Opposites Attract

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.