HOW TO CLEAN A WOOLEN CARPET…
Remember the first time you made a school boy’s error of washing a woolen pullover in the washing machine! Remember that disaster? How could you possibly forget, shrinking several sizes and completely ruining it? Well, cleaning a woolen carpet or rug isn’t any different and should be cleaned with caution.
Saying that woolen carpets can easily be cleaned if you know what you’re doing, let’s not forget that most carpet cleaners are trained and have professional qualifications on the pros and cons of carpet cleaning. For example: Here at Wirral Carpet Cleaner we were trained to accessor level by BICs which is the highest form of cleaning certificate you can achieve in the UK, but one wrong move from a rookie or a rouge carpet cleaner and your lovely carpet will shrink just like that beloved pullover.
STAIN REMOVAL
So what happens if you stain your woolen carpet and you’d like to clean it?… Let’s get straight into the deep end and for arguments sake, let’s say your dog has peed on the carpet. What do you do?
DAMAGE
The first thing you must do is pour a cup of cold water over the urine stain, anything that comes out of your dog’s body, i.e sick, fetus, blood or urine has. By diluting the urine stain, you’re going to make it easier to clean later on. Whatever you do, DON’T use hot water and washing up liquid, and while we’re there don’t bother putting any kind of chemical on it either! That includes Vanish (the problem with Vanish is nothing actually vanishes when using it). The Pink stuff, 2001. We see so many carpets ruined by these products on a daily basis. I have no idea why or how these companies are still in business. Quite simply, these products are not designed to clean woolen carpets. OK, rant over. Let’s get back to what you should do.
- Pour a cup of cold water directly over the urine, dog urine is extremely potent and if the stain is unattended it will burn into the fibres of the carpet. Secondly, if the urine is unattended and the sun shines on it the carpet could be ruined in only a few short hours.
- Place a clean rag over the stain and stand on the rag. Do not rub the rag or use a scrubbing brush to agitate the carpet or this will cause fluffing of the carpet and looks terrible when the carpet dries.
- The idea is to absorb as much of the urine onto the rag as possible without further damage to the carpet. You can repeat this process if it looks like the urine stain is coming out.
- Finally, if you have a wet/dry vacuum cleaner, use the circular nozzle directly over the damp area and extract as much moisture from the carpet and underlay as you can.
CLEANING A WOOLEN CARPET
Using a Rug Doctor or Vax machine would not be recommended to clean a woolen carpet as these machines are primarily for stain removal or small rugs.
If you can hire a portable carpet cleaner like a Prochem Air Storm, then we would recommend this type of cleaner.
- Before cleaning a woolen carpet, you first need to make sure the carpet has been tacked down or has carpet grippers holding it. Even the best carpet cleaning machines in the world will shrink a woolen carpet by a few millimeters. That’s why carpet grippers are so important in this industry.
- Clear the room of as much furniture as you can. When cleaning a woolen carpet, you can get water/moisture on to the legs of wooden tables or the legs of sofa: this will cause the wood to leak onto the carpet and could cause permanent damage.
- Start cleaning the carpet from the furthest away from the door and work your way backwards.
- Try not to go over and over the same areas as this will over-wet the carpet and could cause other problems down the line.
- Once the carpet has been uniformly cleaned, place little square plastic sheets under any furniture legs to prevent the wood bleeding
- Don’t worry if the carpet starts to smell like a wet dog. This is perfectly normal.
- Finally, open a window a few inches to allow the moisture to escape and in cold months turn on your heating for 4-5 hours for the best drying results.
On finding your way to this blog you’re either a new carpet cleaner or you are hell bent on cleaning the carpet on your own, always remember that by cleaning a woolen carpet on your own will never look as good as when a the Wirral carpet cleaner does it.
If you need any upholstery cleaned on the Wirral then give us a call 0151 909 6251.