Epic cream carpet fuckup <sob>

[BoffinMum]

I have carpeted the whole house in cream. In my defence it was supposed to be a very resilient contract quality carpet with a rib in it. However I have turned into a mad paranoid hausfrau hoovering every five minutes and spot cleaning like a mad person. I have now managed to wreck two of the rooms by using an HG carpet stain cleaner which seemed fine when carefully tested in the corner, but now has resulted in white blobs in daylight, and worsened over time. Adding this to the bits on top of the carpets all the time, the whole lot looks fucking awful. It took me ten years to get the money together for these carpets and I now feel sick to my stomach. What the hell can I do?!

I'm sorry.....but what were you thinking?

I wish I had something constructive to say but I just don't.

I am not normally quite so anal.

Calzone, I agree.
I have been a fool.

Cream carpets are hard to maintain, don't despair yet though. I think to get rid of the white blobs you need the carpets professionally cleaned. I used spot cleaner on mine and had a similar effect (I dropped a full glass of red wine). Its fine now after the professional clean.

I get mine cleaned every 6 months, approx. 50 pounds per room. I am getting wooden floors in next house with rugs.

Sorry you dream doesn't seem to be working out :(

If your in surrey I can recommend a carpet cleaner (I have not tie with him, just impressed by his results).

Cover the spots with rugs?

Not sure what else to advise tbh. In the future,test a 50/50 mix of white vinegar (just normal white vinegar,not white wine vinegar as some think it needs to be!) and warm water in a discrete area. It should be fine.

I use a white vinegar mix to remove all stains,including dried in black pen ink (hidden under the blinking sofa that was!!) from my ivory/cream living room carpet.Works a treat and no bleaching

we have a cream living room carpet and a 20 month old DS!! In fairness the carpet was given to us free and a lot nicer than the carpet that was there when we bought our house!

I have had to learn to embrace the stains and ignore, ignore, ignore!! We are planning on selling and moving somewhere bigger in the next 18 months/2 years so will get a company in to professionally clean the carpet before we put the house on the market.

In my previous house I claimed on insurance for my living room carpet after dd2 projectile vomited black currant-coloured sick & I attempted to remove the staining with Vanish carpet cleaner and bleached spots. They sent an assessor out who agreed specialist cleaning wouldn't rectify the discolouration.

If you've carpeted all over then it's well worth buying your own carpet cleaner. I've got an upright Vax which uses hot water from the tap and is just like using a heavy vacuum cleaner. I can't tell you how satisfying it is to use, especially when you think the carpet is fine but then you tip away a tank of black water...

Have texted a carpet cleaning blokeI know.

The one thing I can never get my head round is a cream carpet. Seems so illogical. Homes are for living in, not turning into show pieces.

Commiserations though, OP. You sound lovely and genuine and I hope you manage to sort it out.

Could you try a steam cleaner. I found one really useful, no chemicals to bleach things but it got out a lot of ingrained stains.

Get a prof in. It cost us £80 for 4beds hall stairs and landing plus living room rug.

Could you work up to recarpeting the 2-3 most-trafficked rooms in a better colour? Probably OK for bedrooms. Also a Swedish style no-shoes rule. And no-food rule. And lots of area rugs in places people drip tea. All your pets change them to cream/white breeds. Oh dear.

Are the bits the new-carpet fluff coming out?

Reminds me of my grandma's immaculate house with plastic matting over the carpets in the hall .

Rugs

We're moving shortly and the house is currently being recarpeted. Went in to have a look today and it's almost all cream I have children and pets and I drink red wine!

I was hit by the same foolish stick. Cream carpet throughout, 2 DD's with ponies (think mud,hair & straw) and 3 dogs in a rural perpetual mud bath area

Rug Doctor is your friend. Lots of places hire them but it might save you money and your sanity long term to buy one. Mine have been done countless times and the same now 12 years old cream carpet still looks ok.

My new carpets were really light when fitted. I bought a George vacuum/carpet cleaner and it has been worth its weight in gold. Dealt witha bottle of red wine my daughter spilt all over carpet!

I have cream carpets which I'm not obsessed with cleaning tbh but they are still very cream. There is a no shoes policy for all family, a lax one for friends and none whatsoever for any workmen.

I think I will splash out on professional cleaning though once a year.

I hated my wooden floors, they looked gorgeous but too cold and hard under my feet. Never again.

I've gone for wool pale mottled white type carpet in 2 small bedrooms for the 2 preteens - hope I don't regret it, at least it was cheap...

I had cream carpets in another house but they had a different weave and were fine. That's why I thought it would be OK.

Carpet cleaner bloke coming this morning. I will report back.

I do have a steam cleaner but thought the odd spot clean with the HG cleaner would be fine as it doesn't specify bleach is in there or anything.

Sometimes using a spot cleaner leaves the concentrate in the carpet pile.
I had some concentrated cleaner spilt in spots and that gave the appearance of bleaching out the colour. It went in the end though with lots and lots of sessions dabbing with a white cloth soaked in cold water and eventually the whole carpet was fine.

Hope you get a good response OP.

Carpet cleaning person has been but it didn't make any difference.

I have all cream carpets but after a Lime Juice Incident I replaced the dining room one with a cream carpet with bits on. Sounds horrendous but it's lovely. Basically cream but has a speckle throughout that just looks like it has been spattered by something. A bit likethis one.

It is incredibly forgiving.

Argh, no what were you thinking?

I'm putting in light carpets, but despite having no-shoes rule, no kids, no pets, never drinking red wine and using v high quality stain resistant carpet, I still haven't been brave enough to carpet the ground floor.

If the pros can't help you, this may never be ok. Can you hide it with rugs?