Category Archives: Oil Stains on Rugs

Rug Cleaning for the Holidays

Published December 23, 2016 By Aladdin

The holiday season is a special and cherished time of year where almost everybody is trying to shop and prepare for some form of family or friends social gathering. It is also known as a time of stress for rug or carpet owners who are forced to deal with disastrous spills after amazing and festive events. There’s no reason to fret, however, if you’re fearful of spilling up some upturned Glog. Here’s some tips on how to clean off any sort of festivity caused spills from your rugs.

Never Rub

Act right away when stains occur. The longer amount of time that a stain can set into the rug, the more likely it is to stay permanently. Right when a spill occurs, blot all the spilled liquid form the carpet or rug with a cloth or highly absorbent paper towel, in order to prevent the liquid from going deeper into the rug’s fibers.

Spray Bottles

If a stain has already dried, use a spray bottle to spray a small amount of water on it – don’t directly pour water on it however. Don’t just refill a bottle that used to contain other liquids or chemicals, and make sure the bottle is clean before you use it – and if it used to contain any other form of liquid but it’s the only one on hand, rinse it thoroughly before using it.

Don’t utilize chemicals

The ideal approach is to clean off the stain with just water – you don’t want to use any strong or hard detergents to get rid of the stain, as they themselves can stain, fade, or otherwise damage your rug or carpet.

Hand wash

Don’t use machines to wash your rugs. Machines utilize steam, commercial detergents, or heavy agitation, and they can deplete the dyes and oils out of any sort of fabric or wool inside the rug. Don’t ever wash a handmade rug in a washing machine. Simply spray water on it and blot as many times as it works. If it’s still not working, contact an expert like those at Aladdin.

Last Resort: Hydrogen Peroxide

If all other approaches don’t work, use 3 percent hydrogen peroxide on top of the stain area and let it stay on top of the stain for at least an hour. This should remove the stain without changing the color of the rug’s fibers. If this doesn’t work, we recommend you contact the professionals at Aladdin – they have the experience necessary to remove any stain known to mankind.

Getting rid of Oil Stains

Published October 11, 2016 By Aladdin

You can remove any type of oil stain from carpets with this technique. Before starting these steps, gently blot a cloth or paper towel on the stain, taking care not to embed the oil deeper into the carpet- blot fromt he outside of the perimeter of the stain in.

Corn Starch or Baking Soda

Cover the stain with cornstarch or baking soda powder. They will soak up all moisture including oil.

Rub baking soda or cornstarch into carpeting – with just the right amount of pressure to make the powder penetrate into the carpet. If you’re dealing with a large stain use a large brush, and a toothbrush for smaller ones.

Allow the powder to set in

Leave it for at least 15 minutes – longer is fine, and then use a vacuum cleaner to suck it out of your carpet.

Drip liquid detergent onto the stained area

Rub it into the carpet with a small brush and put a tiny amount of warm water over the stain area and immediately blot it up with a cloth or sponge – there will be soap suds. Do this until the carpet is dry.

Let the Carpet dry outside

Check to see if the stain is still there, and if it is, repeat the whole process again. If it doesn’t work, move on to the next step.

Rubbing Alcohol

Place rubbing alcohol on a cloth and dab it onto the stain – the alcohol will ideally dissolve the oil. Once it’s dried, rinse the whole stain with oil, and then blot the oil up. If this doesn’t work, move on to the next step.

Dry Cleaning Solvent

Place dry cleaning solvent on a cloth or paper towel and test it on a small hidden area of your carpet. If the test doesn’t leave a mark, blot the stain with it, moving from the outside of the perimeter in to avoid spreading the stain around. Let the stain dry, and see if the oil stain is still there after some time. If it is, repeat the process again a few times until the stain has disappeared. If this still hasn’t worked, contact a carpet cleaning professional.

Common Carpet Cleaning Mistakes

Published September 17, 2016 By Aladdin

Here’s how to avoid making the most common carpet cleaning mistakes – spot cleaning carpets is something that every carpet owner has to do once in awhile. Whether your pet had an accident, or you spilled a glass of red wine, your carpet can sustain quite a proverbial barrage of stains. There’s a great combination of methods that you can use to remove the most common kinds of stains and spills (all of which you can find on our blog) but there’s also tactics that should NEVER EVER be used while you’re cleaning your carpets.

Check out the below tips to learn what any carpet or rug owner should NEVER EVER attempt while trying to get rid of a stain.

Colored Towels

Never use a colored towel to dab or soak up a stain! If you’re using a towel or rag that has color, you are risking the chance of the color bleeding or soaking down onto the carpet fibers – this is a phenomenon called color transfer. Never use a red or dark blue rag on a light colored carpet – this will no doubt stain it seriously – if you want to avoid causing color transfer, use a white cotton towel or white paper towels to do all the dabbing or soaking up that you need to do.

Over the Counter Carpet Cleaners

For the most part, avoid using any products advertised as Carpet Cleaner, whether it’s foam, cleansing liquid, or spray. These products often leave a hard to remove residue inside your carpet which, over time, attracts a bunch of dust and soil, leaving you with a gross brown spot inside an area that once looked clean. These soaps are tailor made to attract soil and dirt, and then get washed away with water – when over the counter cleaners are used, you won’t be able to properly wash away the soap, so it stays on your carpet fibers and continues to attract soil, causing a stain that you can’t remove.

Rubbing

Only blot stains on rugs – never use a rubbing motion to attempt their removal. This is one of the most common carpet or rug cleaning mistakes, since most people simply don’t believe that it really causes damage. Scrubbing stains on carpets simply just spread the stain around, creating a much larger and more diffused mess. Remember to blot the stain – don’t rub it. If you need more pressure when you’re blotting, stand on the blotting material pressing it down – this will help move the spill or stain to the towel you’re cleaning it up with.

Toughest Stains to Remove

Published September 1, 2016 By Aladdin

Many carpet owners understand that the severity of stains vary based on what kind of liquid caused the stain to start with. While dirt and mud can pose one problem, red wine or oil can be a whole different nightmare. Some kinds of stains can be removed with relative ease, while some other kinds of stains require quite a bit more effort, as well as some specialized cleaning tactics. Then there’s the worst kinds of stains – that really do require intervention from a carpet and rug cleaning professional. In this blog entry, I’ll review the 5 worst possible carpet stains – and how to deal with them.

Red Wine Stains

Even if red wine has been proven to contribute to heart health, it certainly won’t help your heart when your carpet becomes immersed in the red liquid. We recommend blotting up fresh wine spills to remove as much liquid as possible, and then using a clean cloth to dab away the stain with a cleaning solution made of a tablespoon of hand safe dishwashing liquid, a tablespoon of white vinegar, and two cups of warm water. Make sure to sponge off the carpet with water after using the solution to avoid making it smell like vinegar. If this stain is proving extremely tough, use a mixture of one part handwashing liquid, two parts hydrogen peroxide, and extreme elbow grease – just make sure to test it on a small area of the carpet first to make sure it doesn’t damage or bleach it – and always make sure to wipe it off with a slightly wet cloth after using it.

Pet Related Stains

If your pet follows the call of nature on your carpet or rug, soak up as much of the liquid with newspaper or towels as soon as possible, wash it with cold water, and let it dry. We recommend using a store-bought cleaner or odor neutralizer – however, some stains might require a bit more effort. Don’t use any stain removal tools that add any heat to the carpet, as heat will set the stain in place. If this strategy doesn’t work initially, then re wet the carpet, and spray it with an enzyme cleaner (you can find these at many pet stores) directly on the stain. Let the cleaner soak in overnight, then soak it all up with paper towels. If none of these work, consider using a wet vac.

Blood

We recommend dabbing blood stains with a solution made of two cups of cold water and a tablespoon of hand dishwashing soap. If this doesn’t work, dampen it with a teeny amount of hydrogen peroxide – of course, making sure that it doesn’t stain or bleach your carpet or rug. Leave the hydrogen peroxide on the stain for up to an hour, and dab at it with a cloth – try repeating this as many times as you can. If hydrogen peroxide doesn’t lift up the stain, contact a professional cleaner – the sooner you deal with a blood stain, the better, as it’s much easier to remove before it dries and sets in.

Long Lasting Stains

If you have a stain that’s remained on a carpet or rug since before you can remember, make sure to enlist the efforts of hydrogen peroxide based cleaning products – and if this doesn’t work, a professional wet vac cleaning service. We can’t promise that even these strategies will work on stains that have long established their home on carpets or rugs, but we can say that in these situations, hiring a professional cleaner is the best bet. The only other alternative is to place furniture on top of the stain to hide it.

Bleach

This is the worst possible stain. Put protective rubber gloves on, soak up the bleach stain with a cloth, and then use the cold water and dishwashing liquid solution to dab the stain up from the outside. Bleach will lighten the color of your carpet, so it needs to be diluted, removed, and soaked up as soon as possible if you want to avoid any long lasting damage. So if you see bleach spill on your carpet or rug, spring into action as soon as possible – otherwise, prepare to get used to an oddly colored blotch that you can always cover up with furniture.

Club Soda as Universal Stain Remedy

Published July 13, 2016 By Aladdin

Is club soda really a miracle worker on stains? The answer is… sort of. Club soda is effective as a short term solution on stains (compared to water) however it’s not quite the stain removal miracle that it’s cracked up to be.

In studies done by the Drycleaning and Laundry Institute, club soda was applied directly to 10 common stains. The study found that after blotting spills with club soda, most visible traces of the substance were removed, however, the majority of these stains remained after both water and club soda was used. Under ultraviolet light, even more of these remaining stains are revealed.

The best approach is to rinse the stain with club soda as soon as possible after it happens, and then contact a professional cleaner who can remove the rest of the traces of the stains. All you need to do is to indicate to the cleaner exactly where the stain is, what substance stains it, and what attempts you made by yourself to fix the stain. If this isn’t done as soon as possible after the stain, any of the invisible remaining residue can oxidize over time, and leave a permanent discoloration later on – which may not be able to be removed.

It’s essential to think and act fast

When it’s time to get rid of the stain, use club soda right away to rinse it before it dries. Once it dries, the level of stain removing effectiveness of club soda drops significantly. For example, with coffee stains, sugar residue might not appear at first, but caramelizes as it dries leaving a yellow or brownish stain. Stain removal professionals can get rid of this residue if they know it’s there in the first place. It’s always recommended to our customers that you let the technician know about any sort of spills or stain removal attempts right away, so that they will be more prepared to restore your carpet or rug to a brand new appearance.

When not to use club soda

Some stains are worsened by club soda. Never use club soda on ballpoint pen ink, as it’s made of water and solvent chemicals, that can set the stain permanently into the fabric. Ink stains should be left up to carpet and rug cleaning professionals. For other kinds of stains, club soda will hold the stain off until you can get the rug or carpet inspected by a professional cleaner – who can almost always remove the stain, especially when acting quickly.

Getting Oil off a Carpet

Published June 23, 2016 By Aladdin

If either you or your children make a big mess in the kitchen, it might behoove you to train yourself with some rudimentary carpet cleaning skills. One of the toughest kitchen stains to deal with is grease or cooking oil stains – the good news is we have your back. If you’re trying to deal with a cooking oil or grease stain, check out our tips and tricks on how to remove oil from a carpet.

Step One: Blot

First, blot up as much of the oil as possible. Use an absorbent fabric like a rag or towel – or in a punch, a brown paper bag. Don’t use newspaper because the ink can easily run and make the stain worse. This can help you get rid of the bulk of the stain.