Fountain pens make wonderful gifts. They come in so many elegant and aesthetically pleasing designs. But the gift can become a bit of a curse if your pen leaks ink all over your carpet! In this article, we’ll share a homemade remedy for removing ink from carpets – but if that doesn’t work for you, you can always call on an expert from our Bedford based carpet cleaning company.
You’ll need the following items a towel, vinegar, surgical spirit, shaving cream, gloves and a spoon.
When attempting to remove stains from carpet, the vast majority of people instinctively scrub them. This, however, is not the best approach as it can damage the carpet fibres.
In the first instance, you’ll need to blot the stained area with a towel, starting from the outside and gradually working towards the centre, being sure to switch to a cleaner part of the towel when necessary.
Put on your rubber gloves and apply some surgical spirit to a clean area of the towel. You want to apply just enough to dampen the towel. Place the towel on the edge of the stained area and dab it, again, gradually working your way to its centre. Continue to do this until the ink is no longer transferring onto the towel.
Keep the area moist by blotting it every five minutes or so with the towel (dampened in surgical spirit) for half an hour.
Now that the surgical spirit has had time to dwell, fill the spray bottle with 500 ml of warm water, and mix in 30 ml of vinegar. Test this solution on an inconspicuous piece of carpet to ensure it doesn’t cause colour loss, or dye bleed.
The purpose of this step is to rinse the surgical spirit out of the carpet, so you’ll need to apply the warm water/ vinegar solution liberally. Blot the carpet to remove the solution and aid drying.
Following the steps outlined so far may be enough to remove all of the ink, but if not you’ll need to apply shaving cream to the spot, and leave it to dwell for about 30 minutes.
Use the two-stage rinse process we outlined above to rinse out the shaving cream, by first using the vinegar/water mix, and then plain warm water.
Surgical Spirit has ink dilution properties, and shaving cream can break down grease stains, which is why these ingredients are great for removing grease.
If this approach doesn’t work then you’ll need to call a professional carpet cleaner to do the job. If you do decide to go that route, there are a few things you can do in preparation for your carpets to be cleaned or spots/ stains to be removed.