Holiday Spots, Spills and Stains

Starting with Thanksgiving, and through the late December holiday observances, your customers will be engaging in that riskiest of activities when it comes to carpet and upholstery textiles:

They will be serving food and drinks with bright red colors, and having their homes overcrowded with guests consuming those items.

While red stains are common throughout the year, there are two that you are more likely to encounter from now until January 2nd:

Cranberry Sauce and Red Wine.

The reason that both of these might create confusion is the uncertainty as to whether the stain is from “natural red colors” or from artificial dyes. The distinction is important to you, as the types of products you use, the order in which you use them, and the time you should predict in their use may vary widely depending on what is in the item spilled.

You should, of course, attempt to learn exactly what was spilled. If the customer still has the bottle or can, you can look right on the label and often determine if there is an artificial dye involved.

In today’s world, the assumption should be that there is a dye unless you know for sure otherwise. Unless your customer made their cranberry sauce from cranberries themselves (a more involved process), the sauce likely has an artificial dye. Even wine, which throughout history has only had natural colors, lately has become another source of artificial dye staining to carpet.

Once you have this information, first clean the carpet. With the amount of “polys” out there (polyester, polypropylene, and triexta…which is essentially polyester) as well as nylon with some of the latest advanced stain resistant treatments, many of these red stains will simply clean out of the carpet, with no further need of specialty stain removal techniques.

If any stain remains, you will then need to decide if the stain has a natural red color or an artificial one. Natural red colors come out most readily with the application of an oxidizing agent, such as Stain Zone or Stain Magic. Artificial red colors should be treated with specialty red dye removal products than contain reducing agents, such as Red Zone, Red Relief, or Red One.

Use each product by following each manufacturer’s direction carefully.

Worrying about red stains should be the last thing that should concern your valued customers. Be sure to approach the treatment of these stains with confidence and concern for their needs, and make such stains a minor inconvenience during these happy times for them.

Allow me to take this occasion to thank all of you for your support and feedback to us over the years.