Many people use carpet as a floor covering in their apartments and homes.
Carpet is easy to maintain (just use a vacuum), it's appealing to the eye and the feet, and it's pretty inexpensive to purchase and install compared to tile, or hard wood flooring.
Unfortunately carpet does become damaged and needs repair from time to time.
By repairing your carpet you can extend the life of the carpeting and save money.
Before we discuss stain removal and repair lets talk about how carpet is designed, installed, and what it is made of.
Carpeting is made of heavy felted or woven fabric.
An installer will stretch the carpet over a subfloor and secure it at the edge of the room with tack strips.
If the room is large with dimensions greater than 12 feet, usually two pieces of carpeting will be connected by a seam.
You will find most carpeting to have a pad underneath for a softer texture, and in some cases, to protect the backing of the carpet from moisture.
The fabrics carpeting is made of includes nylon, polyester, acrylic, wool, or a blend of these materials.
Also, most of these fabrics will be pre-treated with a stain fighter to reduce stains from the absorption of staining fluids.
The carpet pads themselves are made of materials which include bonded polyurethane, polyurethane foam, rubber, and some natural and synthetic fibers.
To repair a carpet: 1) If you have a deep stain, tear, or burn you will need to use a circular carpet patch tool to remove the small section.
You can find these tools at your local flooring retailer.
2) Next cut some cover tape from a piece of double-faced adhesive patch tape, making it larger than the hole.
Then simply fold it to insert it into the hole in the carpet.
3) Lastly, use your carpet cutter or utility knife to cut a patch piece from some left over carpet, and press the patch firmly over the adhesive.
Have you ever had chewing gum stuck in the fibers of your carpet? That is a tough extraction if you don't know what you are doing.
Here's how: 1) Scrape away any of the gum that you can with a spatula, then use the vacuum to remove any loose, remaining pieces.
2) Now, you will use a plastic bag filled with ice to rub any remaining gum until the gum is frozen.
3) Grab your spatula again and chip away as much frozen gum as possible.
4) For any remaining traces you can use a small amount of dry-cleaning fluid to dissolve the gum.
Then blot up any excess dry-cleaning fluid.
5) Next you can blot the area with a combination of 1/4 tsp.
of a mild dishwashing liquid and 1 cup of warm water.
6) Thoroughly rinse the area without soaking it.
7) As a last step you can use scissors to trim any fabric with remaining gum particles attached.
These tips will sustain the life and look of your carpet while saving you some money.