Carpet Cleaning in Pasadena: Carpet’s Most Common Stains
Carpet Cleaning in Pasadena: Carpet's Most Common Stains
We recently got a call for a carpet cleaning in Pasadena from one of our best clients, and she had a problem. Her brother-in-law (no jokes, please) dropped a huge, steaming cup of coffee on her living room carpet, and she was super concerned it was going to leave a big stain. She called immediately to ask what she should do.
It seems that our customers love to entertain. That's great, but unfortunately, it also means that visitors are inevitably going to spill things like coffee, tea, soda and more on the carpet. We can surely sympathize, it's the same at our house, and it seems that there is just no way around it unless we all stick to serving water. That kind of misses the point of gracious entertaining, doesn't it?
We told her to blot up as much of the coffee as possible with a cotton towel, and to put a damp cloth on the spill to keep it moist until we got there. We also told her to not use any soap since that can react with the tannin and set the stain. We didn't share the following information with her since she was so distracted, but we will with you.
Coffee, tea, wine, and many other beverages contain "tannins" which are natural occurring vegetable dyes found in many plants such as tea leaves, grape skins, and bark. They are difficult to remove, and if the coffee or tea is hot, it opens up the carpet fibers and allows the color of the tannins to penetrate, making removal of the stain even more difficult. That can be true even if the carpet has a good quality protectant on it.
The first step when we arrived was to extract as much of the spill out as we could, which left mostly just the tannin stain. We then applied an acid-based tannin stain remover and allowed it to dwell for several minutes. Then we extracted everything, and the stain was all gone.
There are times, especially if the stain has been there for a while, that vestiges of the spot will remain, in which case it may be necessary to use a color-safe bleach. Another issue (depending of the volume of the spill) can be the wicking effect. In essence it's the effect of remnants of the spill that were deeply embedded in the carpet and padding underneath showing back up again.
Our Pasadena client was thrilled with the result of our stain emergency carpet cleaning, and her brother-in-law was banished to the kitchen whenever he had a big mug of coffee in his hand.
If you have a coffee, tea, or cola spill, give us a call. We will be glad to help, and you will be thrilled with the result. The Zerorez® carpet cleaning system is uniquely qualified to deal with these type of stains and also will do a great job of rinsing out chemical residues from Do It Yourself cleaning attempts.
You can reach us at Zerorez Socal, 866-937-6739 or find us on the web at www.zerorezsocal.com.
