Baking Soda + Vinegar on cream carpet leaving pink

Petite_Distressed

Hello out there.

I have scoured the 'net for weeks for an answer to this, and now I'm hoping you all can help me.

I have a cream colored carpet in a rental apt.
I also have a cat who occasionally throws up while running away from her own sick, leaving trails of hairballs and her food that would make a toddler golf clap and nod in a 'bravo, kitty' kind of way.

Of course, not having had carpet for years, I googled how to get these darkish stains out of carpet. And came upon the 'use baking soda and vinegar on it' advice. Which I did. And it seemed to work for the most part. This has gone on off and on for the last 8 months.

However.
Recently I bought myself a carpet cleaner. A good one. Because the last tenants left stains of their own, and I'm a little OCD when it comes to cleaning. So I thought ok yay, I'll get a clean carpet. I test-ran the cleaner on one section of the apartment first.
On delicate setting, to test the strength of the carpet.
With half the detergent required.
And rinsed.
Before doing the normal setting, again with half the detergent required, and rising. I've googled enough to read horror stories about residue.

And low and behold, half a dozen spots lit up like the fourth of july, spots where I knew I'd used the baking soda and vinegar combo.

I googled again.
It said brush, vacuum, brush, vacuum.
I did this, carefully. I have a pet-specific vacuum and it hauls up a lot of powder every time I do it. I got up to about 3 times a day, trying to get these spots out. I use the straight up hose, the beater brush, even the 'pet' tool that has flexible rubber spines to get pet hair up.

They remain.

Ok I must be missing something.
I google again.
I found a few sites that say, mix 1 part vinegar with 2 parts water, sponge the spot, soak up the excess, keep doing this until the spot is gone.
So I did. Only the spot never goes.
It actually made some of these spots even brighter.

I am now starting to seriously wonder if the color beneath all these squeaky clean spots now, is the original color of the carpet, and the rest of it is just dirty as hell.

I can't brush these spots much more, or harder, as the structure of the carpet fibers are going to start breaking down I fear.

My question, in a TL;DR fashion;
Can baking soda and vinegar actually bleach the carpet?
Have I just super-cleaned a few spots?
Should I just keep trying to pull up whatever's making the carpet pink/white, assuming the solution wicked down to the padding and is now being pulled up by the cleaner?

Should I go all damn out and treat the entire carpet now with vinegar, possibly baking soda, assuming the rest of the carpet is THAT dirty?

I'm kind of at a loss here. I've been battling this daily for weeks, and I'm kind of at my wit's end. Other than offering to re-carpet the damn apartment. Which in Canada, well. I'm looking at at least $5-6k.

Do any of you have experience with persistent pink/white stains like this after treating with baking soda + vinegar? Is is just a matter of time, to make the spots dirty again? Gah, I don't know what to do anymore.

I would add pics for reference, but this site won't let me as of yet. I do have pics on my own site though. If someone would let me know how to get them to you, I will.

Thank you so much for any help!

Justagardener

Yes unfortunately you have bleached the carpet. Vinegar is a mild acetic acid and if left and not removed or diluted, will bleach unstable dyes. The baking soda reacts with the acidic vinegar causing a bubbly reaction as carbon dioxide is released. This is all fine and not dangerous in itself, in fact no wonder the toddler "golf clapped" You actually created quite an impressive science experiment!
Sadly there is nothing you can do about the spots, this kind of bleaching is irreversible.
If you want to remove organic stains like this in the future, use an oxybleach like vanish or Sodium Percarbonate it only works on organic stains using oxygen and water to break down the stain and its safe on fabrics and upholstery.

Silvertabby

There's also (gastric) acid in cat sick. Our cat had a favourite spot for chucking up (right by the door to the lounge and so highly visible!) and even though I never used vinegar the combination of the cat acid and carpet cleaner left a bleached patch.

No good to you as you are in rented, I'm afraid, but we found the only remedy was to replace the carpet with oak flooring.

Funnily enough, her 'favourite spot' is now the hall mat - but at least that's machine washable and easily replaced!

Petite_Distressed

Thank you for the replies

Justagardener - so if the vinegar bleached the carpet, why did it take months to actually show up? Why did it only show up after I steam cleaned it? These spots are anywhere from 7 months to 1 month old, and they didn't discolor the carpet at all until I used the Bissel on them. This is why I'm wondering if it's some sort of wicking from the underpad? (yeah, I'm still hopeful I won't have to spend upwards of $5k to replace all this)

Silvertabby - Oh I would so love to have hardwood floors again! I just *knew* a white carpet was a bad idea.

Justagardener

so if the vinegar bleached the carpet, why did it take months to actually show up?

The honest answer is I don't know. I'am now as hopeful as you!
Bleaching can destroy the fibres so scrubbing or cleaning with the machine may have done this?
Luckily you are in Canada and there seems to be carpet dye specialists! only a suggestion but google them it might be cheaper!