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More Carpet Problems and Solutions

What to do with gum?

Ever wonder how that gum got onto the carpet in the first place?   Hmmmm,  does it fall out of the persons mouth when they are talking?  At times its hard to imagine how that gum got there.  Well, there it is,  GUM, and its not always just on the carpet, most of the time its IN the carpet.   OUCH!! Ok,  there are a few ways to get that gum out:   1. Freeze it.  There are products at janitorial stores that come in a can. It will freeze the gum, right      away with the handle of a butter knife (or anything similar) break it apart.   2.There is a way to cut it out without making a dent in the carpet.  Not recommend unless      you know what you are doing, or you really don't care, you just want the gum out.   3. My favorite, is to use a product called "Gum Begone".  This comes in a jar that inside looks      like a milky semi-clear jell with white chunks in the jell.  You can pick up the Gum Begone at most      janitorial supply stores.  Use a spoon and scoop up some, apply to the gum and wait about 10      mins  Use the spoon and scoop off the gum.  After that just lightly clean up the area....Mylk     works great for that part.

Carpets, Color and Discolorations

Here we will go into how carpets get those colors. There are chemicals present in all fibers called pigments or dyes.  Pigments are added to the polymer before the fibers are formed.  This locks in the color, and is often called solution dyed or producer colored.  These fibers are least susceptible to any type of fading or color change.  Dyes, on the other hand, are chemical compounds that are added to the surface of fibers to give them color.  Sometimes these dyes react with chemicals, gases or sunlight and a change in color occurs.  Nylons and wools are carpet that can be fixed with a liquid color dye.  Polyester types can not be dyed by the liquid dyes. However there is a way to put color back into the polyester type of carpet.   Ready?   CRAYONS:  yes crayon, just match to color needed as close as you can and melt it in with heat. The wall to wall carpets that have multidarkOars like dark brown, medium brown  and almost a white, are done with one color.  What makes the different colors are the different fibers absorbing the dye at different levels.   White taking in almost no color and the browns taking in more of the color. There are times when a product will be spilled onto the carpet and nothing happens until the carpet is cleaned.   One item known to do that is plant foods,  which one at the moment I don't know right now.  There have been cases where a carpet cleaner cleaned and discoloration appears.  The cleaner is blamed not knowing that the plant food was the culprit. There are  different things that can happen to colors.  Here is a list of items that can cause a color change: 1.Sun light (removes color) brown carpet will turn green first, then blue, then white. 2. Bleach ( removes color) brown carpet will turn yellow. 3. Red dyes, like wine, liquid medicine, popcycles, Koolaid (registered trademark of Kraft-Foods) etc. (adds color) 4. hot teas (adds color) 5. benzyl peroxide... ance medicine (removes color) brown carpet will turn orange 6. Window cleaner (removes color) brown carpet will turn green 7. Yellow American mustard (adds color) 8. Much, much  more, the list above is the most common. There are products that will remove red stains, and all the "removes color" ones can be fixed as long as the carpet is NOT polyester, or olefin.  If the carpet has any color stain  other than black or gray, that stain runs the risk of  not come out in cleaning.

Warning about Simple Green and Oxyclean

These products are good cleaning products, but NOT for the carpets.  To many times we have gone into a home and found discoloration due to using Simple Green, Oxyclean, Index, 409, (all registered trademarks) and many others.  Sometimes I can put the color back, but sometimes its so bad it would be cheaper to just buy new carpet.

Friction Burns ( Dragging Furniture Across Carpets)

Friction Burns:  That is when heavy furniture is dragged along carpeting and it leaves a darker color line. This happens to carpets that are  industrial type carpets.  Those carpets one often finds in commercial buildings, or office buildings, with a very low pile made of polyester or olefin.  Sometimes even chairs and tables being dragged along the carpet will melt the fabric.   There is NO fix on this that I know of.  Once this happens its there for the rest of the life of that carpet. SO, DO NOT DRAG FURNITURE ACROSS THESE TYPES OF CARPETS.

Removing wax

Most of the time its simple to remove wax.  Of course it also depends on how much wax is in one giving area.    On most carpets you can use a paper towel, and an Iron set to the low setting.  Be very careful to NEVER leave the iron unattended.  First make sure there is water in the iron, next place the paper towel over the waxed area, move the iron over the top of the paper towel and look for the towel to form a wet spot. Once this happens remove the iron and towel and check the area.  A simple wipe of the hand over the area will let you know that the  wax is gone or mostly gone.  Done.  Is that to simple?  Well, sometimes you can't do that to a carpet.  That carpet is that low pile polyester or olefin type.  This type of carpet will melt under low temperatures.  There one may have to use semi-hot water and a wet vac.  Even that is risky on that type of carpet.

Vacuuming  Carpets

One of the most important things to do to help keep the carpet looking good and have a longer life.    Vacuuming is said to be 55% of cleaning.  Removing the partials from the carpet will help keep the carpet from fraying at an early age.

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