Carpet questions

[kodiakchicken]

Quote:
Thanks for the tips. I really don't want to have to pony up the money right now to replace, but am at my wit's end on how to clean it. I've tried lots of different cleaners in steam cleaners and none of them seemed to help that much.

So, should I still steam clean with a cleanser and then go back over with the vinegar to pull out the remaining soap?

 

[Dar]

nope forget about adding more soap to the problem...as you suck out the left over soap from past cleanings the stains should come too...once you are not getting bubbles in the vinegar water anymore do one more treatment with straight water...

you are going to be shocked on the amount of soap that was trapped in your carpets


edited to add....if you dont have pet stains you should not have to use the vinegar...but vinegar will help get rid of smells from other things like dog drool..ect

 

[kodiakchicken]

I do have pet stains - that's the biggest problem. And, of course, even once I clean it they can still smell the spot.

So, if I was using a rug doctor (my steam cleaner died) or some similar commerical, rentable cleaner, about how much vinegar in each tub of water? 1/2 cup?

Thank you sooo much for your help!

 

[lovemychix]

Sounds just like my story. My home is 6 years old and I just replaced my cream carpet. I went with a cut berber in a medium brown with specks of color in it. I love it and it fluffs right back up. I think it was Mohawk. I've had it just a year and I am soooooo happy. I would love to have hardwoods put in but the price of that is way out of my budget right now.

 

[kodiakchicken]

Quote:
Did you ever try the vinegar cleaning method?

 

[Dar]

in the carpet cleaner i rented the clean water tank was about a gallon..i used about 1/2 cup to the gallon of water...i did not measure just pored till it looked like about 1/2 cup

 

[lovemychix]

Quote:
Did you ever try the vinegar cleaning method?

It was a poor quality plush and showed wear badly. It wasn't that dirty just not pretty. I did clean it with a rug doctor and it would look a little bit better for a while.

 

[Heather J]

We have a home steam cleaner and love it. We rarely use cleaning agents in it using mostly just vinegar, and we've had great luck getting dirt out of the carpets. I love that the house doesn't smell like urine either. DH likes chemicals, but I prefer to stay away from them, so the vinegar is a great solution for both of us most of the time. Bonus is that it's SOOOO much less money than cleaners.

We bought a house two years ago where they had put in light tan, nearly white carpet. I have no idea what they were thinking--I hate it. We're constantly cleaning it because we have pets and I'm forever making trips out to work in the yard, or check on my birds so it's not so light anymore. It's held up better than I expected to wear, but I'll never go this color again. I'm all about nice multi-colored sculptured carpets. lol

 

[LilRalphieRoosmama]

I found this liquid cleaner at the dollar store called "Totally Awesome" and it really IS totally awesome. I use it in my steam cleaner to clean my carpets instead of shampoo and it works great. I had baby formula stains that wouldn't come out with shampoo or any other cleaner I tried, but this stuff took it out. Now that's all I use for cleaning everything!