I have a customer they spilled 1 almost full can of bingo dabber (marker) on their white rug in a residential bedroom. I have tried many ways to remove the stain. Over the phone It was described as a few stained areas, when I arrived and looked it is a stain bright red 6 feet long ranging from 3 inches to 3 feet wide. I have already used every bit of ink remover and red relief I have. Any other suggestions?? The stain soaked so badly into fibers it is the worst I have ever seen. I have been able to turn most of it several shades lighter. The last bit of staining is seeming to take forever.

The customer states they do not have money to repair or replace the carpet. I need some of you guys and gals experience any thoughts?

A bunch of red ink/dye?

1. Use a good solvent spotter to remove the ink base. Then flush/rinse.
2. Use Stain Magic or peroxide and ammonia to remove the red stain. Then flush/rinse.
3. Replace/plug the section if you can with a section of undamaged carpet from a closet.

Step 1 and 2 are only there as an exercise in cleaning technique. In reality I think you will need to go straigt to step 3. With that level of RED ink/dye in a carpet it's pretty much a write off IMHO. Is there any carpet in a closet that could be cut and installed into the section of carpet that was damaged, because I think this will be the answer.

Remember "the customer owns the stain" so don't over promise anything. As you know, red can be a very difficult color to remove. And if it has entered the dye sites, as I expect that it has, it can be impossible to remove completely.

Sorry. I wish I had better news for you. But my guess is that you probably already assumed what the outcome would be even before you posted the question.

Any other ideas from you guys that I haven't considered here???










Rick Gelinas
encapman

I have to agree with Rick. Have it repaired.

Cost is a factor here. Even if you found the magic remedy look at all of the time you have, or will have, invested to work on this. Hopefully you are charging for your time.

I haven't learned the art of carpet repair so I refer all of that to a gal here local that does outstanding work. I am usually quite stubborn at "stain" removal and usually end up spending more time than what its worth.

A good carpet repair person can probably take care of this cheaper than all of the time you will spend and when they are done you will never know the repair was made.

I must be getting old, we never played Bingo in the bedroom, but we did use it for other things. LOL You mentioned RED stain and WHITE carpet. That, my friend is the worst situation you can get into as far as carpet cleaning goes. An insert is the only solution, and of course they don't have the money to do it. As Rick wisely said "the customer owns the stain" if you make it worse, you may own it. Over the years, I have just about quit working on red stains that the customer has put(God knows what on it) before they called you. My standard answer is, that is not a spot (topically on the fiber) but a stain (something that has pentrated the fiber, a customer doesn't know what a dye site is, and most likely will not come out. I wish you the best.

Bedroom Bingo, LOL

If all else fails get a black marker and draw a bingo card on her carpet. Just make sure she has a winning card. It will be a great conversation piece.

Seriously, I would just go for repair. I have many people tell me that they don't have the money. However, when it comes down to it they "find" the money.

Repair is most likely the best option with everything else you have done.

Good luck,

Del Scrivner
Owner/Operator
Cowboy's Carpet Care

I am going to recommend a bingo card pattern in black ink with a winning combination. That buy far is the funniest solution for my customer’s problem. That is darn funny. However if this is not agreeable with home owner I will go to the second best option Gasoline and a match. Which I believe will do wonders for the rest of the home as well.

Thanks all for the humor and suggestions. I think I will just cut my ties get paid and send then to a repair person.


FYI I have removed 8 month old wine red wine stains from white carpet using EnCap DS with no problem at all. Just aggetate and spread some EnCap DS on the stain and poof all gone! That EnCap DS is some great stuff!