How to Remove Pet Stains From Your Carpet

You see your pet looking guilty in the corner and a big stain on your brand new oriental carpet. What do you do? You grab the first bottle of spot remover that you find and directly spray it on the stain. You grab a towel and rub it on the carpet. It seems not to remove the stain, so you add more spot remover. Now you have an even bigger puddle of urine with spot removed added on top of it.

Using spot remover does not mean that you are removing the stain but spreads it in the backing of the rug. If you really want to remove that spot, here's what you do:

Clean the stain as soon as you see it.

It's important to understand that the longer you wait, the harder the stain will be to remove. While it's not always convenient to clean up pet stains, your life will be much easier if you just take care of it immediately. For light coloured fibres, the stain can become permanent in a couple hours.

Make sure to use the right equipment.

When looking to remove urine, feaces, or vomit, make sure to use a wet vacuum or a small rug spotting machine. If the stain happens to still be damp when you find it, make sure to extract the liquid before you add spot remover or start rinsing. Wet vacuums can be bought at almost any store from the hardware department, and can also be found under the names "shop vacs" and "wet vacs" or similar names.

Use the right cleaning agent AFTER removing the liquid.

If the stain is still fresh, you could use a low residue stain remover in order to efficiently clean your carpet. If the stain looks like it has been in the rug's fibres for more than a couple hours, you should use an enzyme-based spot remover. You could also use a diluted mixture of white vinegar if you don't have any spot remover solution available.

DO NOT use bleach, as this can cause discolouration of the fibres. Enzyme based removers completely digest the bacteria responsible for the odour in urine and is perfect for spots that have been allowed to settle in the fibres.

Finally, rinse the cleaned area.

After you have managed to get rid of those pesky stains, make sure to rinse the area with plain water and then extract the water back with your carpet spotting machine or a wet vacuum. You can do this by pouring a glass of water on the affected area and then removing it with your vacuum.

To learn more, contact a company like Hercules Carpet Cleaning.

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