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You don’t need a professional to remove pet odor and
stains from your carpet.
Submitted by Jeff Thomson of Utah (He
use to work as a carpet cleaner)
Every day professional carpet cleaning
companies receive calls about how to remove stains, with dog and cat
urine being common problems. When your special family member has a
little (or even big) accident, the most important thing to do is to
remove it immediately. Of course, you can’t always do this, as it may
happen when you’re at work, and you may not discover it until later or
even the next day. By this time, the urine (or worse) has soaked into
the carpet fibers, the pad, and even into the floor or slab. By this
time, you have two options.
The first option is to mix a gallon of half water and half white vinegar
and pour it onto the carpet. Let it set for a couple of minutes. The
vinegar breaks up urine salts and liquefies dried urine. Next, use a
wet-vac to remove all the water and vinegar.
A good wet-vac is needed to extract all the liquid from the carpet and
the pad. You should apply a lot of pressure with the wand or hose in a
small area at a time. After you have most of the solution, you need to
rinse the area. Pour a gallon of 100 percent water onto the carpet and
repeat the above steps with the wet-vac to extract all the water.
A second option, also successful but more involved, is to first pull the
carpet up and cut out the soiled carpet pad underneath. You’ll have to
remove the tact strip that is held down by nails. After you have removed
the pad, clean the soiled spot on both the front and back of the carpet
with a good carpet shampooer. You should also treat the slab or wood
subflooring with bleach and install a new section of carpet pad (which
you can purchase at a carpet store). After replacing the carpet pad,
tape the new section down to the existing, undamaged pad with masking
tape. The last step is to secure the carpet back on the tact by
stretching it to the edges and pressing it down onto the strips.
This second option is best chosen only when the stain is near the edge
of a room. If the stain is in the middle of the room or near a doorway,
it will be difficult to get the carpet down tightly enough. The carpet
must be reinstalled tightly to prevent movement and wrinkling later on.
Guides to carpet cleaning:
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