Post Spotting Carpet

Recently I had the opportunity to try my efforts to remove a multitude of stains on a carpet cleaning job in Bend Oregon.

Spread over 4 rooms for carpet cleaning, the owner listing the home for sale was requesting a thorough job be done on the stains in the carpeting. With about 15 of them to work on, they ranged in size and what they were. Going from the smallest sprekles of paint drops up to a round dark stain in the hall closet.

Stain removal depending on what it is can be from easy to challenging.

There are several factors to consider;
What color is the stain?
What pattern does it have?
How concentrated into the pile is it?
Has it changed the color of the carpeting permanently?
How long has the stain been there?
Have other products been used to remove the stain?
How much volume of the stain and area does it cover?

Going through a process to determine what the stain is, deductive reasoning is used. I start with the things that I can see and read about the stain. The variables are uncontrollable and only through the first steps of the process can I then know if the stain can be removed.

Over scrubbing, multiple stain removal products, and too much product is not the best way to go. When the stain won't come completly out, I use the term "minimize" the stain. This means to make it less noticable.

There are many stain removing products on the market and they work extremely well.
Coffee, tea, ink, wax (No iron for wax is used), red drinks, pet urine, pet odors, rust, sodas, and more.

Not all stains are removable, carpet color damage does occur, do not scrub the carpets too much and making a fuzz is not good, bleaching does not work at all, and over wetting and "wicking" brings up more dirt down in the carpeting.

Getting back to the stains in the carpets, I spent 2.5 hours on them! In terms of percentages; 70% of them went away, 15% were minimized and 15% were permanent.

Stain removing is one of the most challenging aspects of carpet cleaning services. It can be difficult to estimate time for removal, and total elimination is not guaranteed unfortunately. Only through experience have I learned specific techniques to apply on customers carpeting. Leave it to the professional at removing tough stains. We use commercial grade products specific to the stains, and grabbing "stain removers" and "spot removers" from the shelf may cause more harm than good in some cases and one product very rarely is good for the many spots and stains found in a home.