
If you’re struggling to get that carpet stain out for years, but can only seem to make it bigger instead of making it go away, you might need to switch up your methods.
We know scrubbing is a popular stain removal method, and it works its magic on surfaces like linoleum, tile, and ceramics. But with carpets, all you end up doing is rubbing the stain deeper into the fibers. You need to lift up—not bear down.
Get a Professional on The Case
Finally, if all hope seems lost, have you considered calling in a Toronto professional cleaner?
You can very easily find great deals online for trained technicians to come and take care of those stains for you. Plus, if you’ve never had your carpets cleaned professionally, you’re definitely overdue.
Plus, if you need carpet cleaning in Santa Monica, we can think of a few places that might fit the bill.
In either case, professional cleaners can often pick up discoloration and stains you didn’t even know were there in the first place. If you can’t get that stain out, either the pros can do it, or no one at all.