Carpet Cleaning Advice?

[davintosh]

I really, really dislike the beige carpets in both my cars; lots of lingering stains from the previous owners (and me,) and the things I've tried -- mostly canned carpet cleaners from the auto store -- just don't seem to work that great. Maybe my technique leaves something to be desired, maybe I'm using the wrong stuff, or maybe I need to break down & rent a real carpet cleaning system... I don't know what I don't know, but I'm hoping somebody can clue me in a little!

I'd prefer to not have to take the carpets out, but I'm not averse to that either. I'd also like to dye the carpets black at some point as well; maybe a deep clean and dye, all in one swell foop. I've done a couple of meager searches, and there's a lot of little tidbits strewn here and there, but it would be cool to lump the best ideas in one place, and maybe make it FAQ-worthy. I'm open to all tips & advice.

[Slow_Ballin']

Rent one of those steam cleaners from the grocery store, they work great and have an attachment so you won't have to remove the carpet.

[Fox]

What worked really well for me, was Folex Instant Carpet Spot Remover, a brush stiff enough to agitate the carpet and stains, but not stiff enough to pull the carpet fibers out, some warm water for rinsing, and some microfiber towels to pull out dirt and dry the carpet.

My tan carpet was hideous before, had coke and coffee stains from the previous owner, obviously hadn't been cleaned or vacuumed in years. And it came out great with the Folex. Vacuum it out really well, spray it down with Folex, and on specific stains apply the Folex generously. Agitate the entire carpet with the brush, and you'll see the dirt be pulled up into the foam. I then use a bucket of hot/warm water and dip a microfiber towel in it and go over the carpet to rinse and loosen up anything left behind with the heat, and then dry it using clean microfibers.

With Folex, it's not something that you even have to rinse out with water, it works very quickly, does not smell toxic, and it's incredibly good for the price, which is around $15/gallon at Home Depot, and you can also get it in 32oz spray bottle as well.

I'll also add, I was a detailer working at a small detail shop for a while, we used professional extractors using various carpet cleaners and degreasers...no cleaner performed better than Folex out of the many that I experimented with.

[ahab]

Unfortunately I don't have before or during photos handy at the moment but here's an after. I got superior results in my M5 by removing the carpet, hosing it thoroughly and scrubbing it with a stiff brush and a lot of Arm and Hammer powdered laundry detergent. I laid it out flat (in a molded sort of way) and used lots of water and lots of soap, scrubbed it for probably an hour. The water that came off looked like coffee. Then I hung it on the line, split down the middle, and hosed and scrubbed for another half hour without soap to rinse it. Finally, after it had pretty much stopped dripping I hosed it again and brushed the nap all in one direction to even it out. I let it dry for 24h and put it back in the car the following night. You can still see a few minor blemishes that wouldn't come completely out but otherwise it looks great, here's a pretty high res photo.

[Coldswede]

I'm with Ahab on this one.

When I replaced the turned green carpet in the 528e the new black carpet looked pretty decent. Upon recommendation from this board, I took the driveway washer nozzle to it. The amount of soap suds coming out of the carpet from past cleaning was impressive! It took about 20 minutes of hard hosing to get the water to run clear. Needless to say it REALLY looks clean now!

I'd vote to just bite the bullet and take it out to clean it. Gives you a great chance to inspect the floors .

[TheLazyDog]

What worked really well for me, was Folex Instant Carpet Spot Remover, a brush stiff enough to agitate the carpet and stains, but not stiff enough to pull the carpet fibers out, some warm water for rinsing, and some microfiber towels to pull out dirt and dry the carpet.

My tan carpet was hideous before, had coke and coffee stains from the previous owner, obviously hadn't been cleaned or vacuumed in years. And it came out great with the Folex. Vacuum it out really well, spray it down with Folex, and on specific stains apply the Folex generously. Agitate the entire carpet with the brush, and you'll see the dirt be pulled up into the foam. I then use a bucket of hot/warm water and dip a microfiber towel in it and go over the carpet to rinse and loosen up anything left behind with the heat, and then dry it using clean microfibers.

With Folex, it's not something that you even have to rinse out with water, it works very quickly, does not smell toxic, and it's incredibly good for the price, which is around $15/gallon at Home Depot, and you can also get it in 32oz spray bottle as well.

I'll also add, I was a detailer working at a small detail shop for a while, we used professional extractors using various carpet cleaners and degreasers...no cleaner performed better than Folex out of the many that I experimented with.

Unfortunately I don't have before or during photos handy at the moment but here's an after. I got superior results in my M5 by removing the carpet, hosing it thoroughly and scrubbing it with a stiff brush and a lot of Arm and Hammer powdered laundry detergent. I laid it out flat (in a molded sort of way) and used lots of water and lots of soap, scrubbed it for probably an hour. The water that came off looked like coffee. Then I hung it on the line, split down the middle, and hosed and scrubbed for another half hour without soap to rinse it. Finally, after it had pretty much stopped dripping I hosed it again and brushed the nap all in one direction to even it out. I let it dry for 24h and put it back in the car the following night. You can still see a few minor blemishes that wouldn't come completely out but otherwise it looks great, here's a pretty high res photo.

Good stuff! Noting this somewhere...

[geordi]

Bissell Little Green. You can use their cleaner or run hot water thru it. I think I paid $68 at Lowes with my 10% MIL discount.



This is from my old van. Black on the tan carpet is from grease & nonskid shoes. Notice the first pass in the black "crap". Tan carpet in upper right corner took 2-3 passes.

[davintosh]

Holy crap, geordi; that's nasty. Or at least used to was! We had an earlier version of the Bissell Green Machine, and wore it out when our kids were little. The carpets in our house are much better about hiding stains these days, and the kids are older and less prone to spills so we haven't had need for one, but for the cars...

Chris sent me the following by PM, and gave the nod to post it here as well; seems like good advice.

This is something I've found to work very well:
http://www.amazon.com/Simple-Solution-E ... 6TQ2V2F3W8

I use it on the carpets in my home and it's great stuff. Before I found it one of my dogs had diarrhea and even after having my carpets steam cleaned there was a stain. I started looking into carpet stain removal and and tried Simple Solution. Sprayed the stuff on and a couple of days later the stain was gone. Good stuff.

I ended up buying a Hoover SteamVac: http://www.amazon.com/Hoover-SteamVac-C ... over+steam to have around the house for carpet cleaning and it was money well spent!

Hope all is well,

Chris

Chris:

Thanks for the tips! Do you mind if I add them to the thread, or would you like to?

Seeing the label on that Simple Solution stuff, I don't think I would've even considered it; it's not pet stains, so... But it makes sense that it would work well on other stains too.

With the steam cleaner, does it have a scrubbing attachment that goes on the end of the hose?

Thanks again!
--
Dave

Hi Dave,

Yes, by all means add it to the thread.

Yes, the steam cleaner has a scrubbing attachment that goes on the end of the hose. It blasts a hot water/cleaning solution on the carpet while the scrub brushes are spinning and sucks whatever water/cleaner it can leaving the carpet damp but not too wet. It's a handy unit to have around the house because it's not too big and is easy to whip out when there's a stain or spill.

Now the weather is warmer I'd like to pull the carpet out of my 635CSiA and give it a good shampoo. It's originally pearl beige but it has some stains I'd like to get out.

Keep in mind carpets use different kinds of dyes so using something like Vinegar to clean will will likely change the color one way while using something like ammonia will change the color another way. Simple Solution seems neutral and doesn't seem to effect the color.

Good luck!

Chris

[geordi]

Thanks! I'll give Simple Solution a try. With 8 cats, I could use some chemical help.
btw... our best with your chemo treatment. we will keep you in our prayers.
george

[tn535i]

For an oily or greasy stain start with brake cleaner and rags. Then for all the rest I like Tuff Stuff. Then use hot water or the garden hose and a wet dry shop vac to wet/rinse/dry. Yes the water will look like coffee at first but with the wet vac you can accomplish this in the car. You will still be using many gallons of water. The backer is more or less water proof so if you are getting the water back out right away it should not penetrate to the under side.

[TrakRat]

Unfortunately I don't have before or during photos handy at the moment but here's an after. I got superior results in my M5 by removing the carpet, hosing it thoroughly and scrubbing it with a stiff brush and a lot of Arm and Hammer powdered laundry detergent. I laid it out flat (in a molded sort of way) and used lots of water and lots of soap, scrubbed it for probably an hour. The water that came off looked like coffee. Then I hung it on the line, split down the middle, and hosed and scrubbed for another half hour without soap to rinse it. Finally, after it had pretty much stopped dripping I hosed it again and brushed the nap all in one direction to even it out. I let it dry for 24h and put it back in the car the following night. You can still see a few minor blemishes that wouldn't come completely out but otherwise it looks great, here's a pretty high res photo.

+1 on the Folex mentioned in previous post.

There's no substitute for doing a full removal and letting the carpet dry completely while out of the vehicle.

[tn535i]

There's no substitute for doing a full removal and letting the carpet dry completely while out of the vehicle.

Yes but you will have to cut the carpet around the HVAC or remove this as well. Major headache that some might not like to attempt. With a good wet vac you can still do wonders. The quality of these carpets and how it responds to cleaning is excellent.

[ahab]

Yes but you will have to cut the carpet around the HVAC or remove this as well.

True dat

[gadget73]

+1 on the remove to clean advice. The original light grey carpet in my Towncar was more of a medium brown when I got it. I cleaned it pretty much like ahab describes, except I used the pressure washer to rinse until the water ran clear. Left the carpet hanging on the fence over the weekend to dry and it came out pretty decent. It was still well abused 25+ year old carpet at that point, but it was grey instead of tan with chewing tobacco and whatever else stains in it. The car smelled much better too as you might imagine. I was also able to soak and clean the padding under the carpet, which probably was holding a lot of the stink.

[foamy]

i pulled my carpet out years ago and cleaned it it looked as good as the one above. hosed it down and just used dish soap and a stiff brush. shop vac as much water out as possible and let it dry in the sun for a few days before re installing it.

[Spen]

Here's my input. I hate carpet, or I hated it before I started trying to clean it.

First I wiped it with cleaner on a microfiber. The issue with that is deep stains can make you rub the fibers into a rubbed shitty state. So you permanently damage the nap with rubbing like crazy. And it is only skin deep. It doesn't touch the deep nap and if you use soap, residue lingers.

I finally broke down and rented a carpet extractor. It was 60 for the day and a big heavy 9 gallon unit.

That was used inside the house and on the car carpet. I just did passes I recall with plain hot water and it did good. I don't really remember if I used any cleaning aid product.

Now here's what I do:

Vacuum well and remove seats. I spot clean trouble spots such as chewing gum or bad shit. I use acetone with no fear on gummy shit. I also blow air into the cracks and re vacuum.

Then I spray the carpet damp IN SECTIONS with my extractor to dampen the carpet, I own a mytee lite 3 entry level pro unit, then I spray the carpet with a cleaner with no residue like Folex or a product I get called Hy per clean. The latter is citrus and hydrogen peroxide. Doubt it comes up on Google. Doesn't leave some shitty smell. Goes neutral. It's nice. Gallon is twenty bucks. I usually do it diluted but full effect would be good too.

Then I take my da sander polisher with a brush attachment and spin it over the section I am working. Don't use too hard a bristle. You may lose a small flat few fibers if the nap was damaged before you owned it. If the carpet is just never cleaned you'll likely lose close to zero fibers. Remember the carpet is damp and lubed with some low foam cleaner. Then I fill my extractor with hot water and extract. This mytee has an in-line heater and while it doesn't maintain perfect hot temps it does a good job, let it catch up. The carpet steams after a pass is a good sign it's operating right.

I do that for the whole carpet. The carpet gets super clean. However I should consider some all fiber rinse or ph balancer as the carpet is left slightly stiff. Do not worry. It does come back out and is not damaged. The slight stiffn as upon drying does help maintain the cool lines from the extractor and I do those striped lines purposely.

I am not a professional but from the shit work I've seen, I am way better than most pros. Probably only a truck mount or a $5 plus k extractor would get a marginally better result.

Compressed air and steaming problem areas is also used. I also have a pricey steam cleaner. Some spots will never come out and will need a spot redye or something but I don't do that. It gets good enough people go nuts when they see it. The carpet smells neutral and allows the classic scent of the car come out. The steamer does give an extra ten plus percent especially in tight areas like door card pockets. And hot microfiber is awesome. Melts shit. Also do use me clean erasers. You will never fix some shit without a steamer or a Mr clean type pad.

I'd never remove the carpet and cut it all up just to clean it. I can do a whole carpet in four hours or less taking my time and smoking cigs and having fun. Best done in hot days or run a fan. The extractor gets it dry but leaves it slightly damp. On a hot summer day it dries really quick.

I have read on carpet ph. I don't do anything here.
I have read some stains require brown out. I don't use brown stain removers.
I have read about red stain cleaner. I don't use any of those.
I have read heat sets in some stains. Sounds plausible but what the FUCK I never had a problem using heat, only not using heat.

I have not used those type of products above or learned about that as my technique gives what I consider pro level results and is plenty for me. I'd like any input here. Pro Chem makes all fiber rinse and I'd bet it's very good and may help the carpet be very soft. I'd guess the brown out and red stain cleaners are probably all about the same. Zep or something from Jon Don etc should work. Any additions are appreciated. Personal experience and deeper understanding VS conjecture and blanket "I think..." but all input is helpful.

P. S. I will try to fix autocorrect mistakes later but I'd add that soap and water out of the car and a brush will do awfully close to the same. What I am saying is this is how to clean and get rid of cleaner in situ. Not removing the carpet. This is cleaning and extracting the broken up dirty stuff and clean water extracting the carpet leaving probably close to 0 residue.