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?!

Triptrap what is your vinegar mix I have a clean carpet that is in desperate need of a clean, thanks

eatwithyou it's literally just half white vinegar (43p a bottle in Tesco) and half warm water,so make up as much as you need. Just dab it on and it brings everything out

Insurance?

Right, how might I colour in the stain from white back to cream?

What is the carpet made of - wool, synthetic or a mix?

Has it really not dried any better

what are the care instructions from the carpet supplier? sounds very odd that it would bleach so easily.

Right, have spoken to the National Carpet Cleaner Association who are Very Helpful and Very Nice.

First steps have been to check if there is a detergent residue on the carpet, by taking distilled water and using a pipette, seeing if it fizzes or froths when a little water is dropped on there. It didn't, but then I decided to give it a quick lick (!) and I could certainly taste detergent on there which probably came from the professional carpet cleaning. Apparently my next step is to use white vinegar and water to attempt to move the detergent. If that fails, then it can be recoloured, oddly enough using a charcoal colour, by a professional. Failing that it might be possible to re-tuft the area, again something best done by a professional. It is unlikely I will need the whole room recarpeting. Anyway, I am off to get some white vinegar now and I will report back.

Good luck you are v dedicated to this carpet!!

It is one month old, that's why!

I feel your pain. We used to have wool cream carpets and I stained them in a similar way to you a few weeks in. I ended up getting a carpet stain guy in who used surplus bits of the carpet left over from the fitting and replaced the stained parts. He did 3 areas, 2 were unnoticeable and 1 was so noticeable that it looked 10x worse and I wish I had never done it.

As the carpet gets more worn in more discolouration will appear and your current stains will look less noticeable. Not much consolation though.

We ended up using the Rug doctor on ours about every 2-3 months. It was such a big big mistake to get cream. I think all you can do is absolutely insist on shoes off, maybe get some additional rugs etc. I will never get cream again.

There is a National Carpet Cleaner Association? The things you learn on MN. Re-tufting! it's a whole new world.

I shelled out a fortune - I mean a fortune!! as in I could have furnished the rest of the house with the money spent - on a Fired Earth tile flooring. I hate it as I cannot clean it and it looks grotty all the time. I have managed to live with it for nearly 10 years as I try not to look at it (difficult) but when I do I feel depressed. So you are not alone in making bad decorating decisions. Can you put rugs down over your carpet?? Let your eyesight fail over time (do not go to Specsavers - this is my tactical plan). Sell the house and buy a new one with brown carpets???
Sorry, perhaps I am not helping after all....

OK, well, have got distilled white vinegar and used dilution of 1:2 and wetted area and given it a gentle scrub with an old cloth nappy to make sure any residual detergent is removed. I am now leaving it to dry for a bit to see what happens. Encouragingly there were little sparkles reflecting the light as I was scrubbing, as though some soapy stuff was in there, so I am starting to wonder if this might have been the issue. We should know by tomorrow, anyway.

I think this is only the second major mistake I have made in my life on the home front so I am not doing too badly. The other one was designing a conservatory on a piece of A4 rather than getting an architect to do it, and getting one proportion less perfect than I would have liked, but TBH only I have ever noticed this, and every time I have used an architect they have done worse. So I am trying not to beat myself up too much now.

DH was of course very helpful when I was almost in tears, and pointed out I could now be like the woman who was cited on MN as waving her hand airily upon the arrival of guests, announcing, "Darlings, do help yourselves to a pair of artisanal slippers from the basket". I would do this except some people I know might not see the irony.

Ultimate first world problem, isn't it?

Boule, have you rung Fired Earth and confided? They might have helpful advice like the NCCA had for me.

I did and they did: I must shell out another fortune for a specific their-brand product that may sort out the problem - thing is we did that on day one and so far no good! Basically we managed to buy the lovely product but can't afford it really if we can't afford expensive maintenance. Lesson learned!

That's quite sad. Karma owes you.

OP, do you mind me asking, how cream is cream? Am considering learning from your mistake (sorry!) for future carpeting choices. Is it cream, cream? Like it could be a wedding dress? Or more oatmeal?

I'm not shopping for carpet yet but might be soon, and although aesthetically I like floorboards and rugs, carpet is so much warmer and more soundproof. I like sort of pale mushroomy shades that will hide cat hair...

I use green household (fairy) soap on any carpets stains. Gets them out great and no bleaching.

Boule, have you tried a steam cleaner? My steam mop is fab on all floors- marble, matte tiles and wood. I can change the moisture output and use the micro fibre head when I need a streak free finish. Worth a try? Fucking fired earth...

I also have made the mistake of cream carpets - fortunately not all over the house, but in two upstairs rooms. I thought that by excluding food and drink it would solve any issues. In my defence, I actually wanted wood, but DH decided to go all wussy on me and say his poor delicate feet needed carpet in the morning. Bah!

However, I have got a Bissell carpet cleaner, and it is a huge help. I think if you went over the areas every couple of weeks for a while, it might even out the colour. I definitely think it's worth the £150 to give it a go, rather than paying for retufting.

announcement

It is fixed! The white spots have gone!
Two goes with 50/50 solution of distilled white vinegar and water got rid of the detergent that was obviously still there, reflecting the light in a kind of luminous way. I am now back to my usual routine with Hoovie the Robot Hoover spot cleaning while I get on with other things, and my carpets are looking lovely again. I am now happy again they are cream and I think I can manage them from this point on, as I have a steam cleaner anyway.

Amethyst, they are wedding dress cream with a rib in there and they have Scotchguard on them. I actually thought I was ordering oatmeal but got it wrong. However while bits sit on top a lot, they are incredibly easy to vacuum. I would recommend flecked oatmeal instead, with a weave as well (in the last place we had a kind of grid pattern IYSWIM). This would hide bits more, I think.

Excellent. I said it sounded like leftover cleaner on the 19th, although I didn't know about the white vinegar tip. I'll remember that

Oh well done! V happy for you.