Anyone ever apply their own scotchguard to carpet?

[Deleted]

My carpets are old.  I am guessing they date from the 1990s.  The last couple of years I have cleaned them myself with the supermarket's Big Green Cleaning Machine or whatever it is called.  (It isn't green but orange.)   I am saving up for hardwoods or at least high quality laminate.

This year the whole house seemed so dirty that I went looking for a special and found one--$101 for whole house cleaning including pre-treatment.  Honestly, I had written the carpets entirely off after the last two professional cleanings that cost $400 for a couple of rooms.  The price was an Angie's List mistake (expired months ago) that he honored.  Anyway, the carpets are now looking incredible.

So I'm thinking about putting my own Scotch Guard on.  I had a protectorant applied the last time I had them professionally cleaned, but he didn't mention it.

Is there something I should know about applying it? 

[kittensaver]

Scotch Guard was pulled off the market a while back because it had some toxic and environmentally damaging chemicals in it. It's been reformulated but it still has toxic ingredients. Personally, I wouldn't touch it with a ten foot pole. It takes forever to off-gas, and in the mean time you are constantly breathing indoor pollutants. JMHO

Head off to the interwebz and take a gander at the Safecoat product line. They have a carpet sealer that is non-toxic. The products come with detailed instructions.

Good luck whatever you decide.

[Deleted]

I rather suspect this guy was using more toxic ingredients than I expected, to be honest.  I have had the carpet cleaned professionally twice before and there were stains left behind that he got rid of it.  I said something about how surprised I was, and he said something about how people were asking about more environmentally friendly products and how they don't clean as well.

By then, it was too late to do anything about it.  But I didn't let my dog step on it all day, which really pissed her off although she was in an air conditioned sunroom.  And I carried her to bed.  She did step on it once when she tried a break-out, but I scooped her up.  She is a groomer that licks her feet a lot, and I didn't want her ingesting a lot chemicals.  By the way, this isn't a "small" dog.  Carrying her to bed was a major feat and totally surprised her.    That was how much I wanted to avoid her stepping on it.

I'll check on the Safecoat product line, Kittensaver.  I've written this carpet off as I save for hardwood/good laminate.  That's why I am no longer willing to spend much on cleaning it.  But maybe he did such a good job because of the protectorants that I have paid for in the past.  That's why I am thinking of putting something on it;

[formerroomate99]

Before putting that stuff on your carpets, I would suggest that you scotchguard something you can put in the washer, like a coat.  That way, you'll know how long it will stink, how bad it will stink and whether or not the odor dissapates to the point where you can tolerate it. 

[tskeeter]

Susana, hopefully the disappearing stains were the result of a bit more effort by the carpet cleaner. 

When doing DIY carpet cleaning, I find that a few easy techniques are useful for lifting stains.  First, I go over any spots and apply the carpet cleaning solution.  Then I let it sit until I get to the part of the carpet.  This gives the soaps in the cleaning solution time to work on releasing whatever makes up the stain.  It's the equivalent of pre-treating stained areas.  If the stain doesn't lift completely, I'll run the scrubber over that spot again while applying a heavy dose of carpet cleaning solution.  Another thing I do is to always do at least a two step scrubbing process.  I scrub the carpet with cleaning solution.  This removes alot of the dirt.  Then I go back and rinse the carpet using just hot water.  This helps pull out more of the dirt and helps clean residual soap out of the carpet.  You'll be surprised at how much more dirt comes out of the carpet during the rinse step.  Since any soap left in the carpet tends to collect dirt, getting the soap residue out of the carpet means the carpet stays clean looking longer.   

[Deleted]

I appreciate the tips, Tskeeter.  I try to DIY it when I can because this carpet isn't worth the usual $400+ investment.  I will admit that I worked hard, though, to make this guy's job easier and better.  If there was a piece of furniture I could move myself, it left the room. 

So now I am having the fun of moving it back. 

[Formerly SK]

May 30, 2013 15:23:55 GMT -5 tskeeter said:

Susana, hopefully the disappearing stains were the result of a bit more effort by the carpet cleaner. 

When doing DIY carpet cleaning, I find that a few easy techniques are useful for lifting stains.  First, I go over any spots and apply the carpet cleaning solution.  Then I let it sit until I get to the part of the carpet.  This gives the soaps in the cleaning solution time to work on releasing whatever makes up the stain.  It's the equivalent of pre-treating stained areas.  If the stain doesn't lift completely, I'll run the scrubber over that spot again while applying a heavy dose of carpet cleaning solution.  Another thing I do is to always do at least a two step scrubbing process.  I scrub the carpet with cleaning solution.  This removes alot of the dirt.  Then I go back and rinse the carpet using just hot water.  This helps pull out more of the dirt and helps clean residual soap out of the carpet.  You'll be surprised at how much more dirt comes out of the carpet during the rinse step.  Since any soap left in the carpet tends to collect dirt, getting the soap residue out of the carpet means the carpet stays clean looking longer.   

Excellent advice, especially the rinsing part.  Residual soap attracts new dirt so rinsing is especially important.  Also, you don't need a lot of soap.  "Less is more" works well for carpet cleaning.  I also wanted to recommend BioKleen:

www.amazon.com/Biokleen-Bac-Out-Foaming-Action-Sprayer/dp/B001OI0YWG/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1369948761&sr=8-2&keywords=biokleen

I use their Bac Out for both carpet and clothing stains.  It gets out EVERYTHING.  I use the All Purpose Cleaner (about 1T diluted in water) in my carpet cleaner.  It's fabulous and biodegradable.  I think it is sold nationally in grocery stores.  And no, I don't own shares in the company. 

[formerroomate99]

If your carpet smells a bit musty, doing a rinse with some vinegar in the water followed by a plain water rinse works out really well.