Will All the Carpet Stains Come Out?
Trained cleaning technicians will treat all stubborn stains and tough spots with solutions prior to cleaning to eliminate as many stains and spots as possible. A company usually cannot guarantee that all stains and spots can be removed, but they will use professional formulas and apply experience to get out what general cleaning cannot. If stains or spots are determined to be permanent, the cleaning technicians should let you know about other viable options with you before completing the job.
What are those ugly black lines around the edges and under doorways?
If you have light coloured carpet, you may have experienced these dark lines that appear on the carpet. This soiling is called filtration soiling because it comes from air passing through the carpet as it is attempting to get through the crack between the carpet and the baseboard or under a closed door. As the air passes through the edge of the carpet pile, this microscopic soiling is deposited there (hence the term filtration soiling). This occurs over a significant period and is hard to notice until a build-up has occurred.
This type of soiling is difficult to remove because the soil particles are so fine that they penetrate deep into the carpet pile, sometimes into the backing of the carpet. Can it be removed? Sometimes. With specialised products, time and effort, reasonable results can sometimes be achieved. To help prevent filtration soiling, vacuum and wipe the edges of the carpeting on a regular basis.
What Causes Forgotten Spills to be Visible After Professional Cleaning?
Sometimes stains that have been hidden by soil are revealed after cleaning. These stains, which did not immediately cause discoloration, are often from a spilt liquid containing colourless sugar that remained on the fibres.
After prolonged exposure to the air, these stains changed to insoluble brown stains. The stains may look like brownish discolorations, but often they remain unnoticed because of the accumulated soil covering them. Some food and drink stains may inevitably turn even darker from the necessary drying action after a thorough cleaning.
Other kinds of stains can be caused by water soaking through and dissolving materials that cause browning or dissolving fugitive dyes from the back of the carpet, rug or upholstery. Because the fibres act as wicks, moisture will rise to the surface to evaporate, and discoloration will be left.
Consumers who try to remove stains by using the wrong cleaning compounds and procedures may only make the stained areas more noticeable. To lessen the possibility of stain damage, immediate action should be taken, if possible. We recommend trying to absorb any spillage as soon as possible by use of paper towel or white fabric cloth (to avoid colour transfer)
Our professional Technicians use speciality cleaning and spot removal treatments to improve the appearance of forgotten drink spills — cola, coffee, tea, alcoholic beverages, soda and others.
When we clean your carpet, rug or upholstery, we have given you the best cleaning possible, done by skilled professional technicians using scientific method standards specifically recommended by the leaders in the carpet, rug and upholstery cleaning industry. But even with the best treatments, some coloured residue or caramelised sugar stain, resulting from the prior spillage, may remain.
Why Do Some Spots Reappear After Professional Carpet Cleaning? (Wicking)
Have you recently had your carpets cleaned, only to find a mysterious spot appear where it may not have been noticeable before? Or was the Technician successful in removing certain spots when the carpet was just cleaned and still damp, only to have some spots reappear after the carpet had thoroughly dried?
The above are common situations that can occur during carpet cleaning known as reappearing spots or wicking. This is caused by staining matter from a prior spillage which has dried down at the base of the carpet pile. Although the surface staining may have been partially or fully removed from the tips of the carpet pile fibres, some of the discoloured matter remained behind, unseen and hidden down in the pile.
During a thorough wet carpet cleaning, the hidden spot normally becomes moistened or wetted. Once wet, the stain becomes mobile and wicks up to the top surface of the pile as the carpet dries.
Since wall-to-wall carpet dries from the bottom up (wicks up), this leaves the top part of the pile as the last to dry completely. And this is how the mysterious spotting matter now wicks or finds its way up to the carpet surface.
If the area is small, you can easily remove the spot by lightly moistening it (with a spray bottle of water) and then blotting with absorbent white towelling.
If spots have wicked up after Carpet Cleaning Kings has provided our carpet cleaning service in our home or business, please call our office on 1300 7000 75 as soon as possible after your cleaning appointment. We will be more than happy to come back to work on removing the reappearing spot or spots.
Why Do I Still have Stains on My Carpet/Upholstery After It Has Been Professionally Cleaned?
A spot that cannot be removed is what we call a STAIN. Stains are permanent. The staining material has been absorbed by the fibres of the carpet or upholstery and just like a dye, may permanently discolour or recolour the fibres in the stained area.
It is also possible that the prior spillage or stain produced a damaging chemical change to the fibre and its original dyed colour. Such colour changes are usually permanent and cannot be reversed or returned to their original colour.
Some Common Cause of Permanent Stains on Textile Furnishings:
#Pet Urine. Urine in carpets pollutes the air quality in the home environment because of the bacterial action taking place beneath the carpeting. It is usually more cost effective to replace wall-to-wall carpeting and the padding beneath than to attempt urine decontamination. Typically, the broadloom carpets that use latex in the construction cannot successfully be urine decontaminated since it becomes trapped in the glue. Urine stains can lead to permanent discoloration. This discoloration may be visible before carpet cleaning or it may become evident during or after the cleaning process. Diverse types of fibre react to urine differently. Some cause a visible stain almost immediately, others do not show stains. Urine odour, of course, will be evident on all fibres and cannot be removed by any cleaning method alone. We do offer a guaranteed urine odour removal procedure for certain types of area rugs. Our Technicians are qualified to give you sound advice on how best to proceed when faced with urine odour and/or stains on your carpet. For more in-depth information, please see Urine Odour Treatments.
#Drink Spills. Spills of coffee, tea, cola, and other drinks can also cause permanent stains, especially on wool, some nylons, cotton and silk. Even ‘stain resistant’ nylon carpets can be permanently stained by HOT coffee, HOT tea, other conventional foods, bleach, household chemicals or medicines
#Over-The-Counter Acne Creams and Medications. These may cause lightening or colour changes on textile furnishings. However, these changes may only appear during or after the carpet cleaning. The chemical culprit and primary cause of these discolorations is Benzoyl Peroxide. It is a bleach and a powerful colour remover, but often does not become fully activated until the moisture in textile (usually carpet) is increased, such as during carpet cleaning or humid weather.
#Miscellaneous Household Chemical Compounds. There are numerous other household chemicals that may produce stains, such as some pesticides, ammonia, strong cleaners, chlorine bleach or peroxides, chlorine from pool or spa water, furniture scratch remover, shoe dye, chemical preservatives, cosmetics, and many more.
Can you remove Iron Burns?
An Iron burn is not a stain; this is where the heat from the iron has melted the carpet fibres, it’s damaged the carpet and no matter how much cleaning we do this iron burn cannot be removed from the carpet. A frequent practice to hide an iron burn in the carpet is using carpet patching. The process involves removing the iron burn with a Stanley knife and patching in a similar piece of carpet into the hole.
