Grease Stain on the Carpet

[lindalove]

While moving my room around, I managed to get a spot of black grease onto the carpet. It has since smudged and I have no idea how to get it out. My mother said to use some kind of mixture with Borax in it, but we don't have any.

Does anyone have any suggestions? It's in an uncoverable place.

[Anexkahn]

while moving into my new house, my dryer decided to leave a nice streak of grease on the light tan carpet... i used "spot and stain cleaner" by hoover that i picked up from sears and it took it out after about 3 cleanings and alot of rubbing.

[thingstodo]

Try water mixed with dish soap and hydrogen peroxide. Or there is a product in powder for called Capture that is pretty awesome.

[Elphaba]

Linda, grease requires a solvent for removal. Do NOT scrub or use dish soap ever on a carpet.

You can remove the grease by using a product with xylene in it, such as "Goof Off", usually found in hardware stores. Apply the GO to a cleaning cloth rather than to the carpet directly. Blot the grease with the cloth using gentle pressure; do not use a scrubbing motion. As the GO begins lifting the grease into the cloth, turn to a clean area and continue blotting on the GO until the stain is removed.

IMPORTANT SECOND PART: You now need to remove the xylene from your carpet or it may delaminate the carpet backing. You can rinse it out with a quart of HOT water and a dab of hair shampoo (never use dish soap or other high alkaline products). Pour your solution on the affected area and blot out the water with a towel with firm pressure (stand on it) until you are no longer absorbing water. Continue if you see any GO residue remaining.

If this is clear is mud, pm me.

[lindalove]

Thank you very much.

[thingstodo]

[QUOTE=Elphaba]Linda, grease requires a solvent for removal. Do NOT scrub or use dish soap ever on a carpet.

QUOTE]
Sorry...it has worked for me.

[cyrnel]

Thingstodo, combinations can be perfect or horrible depending on the carpet and problem. Tough to know without having the problem in front of us.

Dish soap is pretty harsh. It'll remove everything, including any guard product and even some colorings. It'll certainly take out grease but it's a shotgun soap. Good for stripping wax from the car before a detailing. Elphaba can probably tell us more about side effects on different carpet materials.

Also, I wouldn't combine peroxide unless I had a large broadcast area that needed the same treatment. Better to spot with each as needed. Remove what you can of the grease - emulsify & extract - then if there's a stain go ahead and tune a separate peroxide mix to the stain and carpet color. I'd use something else though, like Advantage or similar.

This is from my limited experience cleaning family residential rental carpets. Zero training. Ephaba can probably correct everything I'm saying too.

[Elphaba]

Originally Posted by cyrnel

This is from my limited experience cleaning family residential rental carpets. Zero training. Ephaba can probably correct everything I'm saying too.

Hey! A fellow rug sucker!!

To add to your very correct caution on using dish soap...High alkaline soaps will likely strip Scotchguard or Teflon from your carpet fibers. You have just voided your carpet warrenty by doing so.

[lindalove]

We managed to get the spot out by using a dry cleaning solvent and a lot of blotting. Thanks for your help, everyone.

[kazoo]

Dry cleaning solvent, precisely. It's a shame you can't buy 1-1-1 trichloroethane anymore. That product and carbon tetrachloride are the cat's pants for stain removal. I've got a few quarts on the shelf-stock bought up before it became illegal to sell.