Carpet Stains

Carpet stains can come from a wide variety of sources. They can come in the form of filtration lines along the walls, around furniture, or in doorways where air naturally filters through the carpet. They can come from sodas or other liquids being spilled on the carpet. They can come from things being tracked onto the carpet from outside such as rainwater, mud, or snow-melt. Never underestimate the sheer number of things that can leave lasting stains on the carpet. Pet owners have an entirely new level of stains to deal with.

One common question among people who own carpets is what to use to clean it. With the huge number of products available on the market for carpet cleaning and the number of companies that are out there offering professional cleaning services, it can become an issue of choice-paralysis. One common suggestion that can be found on the Internet and among friends and relatives is to use bleach to help remove carpet stains. For shame…

Will Bleach Remove Stains?

Yes. It will also remove all of the color from the carpet and damage the fibers and the underlying material. It is simply not possible to use bleach to clean carpet without ruining the carpet itself. Bleach works by oxidizing the molecules that dyes are made up of. Typically, commercial dyes (such as those used in clothing and other fabrics) will be more stable (and, thus, less likely to oxidize) than those that are in common stains. With that being said: they still break down. Even white carpet is colored by dye, so it is not safe to use bleach products on white carpet either.

A common retort to this line of thought is as follows:

Question: “Well, I use bleach to remove stains from my clothes, why not on my carpet?”

Answer: When you use bleach on your clothes it is being extremely diluted by the washing process. Even then, the important thing to keep in mind is that the bleach still removes dyes from clothes. The difference being that since the bleach is being applied to the entire fabric (as opposed to a small section of fabric). Thus the difference in color is not as noticeable. Compare that with spraying a bleach solution on a small part of a large carpet and the issue becomes very clear.

Recommendations:

The only recommendation worth listening to is also the correct recommendation: Never use bleach to remove carpet stains. Don’t use a lot of bleach, don’t use a diluted amount of bleach, don’t use a small amount of bleach. This advice bears repeating: DO NOT USE BLEACH to clean carpet stains. Either buy legitimate stain removers for your carpet, try a peroxide based cleaning solution (Oxi-Clean works extremely well), or hire a professional to take care of the issue. As always, it is recommended to get the whole carpet cleaned at least once a year and the major traffic areas done twice a year (or more often, depending on use). This will prevent stains from permanently setting in the carpet and will keep the carpet looking and functioning the way that it was designed to.