weird carpet stain

[Nate Nagel]

Anyone have any luck getting a presumably coffee stain out of white Berber carpet? (yeah, I know...) bought myself one of those carpet cleaning doomajiggers after I got my bonus check, and tried it out on a section of the carpet that'd been stained when I had a little incident with leaving for a couple days right when the T/P valve on my water heater decided to start leaking. That part came up perfect, amazingly enough, so I decided to try to actually get this carpet looking decent rather than go straight to "rip it up and start scraping up the shitty tile underneath" like I'd planned.

So I have this coffee-colored stain in one corner of the room. Small, but it's a stain nonetheless. I figured it wasn't going to come up but I ran the carpet cleaner over it and it disappeared. Set up fan to blow over area. Next day, it's back. Tried a vinegar solution, it disappeared again, ran the carpet cleaner over it, set up fan. Next day, it's back. Tried a bleach solution. Ran carpet cleaner over it. It's drying now, but based on previous experience, I'm guessing it will show up again once it's dry.

Any ideas? Also, how can a brown stain on white carpet disappear seemingly as soon as water hits it, but come right back again once it's dry?

nate

[Dan Espen]

Vinegar is the right solution. I've used it with success. The fact that it appears to work but then comes back indicates that it is cleaning the stain but then more coffee is coming up from below.

I think the right solution is some more persistence.

[Pete C.]

I think you need to pull up that section of carpet to see what you're dealing with underneath.

[DerbyDad03]

Have you tried wetting the area and then using a shop vac to suck out the moisture? Wash...Rinse...Repeat as required.

Maybe your machine doesn't have enough suction to really suck the "stain" from down deep enough, but a shop vac might.

[Nate Nagel]

Meh... I don't care that much. Carpet needs to go anyway *eventually,* e.g. when I a) can afford to buy new tile and an area rug (this is a basement, after all) and b) when I feel motivated to scrape up all the old tile and scrub the floor underneath.

nate

[DerbyDad03]

de quoted text -

re: "Meh... I don't care that much."

You've tried to remove the stain with a machine, with vinegar and with bleach, setting up a fan each time to speed up the drying process.

Gee...sounds like you've done a lot of work for something you don't care that much about.

[Nate Nagel]

quoted text -

There's work, and then there's work... I don't feel like dissassembling the stereo and then moving it, a large bookcase, and a big screen TV out of the way so that I can peel up that corner of the carpet when I don't even like the carpet (nor the concept of putting white, wall to wall carpet in a basement) in the first place... My point was if I am going to go to that trouble, the carpet will be discarded and tile will be laid...

nate

[DerbyDad03]

de quoted text -

Wanna buy a plant?

[Lee B]

I've had decent luck, at least on clothing stains, with Oxyclean and it's look-alikes. I think they also make a carpet cleaner, or you could maybe use the regular kind in a spray bottle. I also agree it sounds like there is more stain underneath of the carpet, perhaps saturating the padding or backing, that gets wicked back to the surface. And keep using the carpet cleaner thing, since it sounds like you may need to get more cleaning solution down into the padding/backing *and* then be able to suck it out good.

Just checked and the oxyclean site says their "carpet spot & stain remover" works on coffee stains. Also I found a number of reports online from people who put oxyclean IN the steamer and said it works. The only problem is that with the other things you've tried, I wonder if it's possible they have helped "set" the stain.

Good luck. Let us know if you get it out.

[Dan Espen]

Just so happens, I tried Oxyclean on my coffee stain.

It did nothing.

Then I used Google, found that either detergent or vinegar was recommended. The vinegar worked for me. The Oxyclean didn't.

[Nate Nagel]

well I think I finally got it, I did something I probably wasn't supposed to do but it worked. I took the carpet cleaner machine and filled the water tank with a vinegar solution, then ran it back and forth over the spot until the tank was empty. Then I rinsed the machine well and filled it with clear hot water and repeated. I did that this AM and it's been drying all day and actually looks surprisingly good. At some point I'll probably do a quickie shampoo of the whole downstairs (save for what is under bookcases etc. and therefore gets no foot traffic) and that will be the end of that.

nate

nate

[Phisherman]

Actually, not so weird. Place a plastic sheet between the carpet and carpet padding and fan dry for a day or two. You stain is most likely wicking up from the padding. Don't use bleach on carpet. OxyClean, or any of its clones, (mixed in very hot water) should be effective on carpet coffee stains. Caution: It foams a lot when you add the powder to hot water.

[David Combs]

When I get a wet spot (coffee, tea, dog-pea, whatever) on rug or carpet, I first get a sponge or roll of paper towells and try to soak up as much as possible.

Then I pour on some warm water, to dilute the stuff, and soak up that stuff.

I do that several times, and I hope that at least I've diluted the stuff a fair bit.

Only THEN do I try rug-cleaner products.

SOUNDS reasonable -- but any comments?

David

[SteveBell]

Even better: Use your shop vacuum. With repeated passes, you can get a gallon or more of warm water through the spill.

[Amazing]

Your dog eats peas?

whatever) on rug or