25/07/2024
Carpet wicking
You successfully removed a stain during the carpet cleaning, and a few days later the customer called you and said the stain came back again. It is called carpet wicking. It is unavoidable and it is not the carpet cleaner’s fault, although some procedures can be taken to prevent wicking happening again once it is identified. Again, we found carpet wicking happened more often in propylene and polyester carpets and to our limited experience, it never happened In wool carpet.
Carpet dry cleaning method can be employed to stop wicking. If the hot water extraction method, or commonly known as steam carpet cleaning, has to be used, try to make the drying time as short as possible.
In the photo below, the two urine spots were re-appeared after dry, and needs a further treatment.