If you speak to a professional carpet cleaner, they will tell you one of the most difficult issues they have to deal with is a carpet that has had whatever stain or spillage that has befallen it made much more due to actions taken by the owner. This arises because many people have been misled by myths that surround carpet cleaning and the removal of carpet stains.
We are sure these myths were not created for nefarious reasons or to deliberately get people to make their carpets almost uncleanable. However, the simple fact is that these carpet cleaning myths have to be debunked and, more to the point, ignored by homeowners whose carpets have a stain or need cleaning.
To pursue those goals, we thought it would be useful to highlight some of the more common carpet cleaning and stain removal myths that are doing the rounds. Some of these myths have been around for some time and have been repeatedly dismissed by professional carpet cleaners in articles or blog posts, but for some reason, the myths persist, so let us try to put that right.
Always Pour Salt On A Carpet Spillage
If the stain is caused by liquid, salt may well soak up some of the liquid; however, it is unlikely to soak up all of it. That means you are left with a salty residue in your carpet’s fibres that can be even more difficult to remove than the original spillage.
Rubbing The Stain Vigorously Will Remove It
Our automatic reaction to spilling something on a carpet is to rub the stain as though our lives depended on getting rid of it. The problem here, especially for carpets, is vigorous rubbing will make the stain harder to remove as the rubbing action pushes the stain deeper into the fibres. Dab the stain, do not rub it.
Pour White Wine On Red Wine
This classic myth has seen many wine spillages be made worse. The truth is, any clear liquid, and that includes water, will dilute a red wine stain. The problem with white wine is it will cause as much stickiness and fibre damage as red wine, so use water and save the white wine for your guests!
Steam Cleaning Carpets Shrinks Them
On the rare occasions that a carpet does shrink, it will not be because it is steam cleaned but because it was either cleaned using unsuitable chemicals or shrubbed far too vigorously. If in doubt, hire a carpet cleaning company to steam clean your carpets.
Beaters In Vacuum Cleaners Wear Carpets Out
Vacuuming is essential to keeping carpets clean, and the beater is an important part of this. The beater dislodges the dirt particles from the fibres, and assuming you are using a decent-quality vacuum cleaner, then it should cause no wear whatsoever.
All Off The Shelf Carpet Cleaner Solutions Are Safe
Do not believe everything you see on TV. By that, we mean the ads because many people believe that if something is advertised on TV, it must be safe for use on their carpets. Be extremely cautious of using any carpet cleaning solution without first researching it and your carpet’s fibre material.
Diluted Bleach Will Remove Stubborn Stains
Diluted bleach might be fine for stain removal on white clothing, but for everything else, it should be avoided, and that most certainly includes carpets. There are plenty of safe and recommended carpet cleaning solutions available that avoid you having to resort to using bleach.
Professional Carpet Cleaners Are Expensive
Wrong, and besides, there are many stains and carpet cleaning tasks that only professional carpet cleaners know how to resolve. Regardless of what they might charge, it will be significantly less than the price of a new carpet because the current one needs replacing long before it should have needed to due to stains.
