Help! carpet cleaning advice...

HungryHippos · 17 Apr 2013 at 21:20

Hello,

I stupidly spilt some tea last night on our carpet at home on the stairs, there was not a lot spilt, but so far efforts to clean the spillage has left the area where the tea was split looking like a larger area of off-colour carpet.

It's pretty obvious there was a stain there, let's put it that way!

I was hoping the good citizens of OCUK would have some tips or ideas on how I might tackle this stain and leave it looking more like it should do.

The carpet feels like some kind of nylon mixed fabric, it definitely doesn't feel like it's entirely wool, it was here when we moved in around 3 years ago. This is the closest picture I can currently find to how it looks, the colour is even pretty similar (though ours looks a bit lighter):

I've tried Vanish carpet cleaner in the past but it doesn't work on our carpet, it just changes the colour of the carpet instead.

I am only renting so don't really want to go replacing the whole carpet to fix this, considering the carpet has been here probably since the house was built 10 years ago, and we've been using it for 3 years. It has a few other stains on it but not ones I have caused, and generally not in plain sight on the stairs either.

Thanks for reading!

mattyg · 17 Apr 2013 at 21:26

I came downstairs last week to find my dog had chewed a biro. At first I noticed his blue paws..Then the blue carpet.....

Tried the hairspray method nothing.
Tried my vax cleaner.

In the end I used terps cleaned it all up.

Most carpets are pretty resilient nowadays. Have you tried soaking it with warm water and just keep blotting it.

Nightglow · 18 Apr 2013 at 08:23

Bowl of warm water & add a small amount of washing powder, lifted coffee stain from my carpet.

Don't drown the carpet, you want the cloth damp, but not soaking, & dab, wipe area, may take a few minutes repeating to remove stain.

glenimp617 · 18 Apr 2013 at 09:26

speaking of dirty carpets, we bought a vax last week

They are pretty much what you think they are, as in, not THAT brilliant. There were reviews saying things like 'our 15 year old cream carpet came up like new'

well our 4 year old carpet looks nothing like new :rolleyes:

They clean, but they don't make the carpet look that much better to be honest

mjd · 18 Apr 2013 at 10:39

I have read good things about surfex HD on carpets. You can buy a small spray bottle for less than a tenner. Dilute at something like 20:1 in the first instance and test on an inconspicuous area first.

I have to agree on the vax. Whilst it seems to pull an infinite amount of dirt from our carpets, the finish is always patchy. We had a £250 Bissell before this, and despite its grand claims was no better.

apeksdiver · 18 Apr 2013 at 10:42

Soda water lifted a spectacular red win spill from our cream carpet. We did get it out before it had dried though. There is a spray can called 'spot shot' which is really good.

Syph · 18 Apr 2013 at 12:11

Nightglow said:
Bowl of warm water & add a small amount of washing powder, lifted coffee stain from my carpet.

Don't drown the carpet, you want the cloth damp, but not soaking, & dab, wipe area, may take a few minutes repeating to remove stain.

Our carpet fitter advocates pouring a pint of cold water on most spills, dabbing up quickly and repeating. I usually do it the way you mentioned, but he tells me this usually results in you rubbing the stain in further, even dabbing it. It can also take off the stain coating or something to that effect. I think he said once you start washing and scrubbing a carpet, a lot of the protection is lost which is why he said just boggo cold water.