Cleaning Spills Stains From Residential Carpet - Pt 1

Clean up of spots and spills are an inevitable part of choosing to use carpet in your home

. How you approach removal of each spill should be determined by the type of spill you are confronted with. We will show the challenges associated with cleaning up various accidents and why some spots and spills on your carpet can be more difficult to remove than others.

First, it must be understood what a stain is: A stain results when a foreign material, (which can be a combination of food, liquid or even oil based substances) comes into contact with the fibers of your carpet and does more than simply cover the fibers but also penetrates into the carpet fiber damaging and changing the fibers appearance.

Nylon carpet, which is a synthetic, contains many "dye sites" which allows foreign materials to easily penetrate into the fiber and cause a color change that cannot be easily removed. Some stain resistant nylon carpets are treated with an acid dye blocker to make the fibers more resistant to staining by acid based dyes, such as those in beverages like kool aid or soda. While this adds increased stain resistance it does not make nylon carpet impervious to staining. Olefin (polypropylene) carpet reacts very differently to spills; because it is solution dyed it is highly resistant to staining. Solution dying is the process of adding color to the polypropylene (or sometimes nylon) material while it is still in a liquid state, prior to it being extruded into the individual strands that carpet is constructed from.

There are generally three types of stains:

Organic based stains.

The things that would fall into the organic category would be natural substances from plants or animals such as fruit juices, coffee, tea, mold, urine, vomit, blood, mustard, plants, etc. Organic or water based stains often respond well to oxidizers or protein enzymes. Store bought spotters, such as Resolve can sometimes cause a stain to be set permanently because of it's high Ph. Great care should be taken when attempting to remove stains from nylon and especially natural fibers such as wool.

Synthetic based stains.

Stains containing man made substances and dyes such as kool-aid, fruit punch, candy, medicines, etc. Decaffeinated coffee is considered a man made substance because artificial dyes have been added to replace the natural color removed by the decaffeination process. Synthetic stains or products with artificial dyes like those found in food will often respond well to oxygen reducing stain treatments.

Petroleum based stains.

Stains containing grease, tar, ink, gum, glues. These type of stains can sometimes be removed with various types of solvents.

To summarize: The type of fiber or material plays a significant role in stain removal. Nylon carpet, especially stain protected or solution dyes nylons, are much more resistant than natural fiber types such as cotton or wool which can be easily dyed and stained. Olefin carpets are highly resistant to staining although they are still susceptible to permanent staining from oil based soils or products by a process of oxidation which occurs when petroleum based substances are allowed to remain for an extended amount of time.

Each particular spill or spot must be correctly identified so that proper stain removal treatment can be applied. For certain types of spills the type of fiber should be taken into account before attempting removal to ensure that the carpet fibers are not damaged. Because a stain penetrates the fiber and can alter the structure of the fibers, complete removal cannot be always be guaranteed. However with proper identification and treatment many stains can be successfully removed.

In Part 2 we will discuss in detail how to best treat these and other types of stains and spills.

Cleaning Spills Stains From Residential Carpet - Pt 1

By: Tony

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