preparing your house for professional cleaners

There are some stains that are so stubborn nothing will take them out of carpet or upholstery once they are set. The best you can hope for is a diminished appearance over time. If you choose to hire a professional for upholstery cleaning or carpet cleaning, he or she will need to know if you have one or more of the following three stains.

Ball Point Pen Ink

Fountain pen ink is water-based and therefore can be "erased" from carpet and upholstery. However, ballpoint pen ink is often stickier and thicker because of the binder used in the ink's recipe. If you know that a stain or streak was caused by ballpoint pen ink and you notify the carpet cleaner, he or she can work around that area to avoid making the stain's appearance even worse.

Automotive Grease

It is important that the distinction between auto grease and auto oil be made here. You can remove fresh auto oil because it is slick. Auto grease isn't as easy to deal with because it is thick, black and akin to tar. Auto grease heats up into a thick slime that spreads out whenever steam-cleaning services are applied. In short, the small blot of auto grease by the front door will only get larger and uglier when steam and boiling water are applied. A professional carpet cleaner will have to go around the area. Then, he or she can hand-scrub the grease spot just enough to lift the thickest part out, and then the rest will need to be covered with a doormat or carpet runner to hide it from view.

Blood

You could wash and bleach blood stains as much as you'd like, but the truth is, you cannot completely remove it from your carpet or upholstery. In carpet, there will still be traces of it on the surface, which a black light will show when the area is sprayed with Luminol. You cannot completely remove the DNA that blood leaves behind, either. Somewhere in the recesses of the carpet pad or furniture padding, more blood lurks, and no professional can remove it completely. Peroxide washing will "bleach" the color of the blood stains, but will not remove them.

What You Should Expect from Your Carpet Cleaning Services

The best of the best cannot remove every stain from your carpet and upholstery. When you choose to hire a professional, be aware that most of them will try to remove every stain, but if they cannot, they will notify you immediately as to why the stain cannot be removed. If you hire a carpet cleaner with this knowledge in mind, you will have fewer arguments with the cleaner as to why one or two stains still remain.

Companies like Beatty's Carpet Cleaners can answer your questions about specific carpet stains.