As parents we like to see our children learn and explore. This sometimes involves inks or felt tips. And if the kids are careless and accidentally mark the carpet or upholstery you may think it going to be difficult to remove.

If we get ink on our clothes it is sometimes easier to buy a new shirt. However when we get it on the carpets you can’t throw the carpet out, it’s too expensive.

So I am going to share with you some tips that may help you remove some or all of that ink.

When we remove ink we use specialist chemicals which breaks down the inks structure and colouring allowing us to remove the stain completely. So if you are unsure or not confident of removing this stain give us a call.

Anyway let’s get started

Items required

• A white towel- this allows you to see the removal of ink
• White wine vinegar
• Rubbing compound or alcohol.
• A shaving foam
• Latex gloves
• Clean spoon

It is now time to get this stain out

1. As all carpet cleaners will advise you is to remove as much of the stain as possible with your towel. You blot. Always work from the edges to the centre of the stain, this will prevent any spreading of the stain
2. Now lightly dampen the towel with the rubbing alcohol and ensure that at this stage you are wearing your gloves. Remember, REMEMBER, do not scrub at any point, just dab, dab, and dab some more. Keep using the clean parts of the towel (yes that was a raised voice)
3. When you get to the point were no more ink is being lifted you need to the area dwell for 20 minutes or so, but keep dapping the area with the alcohol using the towel to keep the stain from drying.
4. After the 20 minutes or so has passed, we now need to remove any alcohol from the carpet. Now mix together the vinegar with warm water. Normally 1 to 2 ratio, and now thoroughly blot the stain. It will be better to over wet at this stage as we are trying to rinse the carpet. One this procedure has been done, blot the area dry, or use a hairdryer to speed the drying process up.
5. When stage 4 is complete we need to reblot the area with the towel and just warm water. You can be a little excessive at this stage with the water, and again blot dry.
6. If any ink still remains you can try using the shaving foam. Wearing your gloves spray the foam, and tease the foam into the fibres. Let this sit on the carpet for about 15 minutes.
7. This is where the clean spoon comes into play, we are going to scoop the foam up
8. You now need to repeat actions 4 and 5, treating the stain with your vinegar and water solution then again warm water

Now as a warning doing this  the so called cleaning solutions are not always designed to help clean carpets, and you could see bleaching, so before starting using whatever solutions you are using on the carpet were no one will see your test results.

With a bit of luck the ink has now faded or even been removed completely. Remember though we are here to help. If using this help seems too much of a hassle, we can visit you and rescue that carpet which you paid a lot of money for.

The process to lift this stain by ourselves

1. Flushed the area several times with just cold water.
2. Applied our chemical and let it dwell for 10 minutes. Re-flushed the area again with cold water.
3. Dried the carpet and the re-cleaned the same area using hot water.

How long did this take us?

Twenty minutes.