Cleaning removed carpets

[bcgreen]

BCgreen --
Well, if they are not really "fragile" in that they will just turn to dust if you vacuum them, then I would go ahead and vacuum them really really good, see how they react to that..

If they seem to be ok and are looking better just from that, then I would spray a little Meguiars D107 Citrus Power Cleaner Plus, at 10:1 to start; then, carefully spray and brush a test spot, then, perhaps a little steam through a clean, white towel, then extract it quickly and see how it looks.. See what comes off on the white towel..

Even if you try to just clean a test spot and your cleaner is already a low-foaming product, it will be much easier to even blot it up with a clean towel, or perhaps if you have a shop vac that will do liquids, and you can control the suction if needed, that should help..

The risk is still there - they are 44-years-old.. But they do not look like they have ever been damaged by water, etc., so decide what you want to do..

If you were in Northern California, I would be happy to help, and I have all the cleaning products and cleaning tools.

Good luck with this !
Dan F

Thanks for the help. You mention steam and I see the pros use steam but I don`t have a steamer.

[Accumulator]

And what would you use?
I have read in an old post, using Liquid Wrench Dry Lubricant with Cerflon, Woolite-Oxy Deep, or Resolve should work.

The Woolite Oxy products I`ve used were incredibly good for OTC/consumer-level stuff, I`d go with those. I`ve never had any problems with Resolve, but the versions I`ve used never worked as well as the Woolite Oxy, which really was All That, to the point that yep I`d buy it again despite usually reaching for Pro products.

OTC/consumer-level carpet cleaning products have come a *LONG* was recently! So my usual "go find a place selling ChemSpec/etc." advice isn`t the only thing that I`m comfortable suggesting these days.

Someone recommended Gillette shaving foam.

I wouldn`t do that, but then, uhm...I generally don`t do the "you`d never think of this!"-type hacks as they`re just too "use cooking oil when you Detail, works great!" for my taste.

And FWIW, I doubt I`d use my steamer on those as I`d worry about an "oops!" even on a lower setting. Eh, I don`t use it on carpets as much as others anyhow, but for ones like these...no way.

I never had indoor pets so know nothing about all those carpet powder cleaners that were popular, what, around 40-years ago?

Similarly, those ( and "dry shampoos" for the pets themselves) have come a long way recently, but I`d still only go that route when there`s a really good reason to not do the wet/rinse it out approach. Like...better than nothing, but that`s not saying much even if it is better than it used to be.

[bcgreen]

The Woolite Oxy products I`ve used were incredibly good for OTC/consumer-level stuff, I`d go with those. I`ve never had any problems with Resolve, but the versions I`ve used never worked as well as the Woolite Oxy, which really was All That, to the point that yep I`d buy it again despite usually reaching for Pro products.

OTC/consumer-level carpet cleaning products have come a *LONG* was recently! So my usual "go find a place selling ChemSpec/etc." advice isn`t the only thing that I`m comfortable suggesting these days.

I wouldn`t do that, but then, uhm...I generally don`t do the "you`d never think of this!"-type hacks as they`re just too "use cooking oil when you Detail, works great!" for my taste.


I think on this site, Folex from HD, was mentioned by a few people as pretty good stuff too.

[Accumulator]

I think on this site, Folex from HD, was mentioned by a few people as pretty good stuff too.

Hey, yeah! Seems that Folex is one of those products that everybody likes. I`ve never used it, but wouldn`t hesitate to try that if you want to get somewhat, uhm..Autopian-fancy about it rather than just getting something OTC.