carpet cleaning question

[klmno]

Hey, Ladies! Anyone know a good way to get about a 12" diameter dark stain out of beige carpet? It's caused by being in a high traffic area and having a ton of different things on it- coffee spilled, etc. I've tried the Resolve foam and Woolite for steam cleaners and neither got it out.

 

[keista]

Area Rug.

 

[Tiapet]

You could try a mixture of peroxide, baking soda and water. Scrub. Test in small area first. The other idea is white vinegar and water solution. Saturate area and use white towel and hot iron. Place iron over top of carpet and put iron on towel and keep going over it to "soak" up stain into towel. We've used both ways. The iron one took out green and red kool aide stains in egg shell colored carpets!

 

[family mum]

Have you tried club soda?

 

[klmno]

I can try baking soda tomorrow- I've never done that so I'm assuming you just pour a little on, let it set a min., then rinse it off??

 

[shellyd67]

I would out and out scrub it with oxyclean and a scrub brush. I have had good luck using this method. We have a very light (almost white) berber carpet in our hallway and down our stairwell and it is a BIT** to keep clean. I have it professionally cleaned several times a year but keep up on stains and spots with the oxyclean method.

Everywhere else in the house has hardwood thank goodness ... Good Luck !

 

[Hound dog]

husband could make the area around "his" chair look absolutely horrific with very little effort. I never quite figured out how he managed it.......except think coke cans and an over full ashtray, the occasion knocking over of said cans........the occasional knocking over of said ashtray.......I'm going to guess some food mixed in there along the way.

I used Resolve powder. It used to come with a scrub brush (I dunno if it still does, but you can pick them up cheap). You put it on the stain dry (it's sort of damp from the container) and scrub......let it sit until completely dry and vacuum. Cleaned it great every time. I'd do this before shampooing the carpet several times during the year. (husband is the main reason I had to shampoo alot.....it wasn't really the kids lol )

The oxyclean one sounds good.........never tried baking soda......

 

[klmno]

You all have some great ideas! I wonder though, at what point should I give up and just use a discount coupon for a professional shampoo. LOL!

 

[Star*]

Mix 40 mule team borax and bleach ---mix a paste in a bucket with hot water. (not scalding) and apply to spot. Let set overnight or most of an hour or better - and then come back and dab up with WET towel - DO NOT SCRUB - when you scrub a carpet it breaks the fibers of a carpet - You want to just keep adding damp towels and stepping on the spot with all your body weight.....then remove - rinse the towel - and reapply a clean wet towel - stand on it - walk on it a little - rinse out the towel and repeat. What you are DOING???? Is taking out the dirt and stain a little at a time. The stain is probably into the padding AND dispersed under the padding as well - When you put the towel down and use your weight to stand on the towel - it puts pressure on the pad for some of the underlying stain to COME UP in the towel - with the water.

Merry maids sent me to carpet cleaning school - and I promise we didn't do it this way - we had a dry cleaning machine - but the towel and stain part is right. THIS is why you can't get pee smell out of a carpet. The pee goes into the carpet - and pad, and under the pad -and EVENTUALLY dries and urine crystalizes after it's dry. Then when it gets wet? It reannimates - literally - and it's like the urination happens all over again. Then recrystalizes. Similar to a stain - the more water you add? The more water gets into the pad and under the pad This is why you use damp towels and repeat the process. Or so I was told.

But the borax will eventually DRY - and you can vacuum it out - and the bleach will bleach the spot - but I use COLORSAFE bleach and borax unless the carpet is just shot and stinks - then I'd probably pull it away fromthe wall - turn it over......scrub the top and the bottom of the carpet - set a fan on the under neath , check the pad or cut it out and replace the pad. - Spray with lysol......let it set and dry for about four days - then retack my carpet OR if it's really really a bad spot? Remove a piece from the closet - and patch that spot...and use the dirty spot you took out - (and take it outside and hose it off and use whatever cleaner on it and let it dry outside for a few days - and then have it replaced in the spot in my closet. I've had that done in a few rentals.

 

[susiestar]

Colorsafe bleaches like clorox 2 and oxiclean are both peroxide based. You can use a bit of peroxide and baking soda to make a very effective carpet cleaner. If it is a pet stain, get a bottle of kids and pets - it is an enzymatic cleaner and works very well. TO get the smell of a pet stain out you should use a needle like for basting a turkey (called a flavor injector around here - used for deep fried turkey mostly) and inject the cleaner UNDER the carpet into the pad every 3-4 inches in a grid. Let dry - will smell worse at first and then go away.

If you want colorsafe bleach for clothes that is AFFORDABLE and works just like clorox 2, put 1 c peroxide in a 32 oz bottle and fill with water. IT won't be the color of clorox 2 and will be a thinner liquid, but 1/4 to 1/2 c in laundry works great. Plus is it soooooooo much cheaper than clorox 2 or other color safe bleaches.

Whatever you do, put the towel or many layers of paper towels on the wet stain and put something heavy like a heavy book or container on it and let that sit and it will help get the dirt out.

 

[klmno]

It's not pee smell- it's a stain on the dining room side of the kitchen entry- where it's high traffic, I've spilled coffee from a cup, and the dogs sit there begging for a treat when I'm in the kitchen. Also, I just remembered, I have to carry garbage bags from the kitchen thru this path to get them outside and if they are leaking, that spot gets hit with that, too. Actually, I think that's how it got so dark.

I swear, I'd never thought of peroxide and baking soda- I thought that made a little bomb LOL!

 

[DammitJanet]

K....once you get this clean, put a runner every that you walk a lot or could get dirt or spills. They sell clear plastic ones or fairly cheap ones with plastic backs that you can get that will allow you to position them wherever you wish. Makes life much simpler. You can always pick them up and stuff them in a closet quickly if company is coming.

 

[InsaneCdn]

You all have some great ideas! I wonder though, at what point should I give up and just use a discount coupon for a professional shampoo. LOL!

Once you attempt to clean a stain yourself... the professionals may not be able to help you.
They'd rather start with an untouched stain.
Various cleaning solutions work on some stains - and make others "set".

 

[klmno]

This sure seems set. The carpet is a short shag and the dark stain appears to be on the entire length of most of the thread in that area. I have a hoover steamvac and always used the hoover cleaner in it before- in the old house that I lost. That carpet was light blue, short shag, and that cleaner worked miracles on it- even afater the dog had diareaha (sp) on it once. I need to get some of that since I only bought a little bottle of the woolite brand and try that. If that doesn't work, I'll try to mix with the color bleach and work on it by hand, using towels. I'm thinking more and more that it got this way from liquid from dumping cofffee grounds in the trash dripping out of garbage bags.

 

[Hound dog]

Honestly, professionals are ok..................but I've done a far better job myself. I've owned steam cleaners since the beginning of my marriage. mother in law used to pay a LOT to get her carpets done twice a year. White shag with a dog, need I say more? (not that it looked bad really) Once she asked me if I minded coming over to do it...........and my steam cleaner......well, let's just say it looked much cleaner than when she paid to have it done. Steam cleaner dudes are usually in a rush to get to the next job, I'm not. lol

My dream now is to rip up the carpet in the dinging room (definately!!). It was cheap carpet to begin with......but after a dog giving birth on it......dogs, grand kid, various animals, shampoos, husband not caring for it well while I was at school.......it's just had it. I have places with bare patches. No clue why. The living room carpet isn't in much better shape, but it *might* come clean with a good shampooing. I'm waiting for warmer weather to find out. But I'd like to rip it out too and just have hard wood in both rooms. I'm not sure if the guy who redid the house left the hardwood floors in place or not. I know in one spot where I checked it's not there.

But I don't want carpet downstairs anymore. With pets it's just a royal PITA. And I'm partial to hardwood floors anyway.

 

[InsaneCdn]

Lisa... Hardwood + pets isn't much better than carpet + pets. Very small amounts of water, on a regular basis = damaged hardwood. Sloppy water-bucket, or an accident or two...

Even tile is a pitb with pets (grout absorbs...). Lino tears.

 

[Hound dog]

There are these new "hardwood" floors out with some sort of protective coating I think. I saw it at Sam's. If the originals aren't still in place, that's what I want to get. sister in law knows how to install it.

I know it won't be totally maintenance free, but it's got to be better. My kitchen lino has been here for 10 yrs and you'd never know it........and I've long ago lost count of how many cats and dogs have trotted across this floor.

And I'm getting older. I don't want to have to shampoo twice a year anymore. My house is BIG. Shampooing takes forever.

 

[DammitJanet]

Lisa I know what you are talking about and that is what we want to put in our place if we can ever get to it. I know I am just going to do the things I want to do next year that are going to make my life easier and to heck with everyone else. I dont care anymore what anyone says. If they dont want to get with the program, I am hiring people to do it.

Today, or actually yesterday now, I informed Tony that I am calling the private trash company that comes down our road and putting us on their list. It isnt that expensive. To have two very large cans it will be 60 bucks every quarter. We get picked up once a week on Wednesdays at 6 am. He can take the cans out to the street on Tuesday night in his pickup and Billy can go get them Wednesday morning before he goes to work and bring them home. Im tired of the trash issues.

Next issue is our yard. Every time he buys a lawnmower it dies on us way before it should. Right after we moved into this place we bought this really nice push mower with these big back wheels and it was supposed to have all the bells and whistles. You know, go by itself so you just walked alone behind it, push button start, etc. The thing lasted two summers if that. I think it died near the end of the second summer. So next he bought several lawn mowers that were second hand. Each one died over and over. About three years ago we got a John deer riding mower that was supposed to be almost brand new. Guy said he had it about six months but he bought a bigger model and it looked fantastic. Ran like a dream for a year and a half. Now its sitting in my yard like an ornament. Tony brought home a mower on friday that a friend of his sold him. It worked perfectly at the guys house. It gets here and it wouldnt mow one strip. The guy came to the house on Friday to pick up the money from Tony and the lawn mower went back with the guy...lol.

I told Tony we are giving up on lawn mowers and getting a lawn mowing guy. Just give in...its not meant to be. It cannot cost that much to just get someone to come cut the grass twice a month. Thats all we need. Its not like we want someone to weed eat and trim around bushes and trees or spray for anything. Just cut the grass. In fact we only have two small trees on the lot! He still thinks he can do it but I am putting my foot down on this. He only has two days at home on the weekends. What is he gonna give up to do the mowing? Fishing, time with me, taking Buck to church? I just dont see where he has the spare time. I am not giving in. LOL.

 

[Hound dog]

Good for you, Janet! I think getting some of this stuff done will remove the weight from over your head like it is doing for me.

Today I'm tackling the main house again. During the week, I'm hoping to get started on the dreaded family room. I've already warned the kids that if there is something they can think of that they want they'd better speak up now because if I don't intend to keep it (as in I need it), it's either yard sale or trash. 90 percent of what is in there is OUT. That room has been serving as a basic storage bin for years. And when we have that major yard sale? On sunday evening NOTHING comes back inside. It either goes into the GW drop box or the trash. Because that is how my family room got to be in the shape it's in to begin with.

I have 3 mowers. None of them work. husband never took care of them. I have 3 weedeaters. Only 1 works, it's actually Nichole's but she said I can have it. The only lawn mower that has worked without quitting on me is the push mower that doesn't require gas. But I need to order the sharpener kit for it. I'm selling the none working ones for dirt cheap in the yard sale.......people around here love to fix them and resale them. sister in law checked to see if he could fix them, but no.....but they're still good for someone for parts.

I won't pay someone to mow. Last year they were wanting 30 bucks. My yard is not that big, not for 30 bucks. whew!

 

[donna723]

I'm all for doing whatever you can to make things easier and less of a hassle. When I moved from the country in to this house in town 8-1/2 years ago I had a little cheapie Walmart push mower and a Weedeater that I couldn't always start. I can't afford a big fancy lawn mower or a riding mower and the little cheap ones die, sometimes don't even make it through one mowing season, so I went through a half dozen of them in just a few years. Even if I could have lifted the darn thing in to the trunk of the car to have it repaired, it would cost more to have it fixed than it was worth. My yard here is GIGANTIC! It takes up 2/3rds of a city block, street to street. Still, for the first two or three years I did it all myself with that little push mower. And this is really healthy, thick grass! To do the whole thing took me almost the entire weekend! I was out there shoving that mower around when it was 98 degrees outside, mowed till my feet and ankles were swelled to the size of basketballs, but still I did it! Then one day that mower too died, I couldn't afford to run out and buy another one right then, and I was stuck! So I called a lawn service owned by a guy I've known for years, thinking I would just have them do it till I could buy another mower. They charged me $50 but then my yard is the equivalent to two or three normal sized yards. Three guys showed up, one on a huge commercial mower and two weedeating, and in a half hour they were done and the yard looked fantastic, better than it ever had! And I had my weekends back ... and no more swollen feet! I'm getting too darned old to be out there shoving a lawn mower around in the summer heat anyway. I can't afford to have it done every week but I have them come every other week and it's worth every single penny I spend on them!

And on the carpeting ... I would KILL to get rid of it and have hardwood floors! This carpet was new when I moved in to the house and I vacuum often - sometimes a losing battle with four dogs, and old houses just seem to make their own dirt. I bought a carpet shampooer after a few months and the first time I used it, what came out of it looked like mud! This was all gunk that the vacuum didn't get! Eeeewww! And there is NO carpet cleaning service that operates in our little town. My daughter and sister in law have two big dogs and a baby and they were spending a fortune on carpet cleaning. They finally had it all pulled out and put in hardwood floors, even in the kitchen, everywhere but the bathrooms. It's lovely and it's not that hard to keep up with at all. Mostly they just run a dust mop over it every few days and they're good to go!