How to clean 100% wool cream carpet?

LionKing

Hi,

Can anyone reccomend best way to clean (and keep clean) a 100% cream carpet.

A friend said i should not shampoo as it will shrink.

Thanks.

tawnyowls

The British Wool Marketing Board do a cleaning brochure:
http://www.britishwool.org.uk/brochure.asp?pageid=72

You should actually be able to shampoo it, but only with machines using very little water. Most carpets are 80% wool anyway - the 20% nylon content is there to improve wearability; it wouldn't actually stop them shrinking if they wanted to. I did have both types, and I found the 100% wool one (which was actually made from recycled wool) a lot easier to keep clean, even though it was off-white in colour; the dirt seemed to sit on top of it rather than be attracted into it (because there's less static), so regular vacuuming and the odd spot treatment was generally enough.

There is an excellent product sold to the trade here called Host carpet sponges. The stuff comes in plastic bags and looks like damp sand; you shake it over the carpet, brush with a stiff brush to break down the lumps, leave overnight to dry, and vacuum up (see here for more details: http://amazingcarpetcleaning.com/system.html). If the bag is resealed with a plastic clip, it should last for ages, and in fact, I think they're available in tubs now too. The Host website has a list of distributors: http://hostvonschrader.co.uk/carpetcare.html, and they're available online too.

LionKing

Thanks tawnyowls. My carpet is a textured carpet...kind of looped wool. I'm not sure what the exact term is but when i purchased the shop said it was not a good carpet if you had a cat! Not sure if that helps position which type it is :-)

Will the above product still be ok to use on my sytyle of carpet?

LionKing

Bump...any thoughts?

betterbargains4u

LionKing wrote:

Hi,

Can anyone reccomend best way to clean (and keep clean) a 100% cream carpet.

A friend said i should not shampoo as it will shrink.

Thanks.

Just bought a wool carpet for the dining room of our new house. The rest of the house already had the same carpet fitted. My dog had been sick on the hall carpet and I was going to steam clean it but when I asked the man at the shop, he told me to get them professionally cleaned.
Otherwise it would end up smelling like a wet dog (or sheep, in this case!!!)
Anything that leaves even a small amount of water at the base of the carpet fibres, will make it smell.

Lord_Gardener

To keep your carpet clean and in good condition, most important is to vacuum it on a regular basis. Only use a vacuum cleaner which has a beating bar - this shakes and dislodges dirt from deep within the pile - cylinder cleaners don't!. Tell people to take their mucky shoes off!!! If you need to shampoo the carpet use the minimum amount of cleaning solution keep it as dry as possible. In fact try warm water, you'll be suprised how dirty it gets! Shampoo's can strip fibre conditioners from the pile and leave sticky residues, so use sparingly if required for stains.

Most carpets are 50/50 wool/man made fibres (wool is expensive) and 80% + is the top end.

If your dog has been sick - clean then sterilise with something like dettol and finally use a fabric conditioner like fabreeze.

The looped pile carpet is not cat friendly 'cos they tend to snag and break the loops with their claws!

The 'damp sand' are adsorbant granules which are soaked in a surfactant amongst other things which 'wet out' on to the carpet fibres 'lifting' soluble soils which are drawn back onto the granules surface. You then vacuum up the dried granules. I remember that Dyson use to sell something like this?
This should be ok for most carpet types but worth doing a spot test just in case of colour run.