Remove Carpet Wicking Stains With Ease

If you've recently scrubbed your carpeting using one of those machines you can rent or buy from your local stores, you may be a little unhappy with the results days after you finished. Some of the spots that you had worked so hard to remove may be starting to show again. This is due to wicking.

Wicking stains occur when your scrubber is powerful enough to extract the dirt from the fibers at the top of the carpeting, but not deep down in. So, as you walk on the carpet, the dirt from deep down works its way to the top and the spots will begin to show again.

You can remove wicking stains with a few products and some know-how.

You will need:

  • Low pH acid cleaner – Look for a maximum level of 2.0
  • Quality paper towels – the ones that really absorb moisture
  • Scrub brush
  • Fan
  • Wet-dry vacuum

Vacuum the Area

Use the wet-dry vacuum to vacuum the area 2 inches beyond the wicking spot. Take your time as you do this because any dirt that you leave behind will cause the wicking stains to reoccur and make the cleaning process much more time-consuming.

Clean the Spot

Spray the low pH cleaner on the spot. You want it wet enough for the liquid to get down to the deepest fibers without oversaturating it and wedding the padding underneath.

Use small circular motions to scrub the area doing your best to limit the scrubbing only to the spot you are working on. You don't really want to spread the spot to the surrounding carpet.

Blot the area with the paper towels. Replace the paper towels as soon as they begin to become discolored.

Continue wetting, scrubbing and blotting the area until the paper towels no longer become discolored.

Dry the Carpeting

This is one of the most important steps. If you leave moisture behind, it will cause a spot to reoccur as traffic walks on it.

Use the wet-dry vacuum to suck as much moisture out of the carpeting as possible. Make sure to clean the attachment before you use it on your clean carpeting. The last thing you need is to cause the attachment to get wet and then smear the dirt inside it all over the carpeting.

After you have sucked as much moisture out of the carpeting as possible, place a fan next to the area and let it run for a day or two.

If you have no luck removing those wicking stains from your carpeting, talk with a local carpet cleaning company like A Steam Pro Carpet Cleaning


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