3 Primary Categories of Stains on Carpets

3 Primary Categories of Stains:

• Category 1 – Petroleum based stains. Petroleum derivative – example: gum, grease, tar, ink, adhesive, oils etc. 80-90% success rate.
• Category 2 – Synthetic base stains. Stains containing man made dye – example: Kool-aid, fruit punch, colored candy, cough syrup, etc. 50% success rate.
• Category 3 – Organic stains. Stains from a plant or an animal source. Example: Wood, furniture stain, mustard, coffee, mold, tea, urine, blood, vomit inks, etc. Unfortunately these have only a 75% success rate.

This will give you some idea. Keep in mind, the longer the stain has been in the carpet, the more likely it can be permanent. Fresh stains are easier to remove.

The percentage is the estimated likelihood of removal.

• Yellowing (50%) – Yellowing can be as simple as neutralizing the spot or area by spraying a solution on it, or it can be impossible to remove. There are many unknown causes for yellowing. We use a mild acid to attempt yellowing removal. Yellowing on light colored carpet is often difficult to remove.
• Filtration soiling (70%) – (black lines around baseboard) – This is usually located in hallways around air conditioning units, or where the carpet meets the baseboard. We can usually get some of the filtration soiling out, but it almost never comes all the way out if it’s bad. Filtration soiling is when carpet “filters” soil going through cracks and crevices. *There is a n extra charge to do filtration soiling. We will do up to 6 feet for free. Filtration soiling requires very labor intensive work. The area must be manually scrubbed and extracted.
• Urine Stain (70%) – When urine is fresh the chances are good. If the urine has been there a long time, or attempted to be removed with an improper over the counter spot remover, the chances are slim. However, urine will continue to deteriorate the carpet, so it si extremely important to remove the urine deposits even if the spot does not coume out. Every day we remove urine spots and every day we find urine spts that will not come out, so it’s unpredictable. Very important to know however, is that our general prespotter is one of the best on the market to remove urine. It has a small amount of enzymes that will eat up urine. the ph is adjusted to conteract the stain for removal.
• Vomit (50%) – Same as urine (if red from cat food, see red dye removal).
• Blood (75%) – If blood has not been cleaned, and if hot water or alkaline cleaning products have not been used, chances are good, but no guarantee.