Carpet is a popular flooring type. It’s comfortable and homely, and that’s what people love about it the most. So, it shouldn’t come as a surprise that consumer spending for floor coverings, including carpet, has exceeded $5 billion since 2005. Okay, maybe that is a bit of a shock!
This volume of spending tells us one thing – you can’t afford a mistake. Unfortunately, a slip or a trip is all too easy, and if you’re holding a drink or a plate of food, it’s going to end up staining your shag pile.
Before you can correct it, you need to understand what you absolutely shouldn’t do when cleaning your carpet to remove stains.
Use Salt
This remedy may have been passed down from generation to generation, but it should have stopped a long time ago. There’s no doubt that it’s a quick alternative to a professional carpet cleaning service; however, there is no method behind the madness. If anything, it will only make the stain worse as salt is an ingredient used to bond dyes to fabrics.
Instead of throwing salt at it like you would an annoying slug in your garden, you should focus on absorbing up as much of the liquid as possible to prevent it from soaking deeper into the fabric.
Clear Red Wine With White Wine
Where there is red wine, there is probably white wine! Another marriage of convenience. In many ways, this isn’t as destructive as using salt to clear up a stain. Indeed, there is some science to suggest it might work, for example, the liquids are acidic and can be used to dissolve acids.
Unfortunately, white wine contains more than acids, which is why it may not work. And, it could leave a strong odour as well as an unsightly patch on your floor. Again, the trick is to get the red wine liquid up, and you can do this by spraying it lightly with water and dabbing it with a white cloth or paper towel.
By using something white you can see if the wine is transferring to the cloth.
Baking Soda
Baking soda, or bi carb soda, is a stain remover, so it’s easy to see why people use it for carpet cleaning purposes. But, not all removers are created equal, making bi carb soda excellent for some things, and pretty bad for others. Regarding your carpet, it’s worth thinking twice since baking soda tends to replace stains with a white stain of its own. Baking soda can cause more damage than it’s worth!
Supermarket Products
Supermarket products are popular because they are accessible and easy to use. However, you should never use them without professional help because they contain bleach or hydrogen peroxide. As a result, the chemical can remove stains, but it might also lift the colour out of your carpet. When this happens, you’re left with blotchy spots that are very unsightly and impossible to repair.When in doubt, you should always contact a professional carpet cleaning service and ask for their advice.
