Commercial Cleaning Tips: Removing Ink Stains From Carpets

Among the different types of stains your commercial property might get on the carpets, ink stains tend to be some of the most common. This is especially true if you work in an office where everything from a leaking pen to a printer cartridge can get spilled onto the carpet, leaving a dark black or blue stain. Here are some tips for removing different types of ink stains.

Stains From a Ballpoint Pen

For carpet stains caused from a ballpoint pen, lacquer hair spray is a great item to try. It is also easy to do. Grab a bottle of lacquer hair spray and spray it directly onto the ink stain. Let it sit for several minutes while it works through the stain. The lacquer helps to soften the ink so that it is easier to remove from the carpet.

Once it has been sitting for a little while, grab a clean, dry cloth and start blotting up the stain. Be sure you are blotting and never rubbing it into the carpet. Keep rotating the towel to use a clean section for blotting up the stain. Depending on its size, you might need more than one towel. Once you have lifted as much of the stain as you can, let the lacquer dry and vacuum it up.

Stains from Water-Based Ink

You are in luck if the ink stain is from water-based ink, since this is much easier to clean from carpets. If the ink spill is new and still wet, start by blotting it with a towel to try and get up as much of the excess ink as you can. When it is dry, combine a cup of lukewarm water and a small amount of liquid dish soap into a bowl, then mixing well. Dip a cloth into the mixture and dab the ink stain with it. Keep dabbing at the stain, using light pressure but not rubbing the stain. As you start blotting the stain with the mixture, you will see as it begins to lift from the carpet.

Stains from Permanent Ink

The last type of ink stain you might be dealing with is permanent ink. This may be from any number of writing tools or your printer's ink cartridge. You first need to get the ink stain wet by dabbing it with rubbing alcohol. Don't get it too wet, but just moistened. Grab a clean and dry cloth and blot the stain as you did with the other methods. You should see some of the color of the ink transfer to your cloth. Continue using dry areas of the towel to pull up the ink.

Contact a janitorial service, like Ak Pros, if you are still having trouble with the stain. They will clean your ink stains and clean your carpets so they look good as new.

About Me

information to help working mothers find cleaners

As a working mother, I just can't seem to find enough hours in the day to get everything accomplished that needs to be taken care of. Between running my two older boys around and trying to keep up with my four-year-old, I just don't have enough time to do the cleaning that should be done each week. A friend of mine suggested that I look into hiring a cleaning service to do those weekly cleanings. She provided me with a ton of information and several tips that helped me find the cleaning service that has worked out so well. Find out tips for finding, hiring and working with a cleaning service here on my blog.

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