Accidents Happen!
A wine stain on a carpet generally retains the color of the wine while it is fresh, but will darken over time. Whatever color it happens to be, it won’t get better simply by leaving it alone.
The good news is, if the stain is fresh, it’s fairly easy to get up. And even if it’s been set in the carpet for some time, it’s still very possible to remove it entirely! You just need to know what to use, and the right substances are likely already sitting in your kitchen.
Removing Fresh Wine Stains
If you’ve just spilled the wine recently, the first move is to gently blot it with paper towels to sop up as much liquid as possible. That won’t get everything, but wine absorbs into most carpet fibers very slowly, so time is still on your side here.
The next move is to use an appropriate substance to absorb the rest of the liquid that has begun seeping into the fibers. There are a number of options, but one of the cheapest and most readily available ones is simple salt! Salt is actually highly effective — just pour it generously all over the stain and give it at least an hour before vacuuming it up. If for some reason you have kitty litter in the house but not salt, you can use that too.
It’s also possible to use club soda. You should pour it over the stain, but don’t rub it as that will work the stain further into the fibers. Simply let it sit for an hour, then blot up excess liquid and clean the carpet normally to finish.
Removing Old Wine Stains
There’s no secret folk remedies that work magic here — a powdered sodium carbonate peroxyhydrate formula is going to do the best job possible. You can buy these in a number of brand names, but the one that is probably the most common and readily available is OxiClean. Just follow the instructions to make the paste, letting it sit for several hours to do its thing to loosen the stain from the carpet fibers.
Protecting Carpets From Wine Spills
Have you experienced multiple wine spills on a carpet, or are you hosting a party where wine is being served and are looking for a preventive measure? Consider treating the carpet with a repellent product based on perfluorobutanesulfonic acid, like Scotchgard. Just keep in mind that if you need protection on an ongoing basis, these products will eventually wear out and cease to protect the carpet. The optimal way to use it is to have the carpet cleaned professionally with hot water extraction and then re-apply it afterwards at least once each year, perhaps twice if the carpet has regular and heavy traffic.
If you’ve still got a stubborn stain after all of that, contact us and our professional treatment will take care of it for you!
