If you've ever knocked over a glass of red wine, you know the feeling of horror as you watch it soak into the carpet. If you have carpet tiles, you can simply replace the part that is stained, but the cost of replacing a full fitted carpet can be huge. Save yourself from this cost by taking action quickly to prevent the stain from setting in. These four steps use basic household supplies to save your carpet from red wine stains.
1. Blot the Stain
As soon as you spill wine on your carpet, you need to grab a paper towel and blot the stain. Don't rub back and forth; this motion will only scrub the stain in deeper. Instead, press the paper towel against the stain and lift off. When the towel is saturated with wine, swap it for a clean one.
2. Dilute the Stain
When you've removed all the liquid you can with your paper towel, it's likely that your carpet will still be stained. The next step is to pour on some water and keep blotting. The water dilutes the wine and helps to lift it out of the carpet fibers. You should notice the stain starting to fade during this process.
3. Use Salt to Draw Out the Stain
When you've drawn out as much wine as you can with water and paper towels, it's time to pour on some salt and wait. Salt draws fluid toward itself, which can help to drag wine out of the carpet fibers. Apply a pile of table salt that completely covers the stain and leave it there overnight. You may notice the salt start to turn slightly pink, which is a sign that the treatment is working. To get rid of the salt, simply scoop up what you can and then vacuum the carpet to get rid of the rest.
4. Treat the Stain With White Vinegar
If the stain has been sitting for a while, your only hope of getting it out is to use a cleaning solution of white vinegar diluted in warm water. It's very important to use only white vinegar for this treatment, not malt vinegar or balsamic, or you could end up applying further stains to your carpet. Soak the carpet with your vinegar solution and then use a paper towel to blot it up. You may need to repeat the treatment more than once to loosen the stain.
Share20 January 2017
Our cafe has a funky and bright colour scheme. It's hard to find the right flooring option as we have a lot of foot traffic and bright colours can look dull when we have had a busy period. It also tends to fade when we have to use heavy strength cleaning chemicals on heavier messes. Recently we have started exploring some non-traditional flooring options such as flooring based on recycled plastics and rubber based plastics with poured patterns. It looks really good. This blog talks about some of the flooring options that are available for high traffic areas, including some of the newer and non-traditional materials you can use.
