Our most common call back is for a spot that went away with a cleaning, only to reappear a few days or even weeks later, sometimes worse than it started. Customers are generally very frustrated with this and often direct their dissatisfaction towards our technicians. This is really unfortunate because the blame lies elsewhere. Reoccurring spots are very difficult – if not impossible – to identify up front. This is even more difficult if our technicians are not informed of how deep the substance penetrated during the initial spill. Additionally, the success rate of removing these spots with a repair specialist’s intervention is very, very low.
The cause of a reoccurring spot in wall-to-wall carpet goes beneath the surface. The good news is that if the spot goes away with an initial cleaning, it indicates that the carpeting is in good shape and not permanently damaged. The bad news is that the culprit lies in the pad or subfloor beneath the carpeting.
In the diagram below, you can see the cause of these pesky irritants. The substance has penetrated the carpet fibers, traveling beneath the carpet backing, through the pad and sometimes even into the subfloor. It is like an iceberg. What you see on the surface is just the visible tip of the trouble underneath. So when we clean, we are removing the top portion of the iceberg, but what has migrated under the backing still remains. As the carpeting starts to dry, it pulls moisture up toward the tips of the carpet fibers. The moisture carries our substance along with it, and the stain reappears. Certain stains – particularly those with oil in them – will continue to migrate forever – until there is no where else to go. The only option is removal of all contaminated materials.
Why do they sometimes come back worse?
When we are dealing with a stain whose saturation is completely unknown to us, it is always a calculated risk. When you clean a carpet, you apply cleanser and rinse with water. The addition of water to an area that is already deeply saturated with an offending substance can cause it to migrate deeper and spread it further. (This is why we don’t recommend dumping soapy water on a stain or putting a towel on a spill and stepping on it to absorb the substance.) Unfortunately, since adding water is the only way we can remove a spot – it becomes a delicate balance between over wetting and not being able to remove it (the calculated risk.)
There are three possible solutions for a deeply penetrating reappearing spot or stain in your carpeting.
- Re-clean the carpet, apply protector, and speed up dry time to prevent the spot from wicking up from beneath the surface. (The success rate here is about 30% and it still may eventually come back.)
- Execute a deep flush of the carpet and pad to try to rinse out the cause from beneath the carpeting. (The success rate of this is about 30% and it still may eventually come back.)
- Call in a repair specialist and replace the pad underneath the carpet. Then clean the carpet thoroughly. (The success rate of this is 90% because it may reveal carpet/backing damage as well.)
Because we cannot easily identify reoccurring spots in the initial cleaning, this is a call back that can be a little bit tricky for us. Customer satisfaction is critical to our business, but we also don’t want to set anybody up for disappointment. So when you call in your carpet cleaner, if you have an idea that your spot may be something that will make a second appearance, definitely let the technician know so that you can approach it appropriately and be prepared for the outcome.
If you choose option number three, the repairman will remove the cause of the stain by removing the carpet pad (pad is quite absorbant) and if the stain has penetrated the pad, he will put a blocker between the subfloor and pad to prevent the substance from wicking back up over time.
At Mother Nature’s Cleaning, we put customer satisfaction ahead of everything else, and it is important for our clients to be educated so they can make the right decisions! While we may not be able to promise a magical outcome, we can promise the truth and the best outcome humanely possible for your conditions.
Call Mother Nature’s Cleaning in San Rafael today to schedule your deep cleaning now!!
