Tuesday, March 25, 2014

Old Red Stain on the Carpet.



When my parents found an old red stain on the carpet in my brother's bedroom, I was super excited. I know how insensitive. However, that meant I could try some homemade stain remover ideas and on someone elses carpet.

I have heard of 4 things that can work:
  1. Ammonia (Windex has this in it)- spray it on, place a rag over the stain and essentially iron it from the carpet to the rag.
  2. Vinegar and water 1:4 ratio spray, sit, blot, spray, sit, blot.  Rubbing can make a stain spread.
  3. Rubbing alcohol- same principle as either one above.
  4. Hydrogen peroxide- can "bleach" so be careful.
There may be more, however the stain was only so big, therefore, these are the ones we tried.  All except for ammonia, I hate the smell.

The hydrogen peroxide began to take it up immediately, no sitting and waiting needed.  However, my mom, understandably, did not want to risk getting the carpet bleached- there'd be no fixing that.  Because rubbing alcohol is more expensive than vinegar we first soaked it in vinegar and then blotted and then ironed.  It began to come up, but the vinegar (or rag) left a residue on the iron that flaked off once the iron cooled.  The stain also did not come up immediately.  The process probably is going to need to be repeated a few times, but it is looking a lot better.

Overall, all three worked on the old red stain.  I'd probably do hydrogen peroxide for a light carpet and dilute with water afterwards.  However, I'm no stain expert so if you got a stain, you decided.  Personally, Fels-Naptha is my favorite stain remover of all time.












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