Recently, a customer from Weston, Massachusetts, contacted me about a fabric headboard. She had a few stains that she wanted to remove herself, so she tried a mixture of warm water, vinegar, baking soda and a small amount of mild detergent.
Unfortunately, instead of simply removing the original stains, she ended up with water stains and additional discoloration.
Her experience is not unusual.
After more than 56 years in the carpet and upholstery cleaning business, one thing that continues to surprise me is how many people believe that removing a stain is as simple as finding a cleaning product that says it removes that particular stain.
The internet is filled with DIY cleaning advice, and supermarket shelves are filled with products that appear to promise almost miraculous results. Some stain removers claim to remove coffee, red wine, blood, grass, grease, oil, lipstick, wax and many other stains.
But here’s the problem:
Those stains are not all the same.
Different Stains Require Different Chemistry
Consider some of the stains commonly found on carpets and upholstery.
Protein-based soils can require enzyme-based chemistry to break down the protein.
Other stains, such as some coffee, tea and wine residues, can require a completely different chemical approach.
Oil-based soils such as grease, oil and some cosmetics may respond much better to an appropriate solvent.
And then there are substances such as chewing gum, adhesives and other materials that present an entirely different problem.
This is one reason I don’t believe there is a single “miracle” stain remover that can safely and effectively handle every type of stain on every type of fabric.
I wrote more about this subject in my Ask Alec article, Why Does Every Carpet Stain Need a Different Treatment?
In fact, professional cleaners often have a variety of specialized products because different soils require different chemistry.
Here’s an Easy Way to Understand the Difference
Suppose you paint some woodwork in your home using a water-based latex paint. When you’re finished, you can normally clean the paintbrush with water and soap.
Now suppose you use an oil-based paint.
Try cleaning that brush with water and soap.
It isn’t going to work because water doesn’t dissolve oil-based paint the way it does water-based paint. You need an appropriate solvent, such as odorless mineral spirits (OMS), paint thinner or another solvent designed for that type of paint.
Why? Because the two paints have different chemical properties.
The same basic principle applies to stain removal.
If one substance is water-soluble and another is oil-soluble, why would we expect exactly the same cleaning solution to work equally well on both?
But Finding the Right Stain Remover Is Only Half the Job
This is where professional stain removal becomes much more complicated.
Let’s say I identify a stain and know exactly what type of product will break it down.
Have I removed the stain?
Not necessarily.
I may have only broken it down or made it removable.
Now I still have to get the dissolved staining material out of the fabric.
And I also have to consider what I just put into the fabric to break the stain down.
That’s where professional extraction and rinsing become important.
Depending on the particular situation, I may use a neutral-pH rinse, an acidic rinse or another appropriate cleaning or rinsing procedure. In some situations, a solvent may be appropriate. Another stain might require a solvent followed by another treatment and then a carefully selected rinse.
There is no universal sequence.
The chemistry I use depends on both the staining substance and the material I’m cleaning.
The Fabric Matters Just as Much as the Stain
This is something I wish more people understood.
When you’re looking at a stain, it’s easy to think only about the substance you are trying to remove.
But I’m looking at two things:
What is the stain?
and
What is the fabric?
A product that works beautifully on one material might cause discoloration, bleeding, texture changes or other damage to another.
I also have to consider how long the cleaning agent can remain in contact with the fabric.
Sometimes the chemistry is correct, but excessive exposure can create another problem.
That’s why professional stain removal isn’t simply about knowing which chemical to use. It’s knowing how much to use, where to use it, how long to leave it, how to control it and how to remove it afterward.
I’ve written more about why the fabric itself matters in Ask Alec: Can You Trust the Cleaning Codes on Your Upholstery?
And if you’re thinking about cleaning an upholstered piece yourself, you may also want to read Ask Alec: How to Clean a Fabric Sofa Without Ruining Your Upholstery
Sometimes the Right Product Can Make a Stain Worse
Ballpoint ink is a good example.
If I encounter a narrow line of ballpoint ink on an appropriate fabric, I can often remove it successfully by carefully working on the individual fibers.
But if I encounter a concentrated blot of ink, I may decide not to touch it.
Why?
Because once the appropriate solvent begins breaking down the ink, the ink can become mobile.
A tiny blot that was perhaps only 1/32 of an inch wide can potentially spread into the surrounding fibers and become a blue stain an inch or two across.
I have even used techniques intended to help control migration, such as treating the surrounding fibers with a water-based cleaning solution before using the solvent. But even that isn’t guaranteed to prevent the ink from spreading.
Sometimes knowing when not to treat a stain is just as important as knowing what product to use.
What About Chewing Gum?
Here’s another example.
Suppose someone gets chewing gum on an upholstered sofa.
The fabric-care label says to use water-based cleaners only.
Well, good luck removing chewing gum with water.
That’s because the chemistry needed to loosen and remove the gum may not be compatible with the cleaning restrictions on the fabric.
This creates a conflict that a homeowner may never consider.
The question isn’t simply:
“What removes chewing gum?”
The professional question is:
“What can I safely use to remove this particular substance from this particular fabric?”
Those are two very different questions.
What If a Fabric Says “Dry Clean Only” and Someone Spills Coke?
Here’s another example I use when explaining why cleaning chemistry matters.
Coke contains a significant amount of sugar.
Take a glass of warm water and add a teaspoon of sugar. Stir it, and the sugar appears to disappear.
It hasn’t disappeared.
It has dissolved into the water.
Now try the same basic experiment with a typical dry-cleaning solvent. You can stir it all day, and the sugar isn’t going to behave the same way because typical dry-cleaning solvents don’t dissolve sugars the way water does.
So now we have another conflict.
The staining substance responds to water, while the fabric-care instructions may restrict the use of water.
That’s precisely why professional textile cleaning requires judgment. You can’t simply look at the stain or simply look at the care label.
You have to consider both.
Even “Dry Clean Only” and “Wet Clean” Aren’t Always as Simple as They Sound
I’ve been wet cleaning silk for 30 or 40 years.
Years ago, people would sometimes tell me, “You can’t wet clean silk.”
I’d laugh.
That doesn’t mean every silk fabric should be wet cleaned. It means that the word silk alone doesn’t tell you everything you need to know about how a particular textile should be cleaned.
Silk is produced by silkworms as silk fibroin filaments coated with sericin, a proteinaceous substance that helps bind the filaments together. Commercial silk processing removes much of that sericin before the finished silk fabric is made.
The point is not that silk should automatically be exposed to water.
The point is that professional textile cleaning involves understanding the material rather than simply repeating a rule.
A professional considers the fiber, dyes, construction, finishes, condition of the textile and the cleaning method being considered.
I discuss some of the challenges involved with natural fibers in Ask Alec: The Hidden Risks of Cleaning Wool, Silk and Other Natural Fiber Carpets.
So What Is the Problem With All Those DIY Stain-Removal Recipes?
I’m not saying that homeowners should never attempt to clean anything themselves.
There are certainly simple cleaning jobs that can be handled successfully at home.
The problem is when a simple recipe is presented as though it applies to every fabric and every stain.
“Mix these ingredients.”
“Apply it to the stain.”
“Blot.”
“Let it dry.”
That sounds wonderfully simple.
But what happens if the fabric bleeds?
What happens if the stain spreads?
What happens if the product leaves a residue?
What happens if the fabric browns when it dries?
What happens if the cleaning solution damages the finish or changes the texture?
What happens if you successfully break down the stain but don’t remove the dissolved material?
And what happens if you have now added another cleaning product that also needs to be removed?
That’s the part the recipe usually doesn’t explain.
Cleaning and Stain Removal Are Not the Same Thing
This is an important distinction.
Professional cleaning is designed to remove soils, residues and other unwanted material from a carpet or fabric.
But some stains aren’t simply soil sitting on the surface. Sometimes the staining substance has altered or affected the color of the fiber itself.
In those situations, cleaning alone may not remove the discoloration.
I’ve written about this in Ask Alec: Why Some Carpet Stains Won’t Come Out After Cleaning.
The point is that cleaning and stain removal aren’t necessarily the same process.
After 56 Years, I’ve Learned That Stain Removal Isn’t About Having a Miracle Product
I have access to professional cleaning chemicals and equipment that aren’t typically available to homeowners.
But even with all of those products and all of that equipment, I don’t have one bottle that can safely remove every type of stain from every type of fabric.
That’s not a failure of professional cleaning chemistry.
It’s the reason specialized chemistry exists in the first place.
After more than 56 years in this business, I’ve learned that successful stain removal requires much more than identifying a stain and reaching for a bottle.
You have to understand what you’re trying to remove, what you’re working on, what chemistry can break it down, how that chemistry can affect the fabric, how to keep the stain from spreading, and how to extract and rinse away both the original soil and the cleaning agents you’ve introduced.
And sometimes, the most important thing a professional knows about stain removal isn’t what product to use.
It’s knowing when, where, how much—and sometimes whether—not to use it at all.
That’s why I don’t believe there is a one-size-fits-all answer to stain removal.
There is no universal stain, there is no universal fabric, and there is no universal cleaning solution.
Have a carpet, upholstery or area-rug question you’d like answered? Ask Alec.
Alec Houle
Alec’s Carpet & Upholstery Cleaning LLC
Serving Greater Boston, MetroWest, the South Shore and Cape Cod since 1970.