Road Salt stained Capets

Lazzman

Lazzman

New member
Hi,



Any ideas for getting road salt out of auto carpet? I have already tried Eimann Fabrik Upholstery cleaner and Meg's APC with a carpet brush and no luck?



Never thougth it would be so tough to remove. I bet hot water or something would get it off.



Any help or suggestions would ber great :becky: .



Thanks
 
yes mixing in hot water will help the process. also you could try a product called folex and scrub with that and suck up with a wet vac or mf. i use a steamer with folex and it makes quick work of salt stains. if there real bad i use a hot water extractor.
 
Well it is good to know that those stains are hard to get out.



I am thinking of buying one of those Bissell car steamers, it heats the water a bit, so it should help.



Thanks for the suggestions.
 
lazzman- My wife uses the factory carpeted mats in her A8 all winter, so I have to deal with this too. I too use vinegar and hot water, but I don't usually employ the steamer.



Note that once you get the salt dissolved, you still have to get it *out* of the mat. Easier said than done sometimes, but utterly critical as it'll just reappear once things dry out if you don't get it all.
 
I've tried the Vinegar process and yes, you do need to rinse it well to remove the salt. It's still best to remove the floor mats from the car and flush the treated areas with water with pressure from a garden hose, OR, better yet, with a pressure washer at a lower pressure. If you don't have a carpet-extractor, like a Bissel Little Green Machine, you can let try to us a wet-dry shop vac, but the attachments really don't allow you to properly suck up the excess water in the fiber properly.

It's best to let them air dry and not place them back in the car when thay are slighty damp, thinking the car's heater will dry them out.



Here's another idea. Take it to a carpet cleaning place and have them demonstrate their equipment and products. Tell them you are looking for a business to clean your home carpets and would like to see how they do one this "test carpet". If they wouldn't do it, offer $2.00 or $3.00 dollars for their time and material, you might come away with cleaner floor mats. Just be ready for the barage of phone calls from them in the future asking for them to come to your house to clean your carpets.
 
You could try the below mentioned two process:



First, clean the carpet as much as you can with vacuum to remove dirt & other debris. This is the good start. Mix distilled white vinegar & water of equal volume in bucket. Soak the mf or sponge in the solution and apply it mixture on salt stain and let sit for 15 mins. Spray clean water on the previously mentioned area and scrub with mf or sponge until the stain is disappeared.



Vacuum the carpet thoroughly. Spray the degreaser on carpet area of salt stain. Scrub the brush to pull out salt crystals. Take the time to do this, don't rush so you could emulsify salt crystals and degreaser and it makes easy to you to get them out. Simultaneously, spray clean water on wet area & sucking up the solution with extractor. Now let them dry completely. Check the leather & still there is salt then repeat the same process again with more solution.
 
It could be that the carpet fibers have been damaged by the ground in sand and salt. Obviously, no amount of cleaning will fix this. If this is not the case they need to be cleaned with a commercial grade carpet extractor, not a little green machine. The pump/vac needs to be strong enough to thoroughly rinse out all the salt and sand in the mats fibers.
 
brwill2005 said:
... they need to be cleaned with a commercial grade carpet extractor, not a little green machine. The pump/vac needs to be strong enough to thoroughly rinse out all the salt and sand in the mats fibers.
Click to expand...



Sometimes a narrow-opening nozzle can help boost the effectiveness of a wimpy extractor, though it puts a bit of strain on the pump/motor.



I find that even my Century/Ninja works a lot better when I swap its oe nozzle for a different one (current fave was made for Bissell home units).
 
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