When you have a furry friend living with you, accidents can happen. If you’re dealing with a pet stain on your carpet—urine, poop, or vomit—a combination of immediate action and deep cleansing can typically restore the carpet to pristine condition. Even if you don’t notice a stain until it has dried and set into the carpet, there are still ways to clean the area.
The following tips will help you to neutralize the odor and remove the stain. All of these carpet-cleaning processes can be repeated as many times as necessary to get the job done.
The site of an accident often will be fairly apparent visually. If not, you can typically locate the affected area by smell. It’s important to remove all traces of the stain, or your pet might continue to use that spot to relieve itself.
1. Remove Solids and Soak Up Liquids
As quickly as possible, remove solids with a dull knife or spatula and soak up urine stains with white paper towels or an old cloth. If using a cloth, press it firmly into the stain using an old shoe and keep moving to a dry area or new paper towel to absorb as much liquid as possible.
2. Clean The Stain
For synthetic carpets (Rhino Carpet, Nylon, Polyester), mix 1/4 teaspoon mild liquid dish soap with one cup of warm warm water. Apply the cleaning solution to the stain area and work from the outside of the stain toward the centre to avoid spreading the stain. Allow the cleaning solution to remain on the spill for at least five minutes and then blot with a clean white cloth until no more stain transfers to the cloth. Do not rub the stain area or you might damage the carpet fibres. Rinse with cold water and be sure to remove all cleaning solution from the carpet.
For wool carpet, rinse the area carefully with cold water and then mix one teaspoon of mild laundry detergent (ideally one approved for wool) and one teaspoon of white vinegar in one litre of warm water, this is your cleaning solution. Apply this solution to the area and rinse, soaking up all liquid excess with paper towels or an absorbent cloth. Continue wetting and rinsing, until you’ve lifted all the nasty colour out of the carpet. What you’re doing is essentially ‘flushing’ the carpet to continually dilute the stain and eventually lift it out completely.
Sometimes you’ll have to complete the process to completely get the stain out. When your carpet has dried vacuum the area to restore the texture.
If a stain has been left for some time and become too stubborn for the above methods, a professional carpet cleaner may be required.
We recommend getting your carpet professionally cleaned every 12 to 18 months.
