Summer Carpet Upkeep

Published By Aladdin

During the hot Summer season, rugs and carpets can really degrade from increased foot traffic, more soil tracked in from outdoors fun, as well as the longer sun exposure associated with longer days. The rug and carpet cleaning experts at Aladdin are skilled at cleaning and repairing this Summer associated carpet damage – but before you give our skilled rug cleaning servicemen a call, you might want to know some ways that you can reduce the chances of Summer rug and carpet damage yourself. Here’s a quick guide to necessary Summer carpet upkeep.

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Springtime Pollen Stain Removal

Published By Aladdin

Spring is one of our favorite seasons. It’s the perfect temperature balance and there’s something special about the way people on the street’s hearts seem to lift as the flowers blossom. However, spring pollen is no joke- and besides the allergies it causes, pollen can actually cause a pretty harsh stain on carpets and rugs. Here’s a guide to how to remove pollen stains- as prepared by the carpet and rug cleaning specialists at Aladdin Oriental Rug.

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Rug Mud Stains

Published By Aladdin

Now that it’s officially Spring, and the snow is going to give way to rain, we can expect lots of mud. Whatever area of the country you live in, tracking mud into the house is a normal concern during the rainy months of April and May. Rain makes it hard for that mud to get passed onto shoes and then carpeting from there. This problem can be compounded if you have pets or children. Pets need to go outside, and it’s just not convenient to dry them with a towel when they come back in the house, and children often forget to clean off their shoes. Here’s a brief guide to removing mud from rugs and carpets, as prepared by the rug stain removal experts at Aladdin Oriental Rug Services.

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Rug Sun Bleaching

Published By Aladdin

One of the other fantastic benefits to coming warm weather is the anticipation of the beautiful Spring and Summer sun. While humans take this as an invitation to get their tan on, rugs and carpets aren’t so excited – they can be affected by sun fading during these months. Here’s a guide as prepared by the rug and carpet longevity experts at Aladdin Oriental Rug Services on what sun fading is, and how to prevent it in your rugs and carpets.

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Hot Chocolate Stains

Published By Aladdin

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This is the perfect season for you to come closely together with your friends and family, enjoying the warmth of togetherness. This calls for holiday parties, rife with guests and delicious food – and who can forget hot chocolate. It’s the perfect drink that seems to warm you up from the inside – even warming your heart and spirit. However, hot cocoa is a notorious stain culprit – which is why the rug stain removal experts at Aladdin have prepared this brief guide to mitigating the damage that hot chocolate can cause to rugs.

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Cranberry Sauce Stains

Published By Aladdin

One of Thanksgiving’s classic dishes is cranberry sauce – the perfect tart complement to turkey or savory vegetable dishes, rife with all the fresh savor of Autumn. However, despite its magnificent deliciousness, cranberry sauce is a notorious carpet stainer, perhaps only rivaled by the dastardly beet. Here’s Aladdin’s guide for carpet cranberry sauce stain removal, so you can remain calm, confident, and really enjoy your family get together this Thanksgiving.

 

  • First, scoop up the majority of the sauce with a knife, being careful not to press it down into the carpet fibers (if it’s the more solid, gelatinous kind or has whole cranberries,) then blot the area with a clean cloth or paper towel to absorb as much of it as possible. Then wet a small towel with water, and continue blotting away.

  • Cranberry sauce produces a stain due to it’s tannins – these stains can be removed easily with detergent and hot water.

  • Don’t use natural soap for this, as natural soap make tannins harder to remove from carpets. Make sure, if you’re using bleach, that you use color safe bleach.

  • If the stains don’t come off, repeat the above steps. Just don’t use heat to dry it, as it will set the stain in.

  • If the Cranberry sauce isn’t 100% natural and has food coloring, use an oxygen based color safe bleach like OXO Brite-in or OxiClean according to package directions. Dip a clean rag into the solution and work from the outside edge of the stain inwards in order to prevent spreading it around. Don’t’ get it too wet. Let the solution stay on the stain for at least a half an hour before blotting it up.

  • Use a clean white rag to blot away any moisture, but don’t rinse it. Oxygen bleach usually turns into water within a couple hours – simply let it air dry away from direct sunlight or heat. Then vacuum to restore the pile of the carpet.

  • It’s essential to remember not to get the fabric of the carpet too wet with the cleaning solution as it can cause mildew.

  • If none of these steps work, contact a licensed carpet professional, like those at Aladdin!

Pile Reversal and Tracking

Published By Aladdin

There’s a weird happening that occurs with wall to wall carpeting, usually in very high traffic areas. Nobody really knows what causes it, but improper carpet installation is often considered the blame. This phenomenon is called pile reversal, pooling, puddling, or watermarking. It entails the shading of a cut pile carpet, where some areas turn lighter and some turn darker. It’s called watermarking, as it makes it look like large areas of the carpet are wet. Here’s Aladdin’s guide to pile reversal.

 

What causes pile reversal is the changing direction of the carpet’s pile, which leads to a strange appearance as light then reflects differently on the surface of the carpet. Pile reversal, however, is not caused by the carpet cleaning process, and it does not mean that the carpet is really damaged structurally, and will fall apart. However, it’s appearance will likely not be able to be remedied.

 

Pile reversal used to be more of an issue in the past – nowadays, carpet manufacturers have made improvements in how they are created, so the incidence of carpet pile reversal has steeply declined.

 

False Pile Reversal

Sometimes people blame a carpet’s changing appearance on pile reversal, when in reality it’s false pile reversal – a true phenomenon known as tracking. Tracking is a crushing down or flattening out of the carpet due to heavy traffic patterns over the carpet’s surface. Unlike pile reversal, however, tracking can be remedied by extraction based carpet cleaning performed by a licensed professional. Tracking can be avoided through regular vacuuming and raking of the carpet. Another phenomenon often mis-blamed on carpet reversal is footmarking, which, similar to tracking, is a result of heavy traffic or someone dragging a heavy object over a carpet – leaving localized marks or footprints.