[Bryan H]

I cleaned a lounge carpet last week, 80/20 tufted, where dog was sick  on previous day. Client cleaned up using water & only slight staining left.
I cleaned whole carpet using micro- splitter, and only very slight evidence left.  I was called back today to find orange tinge in circle at extremities of original stain.
First reaction was original over-wetting by client caused wick-up from hessian , but dicarded this as wrong colour.

I have removed same stains from this carpet previously with no evidence remaining ( different dog same habit)
What has caused the orange tinge to appear at this late stage
when all residue of original stain 'must' of been removed by HWE ?

I have tried spray n go , de-brown, acid rinse & one or two other things to no effect.

Client undecided whether to blame me as yet.  Anyone got any helpful suggestions or solutions please ??

Bryan

[Ken Wainwright]

Hi Bryan

I don't know if my knowledge on the subject is upto date, but the explanation I give to my clients has been the same for the last 20 years or so. Here goes.

Soiling from either end of an animal, or human, have a chemical reaction on the carpet fibres. Normal cleaning does not counteract this chemical reaction. It can, however make the chemical reaction non-reversible, so it is important that the first action post accident is to absorb as much soil as possible, then treat with a chemical neutraliser.

As your client has already attempted to clean up the soiling, I suspect that she has created a non reversible chemical reaction which can only get worse rather than better.

As a footnote, I feel it is prudent for all CC's not to promote a stain removal service, but to merely say that they'll treat stains.

Safe and happy cleaning:)
Ken

[Dynafoam]

Ken,

Facts do not go out of date.

You are right - the gastric juices of a dog contain 6-7 times as much Hydrochloric acid as those of humans.

These chemicals are designed to digest proteins and although keritin is indigestable, it (and maybe also the dye) is attacked by them.

John.

[Bryan H]

Thanks guys,
                     But why has this staining only appeared after the carpet has dried.  The client had used only water originally, and appeared to have removed nearly all the stain.

Should I have treated it with something specific before cleaning ?

I think she might try & claim against me.

Bryan

[SteveTruman]

Bryan, try bonnet cleaning it  or if you haven't got bonnet machine spray a fine mist over stain ( I use Ultimate Master ) and blot with towelling. DO NOT OVER WET...

Best of British

Steve

[Len Gribble]

Hi Bryan

You may have in the past successfully removed the same type satin, animal food has some thing to do with it, they use a lot of food dye.

I’m not trying to teach you to suck egg or be pedantic but you say you cleaned the whole carpet with a micro splitter. But you don’t advise your method of working example did first try to remove the mark? I will leave it there at the moment, as I got told off a few posts ago (shoot the dog)

Len

[Bryan H]

Its a rather nice dog Len, so I'm sure it will escape the gun !

As the stain was barely visible before my cleaning, although still damp from customers efforts,  I only pre-sprayed & used handtool to flush out any residue before cleaning the whole carpet,  There did not appear to be any need for any other treatment & I was positive that pile was now clean & free of residue.

The strange thing is that the orange stain that appeared is only 20mm wide arond the perimeter of the original mark, the centre is perfectly clean.  Looks like an orange water mark

Very wierd,                       Bryan

[Len Gribble]

Hi Bryan

If you get called back make no promises

This has worked for me in the past
Mix two 2 tablespoons of Household ammonia per cup of water solution apply, blot with towels, rinse with white vinegar solution.
Only try this on a very small area first. I also use a hairdryer on cool setting so it dries more quickly.

Hope this helps
Len

[nick.solution]

Hi Bryan

It sounds as if your client may have used a disinfectant/ mild bleech on the vomit, or the bile in the vomit could have bleeched to the carpet, it is unlikely that any micro splitter would have caused colour degradation, as it does not contain any bleeching agents or detergent.

Best regards Nick

[The Great One]

Hi

If she does want to claim against you remind her politely
that she attacked it before you even got there and the staining might be the chemicals she has already used.

Is the stain her chemicals drawn through the carpet during the cleaning process?

Regards

Martin

[Ken Wainwright]

As I infered earlier, Madam failed to neutralise the soil initially. How can the public be expected to have an intimate knowlledge of the chemistry involved. After the "kitchen cupboard" had been thrown at it, success would be down to luck, but problems more likely.

Unfortunately, most house contents insurance policies exclude damage from animals. However, if the soiling had been from a child or even an adult (drunk?), then she would have had a valid claim :

Safe and happy cleaning:)
Ken

[Bryan H]

Thanks everyone for your input !

She seems to accept my explanation that the damage was done before I even got to it, and she is going to be more thorough next time with her initial cleaning procedure  ( I'm sure there will be a next time)

At least I have learned one or two things myself, so its not all bad !

Bryan

[Ian Rochester]

Hi,

I've just done a search for "orange stain" and came to this discussion line.

I have just had a similar experience, except this time it was the pedigree cat being sick on a 6 month old beige carpet in 5 different places after eating grass!!

By the time I was called out the client had used Vanish Stain Remover on the carpet and it had turned the green sick stain into an orange stain!!

Been cleaning now for about 3 years and have had similar stains from Tizer and Lucozade in the past which came out no bother. 

I cleaned the area with the hand tool to see if it would just lift out, but very little difference.  I then used Extracta Stain Away, the first treatment removed 2 of the stains completley, but the other 3 remained, although they were lighter.  The second treatment lightened them more but they are still visible.

I have promised to get back in touch with her today to advise further, all your information here regarding the contents of an animals stomach will help. 

I may well try Lens method.

[Big_Fish]

Have tried the white vinegar method in the past as mentioned previously and a good (not perfect) result was obtained. Happy customer. Must use hair dryer to speed up drying.

BFN

[Len Gribble]

BFN

Hair dryer set on min heat.

Len

[Len Gribble]

Don’t like cleaning suites on laminates cant see the difference to cleaning them on carpets

Doug

Wise words, I also hope you wrong also!

Len