Cleaning Salt-Encrusted Carpet Floor Mats

[Lonnie]

Since it is winter and chances are that your winter-driven vehicle has now seen its share of salt or other de-icing chemicals brought into your vehicle`s interior on your shoes and boots, it always seems that the carpet-type floor mats get salt-encrusted and then how do you clean them.

First off, the most common sense method is to REPLACE or substitute the OEM carpet-type floor mat for a vinyl-type floor mat (like a Weather-Tech mats) in late fall before the snow falls. But what if you like the carpet floor mat or you have a customer that does not do this. How do you clean a salt-encrusted carpet floor mats?

If you do run into these, the best method is to power wash them in spring or when warmer weather allows. Next method is to use a steam cleaner and carpet extractor to remove all the salt. But what if you`re a hobbyist detailer that does not have nor can you afford a power washer, let alone a steamer or carpet extractor.

Here`s my "manual method" of cleaning salt-encrusted carpet floor mats:
1) Take them out of the vehicle and into a warm basement or heated garage.
2) Heat up some water in a Pyrex quart-sized measuring bowl in the microwave. If you use about 16 oz. of water, to get it to boil should only take about 4 minutes. I use water that I have saved in a gallon jug from a basement de-humidifier, rather than dumping it outside or down a sewer drain, It`s not truly distilled water, but it is pretty free from minerals and it`s cheap.
3) Pour in 8 oz of white (NOT apple) vinegar into your boiling water in the Pyrex mixing bowl, being careful to do it slowly, as the hot water may boil out IF the water is really hot.
4) Before scrubbing the salt-encrusted areas on the mat, take an old stiff toothbrush or wire brush and try to break up the encrusted salt areas. Yes, I have used a hammer and pounded them to break the salt up if they are really that bad, THEN brushed them. I know there is a concern about breaking the rubber/vinyl backing on the mat doing so, but if they are that bad, you do what is necessary.
Then turn the mat over with the carpet facing a hard flooring surface, shake it out onto that floor, and vacuum or sweep the floor of the fallout debris and repeat several times if necessary, THEN vacuum the carpeted floor mat.
4) With rubber gloves on your hands, use a carpet brush or old stiff toothbrush, dip into the Pyrex bowl, and start scrubbing the encrusted salt areas, using plenty of elbow grease. IF its REALLY encrusted and old, I have poured the hot water-vinegar directly onto salt and let it sit for 3 or 4 minutes, then try brushing the encrusted areas.
5) Using a different bucket of clean water, you brush this into the salt areas for rinsing. If you have access to a faucet and water, you can rinse using this, BUT obviously tend to excessively soak the carpet fabric and, while this is the best method to thoroughly clean the salt out, it will also be difficult to thoroughly dry the carpeted mat without a carpet extractor. If you do have a home-type extractor, like a Bissell Little Green Machine, you may use that after letting the water drain/drip from the mat. I would NOT suggest using a wet-vac as it simple does not have the suction to thoroughly extract water from carpet fiber, but if you want to, be my guest.
I use an absorbent microfiber clothe/towel dedicated for this purpose for manual extraction and rinse it in water, wring it out, and wipe the carpeted mat. This may take several times, and you will know from the rinse water how well you are cleaning the carpet fabric.
6) I then manually scrub the carpeted mat with a carpet shampoo and brush, and repeat the manual microfiber extraction method. The vinegar smell is NOT going to disappear or be covered up with carpet shampoo. It`s just one of those things you will have deal with for a few days. but it will dissipate in time.
7) To dry the carpeted mat, I have some large clips that look like something from a clip board or that hold papers together and attach those to the edges of the carpet mat, and hang them from holes on the clips onto large nails/spikes I hammered into in the basement floor joists next to the furnace to dry them out. I let them dry overnight and them put them back into the winter-driven vehicle in the morning.
I would NOT suggest putting damp carpet mats back into a vehicle and let the vehicle heater try to dry them while driving. I`ve placed the mats on a card table covered with old towels and then got a window box fan and turned that on "High" to blow-dry them for about 3 or 4 hours in a cool basement. It does work, but you may notice that light-colored carpeted mats (grey or white or tan) MAY turn a brownish tinge when dried. This is because the carpet fabric is "wicking" up dirt that is deep in the fabric that was NOT removed from the manual methods described and used here. It`s obvious that a carpet extractor is the best tool for this job. Also, if you have stains in your carpeted floor mats from asphalt sealers, these may be magnified by this manual method. One over-the-counter (OTC) carpet cleaner that MIGHT work on petroleum-based stains is WD-40`s Spot Shot. Think of it WD-40 without the fish smell.

Also, there are some carpet cleaning chemical manufacturers that have salt-removal specific products, but I have not mentioned them as I have not used them or any experience with them. If other Autopians have tried them, please let us know what they are and how they worked for you.

[Oneheadlite]

Thanks for the write up!

I`ve got rubber mats in both cars, but I know there is some salt crust lurking in the carpet next to them - I`ll be trying the vinegar approach in the spring.

[Accumulator]

Lonnie- The "Salt Removal" products I`ve tried were basically just variations on vinegar.

That`s a good explanation of how to clean `em. Goodness, I`d sure hate to be without extractors!

IME, a huge part of it (besides having a good extractor) is not letting them get/stay too awful.

I dry them by laying them over retractable airhose reels that`re positioned under radiant heaters.

We`ve been using the oe carpeted mats in the A8 every winter since 2000, and it *is* possible to keep them in OK condition. They`re sure not in showroom-new condition, but hey..the car`s 18 years old with >160K so I expect some wear and tear.

[LEDetailng]

I like the hammer method you mentioned.

Seriously, I never thought of it, but I does sound like a logical part of breaking up crusted salt.

I have gotten so used to Weathertech mats that they never leave my vehicles. With two small kids and winter salt they can’t be beat. My 2006 Sienna’s carpets look better than most 6 month old carpets

[Accumulator]

I have gotten so used to Weathertech mats that they never leave my vehicles. With two small kids and winter salt they can’t be beat...

I`m the same with the Tahoe. Where salt is concerned, I bet your two kids are even worse than my two dogs!

[DBAILEY]

I beat the carpet mats with an old child`s tennis racquet to get the encrusted salt out. I also do this in warm weather too. Debris falls out that no vacuum would be able to suck up.

[Lonnie]

I like the hammer method you mentioned.

Seriously, I never thought of it, but I does sound like a logical part of breaking up crusted salt.

"Hammering", while extreme, is about the only method I`ve found to work on REALLY salt-encrusted mats that are like bricks without access to a steamer that would melt/dissolve the salt build-up much better. When you get a winter-driven vehicle that has NEVER been cleaned "properly" for many years, it`s what you end up with. It`s one thing to take the carpet floor mats out and shake them out and/or vacuum them once in a while, but if they never get washed, you end up with a salt brick/block where the shoes end up resting, like the area under the throttle pedal or near the foot rest near the left side wall.

Now trying to remove salt from a carpeted foot-well interior is obviously more "challenging" as it cannot be removed (easily) from the vehicle, but some of the methods described for mats work for foot-well carpet fabric.

I am not sure how this method works on wool carpets found in high-end cars as I`ve never worked on one. Then again, what is someone driving a Bentley in the winter for anyway!

[SWETM]

One more simple thing to not so dirty carpet floor mats is to simply lay them in the garden on a bed of snow. Let them lay 2-4 hours on each side starting with the dirtiest side first. Then take them inside after shakeing them good and dry them a little with a mf towel. Change places on the ground when turning them. You will see on the snow how much dirt that is draged out of them. Do you do it regualar it maybe hold them fresh. It works on fresh green grass also.

[Accumulator]

IIRC, the (currently MIA here at Autopia) ScottWax would sometimes fully immerse carpeted mats, like in a bathtub. I`ve done that a few times with the ones in the A8 when a week`s worth of carful-of-kids left things truly awful.

[dudley07726]

I moved to Naples Fl from NJ. That solved my salt problem.

[LEDetailng]

IIRC, the (currently MIA here at Autopia) ScottWax would sometimes fully immerse carpeted mats, like in a bathtub. I`ve done that a few times with the ones in the A8 when a week`s worth of carful-of-kids left things truly awful.

When I first read this thread it got me thinking of out of the box solutions. Full immersion in an ultrasonic cleaner was one of my ideas. I don’t know if the ultrasonic would be practical. Maybe just an old jacuzzi tub instead

[Lonnie]

When I first read this thread it got me thinking of out of the box solutions. Full immersion in an ultrasonic cleaner was one of my ideas. I don’t know if the ultrasonic would be practical. Maybe just an old jacuzzi tub instead

That "solution" might be a new comedy line for Jeff Foxworthy:
"You might be a (Wisconsin) Redneck if you use your Jacuzzi tub as an ultrasonic cleaner to clean your salt-encrusted floor mats in the winter."

Wait a minute, I have actually done that.... (Works GREAT! Plus, you get the benefit of mineral salts in your Jacuzzi water.)

[briarpatch]

Here`s a video from Larry Kosilla that you might find helpful:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L76eyDOgnUA

[TheMeanGreen]

That "solution" might be a new comedy line for Jeff Foxworthy:
"You might be a (Wisconsin) Redneck if you use your Jacuzzi tub as an ultrasonic cleaner to clean your salt-encrusted floor mats in the winter."

Wait a minute, I have actually done that.... (Works GREAT! Plus, you get the benefit of mineral salts in your Jacuzzi water.)

Not sure if those are the mineral salts that I want on my skin........

[grungy]

We have the old mats from living in NE area - sisal mats from LL Bean. They take a beating in the winter and have held up for over 10 years. Guess they don`t sell them anymore.