Last year I mentioned that I had this adorable little dog
named Libby for around thirteen years.
She was a fantastic little dog – really well trained and behaved. But on a rare occasion she’d have an accident
in the house. Shortly after we moved
into our house in Jamestown, she had an accident on the rug in the
hallway. I cleaned it up using a
store-bought carpet spotting cleaner.
Later I quizzed Greg about the best way to handle something like that –
and before he told me how to fix it, he scolded me for using such a product.
He said that while it appeared that the stain was now gone,
I needed to watch as a ‘gray’ spot will appear over time. He proceeded to explain why. But clearly it was too technical because I
had to call him to get him to explain it again before sharing this with
you.
Here it is simplified for my brain. Carpet has a relatively neutral pH – around
7. Store-bought carpet cleaning
solutions are very strongly alkaline. We
took a look at a MSDS sheet of a well-known brand and it was 9.9. Soil on the other hand, according to
Wikipedia, typically is in the acidic range of 5.5-7.0. When you spray the cleaner on the stain and
don’t rinse it well to neutralize the pH the soil, which is an opposite, is
attracted to that area. As the detergent
sits there, it just attracts more dirt over time.
How do you fix that problem?
Greg’s solution is to always give a sample bottle of spotter away to customers after they have their carpets
or rugs
cleaned by A Cleaner
World Carpet and Rug Cleaning. The
pH in that cleaner is around 7.2, which is pretty neutral so it doesn’t leave a
sticky residue behind. But if you decide
to use an alkaline product at home, then be sure to rinse well with something
that is on the acidic side afterwards so it neutralizes the carpet. And as always, please let us know if you have
any questions. You can always call Greg
at 336-992-0700, leave me a message on Facebook, or tweet me @cleaner_world.
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