If you are dealing with an older carpet that is stained and unsightly, but your budget doesn’t call for replacement, there are several techniques that you can implement to restore it. While picking the nap back up may not be possible, you can at least improve the appearance of carpeting until you are able to afford a new solution. Here are some tips to help you take care of business and get those carpets restored.
Identify the stain.
This may not be easy, but there are a few ways to determine whether or not a stain is organic (pet, food, drink) or chemical (ink, cleaning fluid, oil). Once you know what you’re dealing with, it is a lot easier to find the right cleaner to fix the issue. For pet stains, one of the easiest ways to identify them is to purchase a black light wand. You can find these in the pet stain removal department at most stores or online. Turn off the lights and use the wand. If you see a stain that glows, chances are it is a pet stain.
Other organic stains can be determined by color, residual smell and whether or not a small area of if responds to organic cleaners. A chemical stain will likely be dark, it may feel tacky to the touch and it will most likely not respond to traditional cleaning methods.
After you have determined the origin of the stain, it’s time to start spot cleaning.
We recommend tackling this area first, before you steam the carpets. Otherwise, you may be locking that stain in permanently. For organic stains, you may want to consider a type of enzymatic cleaner that will break down the elements, allowing you to easily wash the residue away. These may also work for chemical stains. Otherwise, for these stains, you may need to use a harsher chemical, such as paint remover or specific cleaners that are designed to reduce the appearance of these stains.
Once you have your spot treatment done, you can either steam the carpets on your own, or hire someone to do it. If you plan on steaming the carpet, make sure to have enough fans on hand and to do it when it will not be difficult to dry the carpets. Mildew can easily creep in if you are not careful and getting rid of that smell is not an easy task.
There are plenty of new carpet cleaning methods that professionals use that will dry within one hour. They may be a little more expensive, but generally, the results are better and you don’t have to wait days for your carpets to dry. Consider weighing the money you would save by doing it on your own, versus the inconvenience and potential for mildew before making your decision.
With a little TLC, you can restore old carpets and help them last a few years longer. For truly bad stains that have soaked through into the subfloor or completely penetrated the carpet, removal may be the only permanent solution.
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Originally posted 2008-10-14 05:52:01. Republished by Blog Post Promoter
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The healthiest and best thing to do would be to hire a professional who doesn’t charge an arm and a leg but has powerful truck mounted equipment. The dry clean methods are not true deep cleaning restorative cleaning. The people who make the carpet almost always recommend steam cleaning by professionals using equipment with maximum extraction. The strong suction of today’s industrial equipment, when properly operated, virtually eliminates the risks of mold and the need for fans. Even stains that have reached the padding can be pre-treated and extracted out with powerful suction. On the other hand, and machinary or method that is not capable of rinsing and extracting the chemicals used in the cleaning process is not really cleaning the carpet. Though its appearance can temporally look better, the carpet usually ends up with more soil attracting residue, more mold and mildew spores and less resistance to future stains.
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