Five Ways to Remove Stains from Your Carpets
Category: General
Published: 08/10/2020
You can’t beat the look and feel of a brand-new carpet laid in your home. Over time, with children, pets and careless hands, stains and spillages can occur. In order to realise the longevity of your carpet, it’s vital to have a few cleaning tricks up your sleeves! As we’ve been around for over 25 years, we’ve learned a few things about the upkeep of carpets, and we’d love to share with you our top tips to remove stubborn stains.

Before we start with what you should do, it’s just as important to look at what not to do! If you don’t treat the stains properly, you risk making them worse.
What not to do
1. Don’t use hot water
Hot water sets the stain, so avoid using this as it’ll make it permanent. Lukewarm water is best.
2. Don’t use steam
For the same reason above, the heat will ingrain the stain (and potentially the accompanying smell) into the fibres so put down the steamer!
3. Don’t flood the stain
It’s much better to use damp, not wet cloths. Wet carpet can breed bacteria and often can mask the true nature of stains.
4. Don’t scrub the carpet clean
This risks spreading the stain and damaging the carpet fibres. Simply blot and dab to absorb the stain and use your preferred cleaning solution.
5. Don’t use coloured cloths
Although it’s a small risk, coloured cloths can transfer their colour to the carpet, which is especially troubling for lighter carpets. Stick with white/neutral coloured cloths or paper towels.
What you should do
1. Act quickly
As soon as you have a spillage, clean it up. The sooner this happens, the more likely it is to disappear with the correct treatment. With a dry cloth, clean up any liquid by dabbing and patting the liquid until dry. Use a cold, wet cloth if required to clear up any solids as quickly as you can. Don’t push the stain into the carpet, instead scrape any solids off with a fork and assess the stain once clear.
2. Clean liquids
For water-soluble stains, warm (not hot) water mixed with white wine vinegar is the best solution. Most liquids would fall into this category. Dab a cloth with the water and vinegar solution and lay firmly on the stain for a minute or two. Pat with a dry cloth to blot the stain. This may need repeated several times to lift the stain.
3. Clean more stubborn stains
For the more persistent liquid stains, you can follow the above steps but with a specific carpet cleaner instead of your white vinegar solution. If you are a pet owner, look for one specifically for dealing with pet stains and smells. It may require several attempts before the patch is cleared completely.
4. Lift smells
There are many carpet fresheners out there with artificial smells added that will, at least temporarily, help lift smells from carpets. We’d recommend the more traditional method of using bicarbonate of soda. Sprinkle this across the required area and leave for as long as you can –a minimum of 30 minutes, but overnight is best. Brush up most of the bicarb the next day and vacuum the rest. This will refresh your carpets as well as lifting the stale smell.
5. Know your remedies
There are specific stains that have ‘old school’ methods of cleaning that really work. If you have chewing gum on your carpet, use ice to harden it. This will help make the texture easier to scrape away. Wine, coffee and blood are helped with using club soda as your cleaner. Oil and butter can be absorbed with bicarbonate of soda. The lactic acid in milk, mixed with some cornflour to make a paste, will lift pen out of carpet.
Stain still not budging?
You don’t need to replace your whole carpet if you have a stain that just won’t move. At Carpet Master we have a carpet binding service which means we can create mats, rugs and runners to your specification to cover these stains. We can use off-cuts that you may have kept when the carpet was installed to hide the stain, or you can choose from our wide selection of carpets in our warehouse to make a statement feature in your room.
You can call us on 01786 451376 or enquire here to discuss how we can help you. As we do hold all of this stock on site, we can have your mat/runner ready in a matter of days!