There seems to be some confusion on what is a spot. a spill or a carpet stain. Many things gets dropped, tracked and spilled onto our carpets. Most of the time we just clean all those things up with a spray bottle of over the counter spotter thinking that will fix it.
A Spot can be anything out of the ordinary that was dripped onto the carpet or maybe tracked in. Pending on what it is will classify it as a spot or a Stain.
A Stain is something permanent, it can be a dye or something that was dripped onto the carpet to add color or remove color.
A Spill is when Princess takes a whiz on your carpet by the back door you left closed or something you spilled onto the carpet. It’s a volume of liquid that gravity introduced into the latex carpet backing and the carpet pad. I know you want to call these big spots but they are not, it’s trouble that will resurface as it wicks back up and you will blame your carpet cleaner for.
Spots need to be identified on a carpet, the carpet fiber has to be ID’d in order to determine how to pursue them. Certain carpets are oil based and love the grease spots and can actually ruin it, others absorb dyes or certain things that have acidic properties or high ph and will effect dyes. Your carpet spotter residue that you left in the carpet is probably breaking down the dyes right now so that when I flush it out the color comes with. When you have a 101 spots throughout the home you do your best to figure it out. The last thing you want to do is use the wrong chemical on it, set the spot into a stain or damage dyes.
Stains are permanent and it’s up to your professional to figure it all out and remove it, reduce it or cut and patch. All too often your professional is clueless and will set the stain or remove the dyes. Going after stains there has to be some contingency plans that should be discussed with you. Now, lets discuss damage, your damage – Carpet Spotters and Dog Urine. We’re going to educate the carpet cleaners that read me here too. When you treat a spot, stain or anything, that spotter has to be thoroughly flushed & rinsed out. If not while it’s laying dormant on your unknown spot it is breaking down dyes and when we rinse it out the color will come out with it, this also goes for pet urine. High ph anything in your carpet must be removed or neutralized or else there will be damage. Poly plastic carpets are an exception most of the time. Now it will become necessary to color correct. Often times on certain carpets a carpet cleaner will come in and spot treat first then clean the carpet, even this can do the damage on your cheaper contractor grade carpets.
Spills pass through the carpet fibers, into and through the latex & polyester mesh backing and into the sponge pad. Typical carpet cleaners clean the carpet fibers and leave the carpet wet. Everything in the backing and pad will wick to the surface, it’s a natural process. We Fast Dry our work to prevent this but we also like to go after spills & pet urine to remove as much if not all of it as possible. Yes, this is an extra service as a repair. If they are not addressed, they will return.
When we pre qualify a carpet we determine whether it is a Restoration clean or a Salvage clean. We guarantee all of our Restoration cleans, we do not guarantee a Salvage clean. A Salvage clean is a carpet with spills and pet urine, your carpet manufacturer voids your warranty for these same conditions. Can we help? Yes and we give you options based on the problem such as pet stains: is the pet still peeing on the carpet? Yes. Okay, lets just do some odor control and maybe color correction if required. Is the pet gone or has stopped? Yes. Okay, lets do some odor & color repairs.
There are complete idiots out there that are gung ho and started 4 years ago and base their ability on the back of the sales pitch of a chemical jug. As one who understands carpet fibers, carpet construction, chemistry and repairs carpet, I like to take a real world common sense approach. We will never tell you that your carpets will look “just like new” or we will “remove all stains” or this is my favorite: “if we can’t get it out no one can”. If it can’t come out then lets dye it or patch it! There are options for you.
So, you have a red spill or any other color. DO NOT TOUCH IT! Call me! Very easy to set colored stains. If you clean a normal black spot that was sticky or greasy and has attracted soil which made it black, clean it with a low ph cleaner but make sure you flush it out well. Use a 1-2 gallon wet/dry vac and a spray bottle of water to flush it out with.
Pet urine, as we progress it seems Humans are a real pain in the butt. Pets make great friends, they calm us after a hectic day in today’s society, they can’t drive like humans can’t either that ramp you up on the way home, and when you come home the first one that greets you and excited to see you is your pet, well, if you’re a dog lover. The spouse and kids are not as excited. So, we all got them, most of us anyway. Pet urine is the biggest problem there is. It gets worse on certain tile floors, laminates get ruined, whatever the floor covering we have to take extra special care. If you have carpet it’s best to go dark and order extra to keep on hand, if it’s tile & grout you have to keep it seal coated constantly, laminates, have extra on hand.
