Spot Removal Tips

Stains on fabric are as varied as they are pesky and persistent. Each substance will interact in its own unique way with the specific type of fabric it interacts with. Your methods of dealing with stains should be tailored to the specific situation, although there are a few general pointers to follow.

What To Do And What To Avoid

The best advice we can give to you for spot and stain removal is: avoid cleaning chemicals like the plague. They might sound great, and heck, they might even do the job and leave your carpet in great condition. But can you afford to take the risk? It took our technicians many years of training and hands-on experience to gather the knowledge of how each type of fabric reacts to different compounds. If you go down the industrial route, you always risk making things worse.

We're wary of making any general recommendations in terms of which substance you should apply. There are carpets so fragile that even a natural substance might discolor them or otherwise prove to be harmful. However, for the majority of carpets, vinegar and baking soda won't do much damage if used correctly. If you're lucky, they might fix the situation, too.

Before you apply anything, make sure that the area is completely dry. Never try to save time by scrubbing – blotting can be time-consuming, but your carpet will thank you later. Also, lift the carpet and examine how far the liquid went. If there's a stain on the bottom as well, there's a good chance things are out of your hands.

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Still, it doesn't hurt to try while maintaining caution. Keep in mind that the order is extremely important here – baking soda must always come after the vinegar, and only after it has sufficiently dried out.

Pour some vinegar on the spot, but don't soak it too much. Ideally, you want it to reach only the areas affected by the spill or whatever's causing the stain, although this isn't always possible. Once it's mostly dry, apply a moderate amount of baking soda and leave it to sit for a bit. Then, vacuum it well and proper – you should also rinse the area fairly soon after that. If these steps didn't accomplish what you were hoping for, you'll have to hand the problem over to us.

What About Upholstery And Stains?

Spots on upholstery (this also includes mattresses) are generally harder for a regular person to deal with. Many forms of upholstery are one big, dense piece of fabric, sometimes a dozen times thicker than a carpet.

Your results will depend primarily on the amount of liquid that was spilled. If it went all the way through, you're probably out of luck until you can get some hot water extraction done. If it's concentrated around the surface, you might have a shot at removing the spot by following the advice listed above. However, in the case of upholstery even more than with carpets, you'll need to keep a keen eye (or nose) out for odor – removing the stain does not mean the substance is gone, and in some cases, odor is the best way to know for sure.

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