‘We just took our Christmas tree down’, he explained. ‘It was a real tree in a pot, and underneath the pot there was a cardboard base.
Over the holidays we watered the tree – then when we lifted the base, there was a big brown mark on the carpet!’. ‘We need a carpet cleaner in Purley ASAP!”.
Before we treat a stain we always ask questions, to make sure we know what’s caused the problem. David, our professional, talked to the customer and took a close look at the stain. He realised that it wasn’t just water and mud which had trickled down when the tree was watered. This was a more serious problem. The mark had been caused by the tree’s sticky, dripping sap.
There are two ways to remove sap from carpet. (Never rub it – if you do, you can end up with a much worse problem. We don’t advise looking online for solutions either – one suggestion we’ve seen is to put mayonnaise on!) You can dry the sap out then pick it off, but that’s very slow. Instead, David decided to use a specialist product to dissolve it.
He set to work on the sap with a pre-spray. Hidden beneath the tree, it had been sinking into the carpet throughout the Christmas holidays and even after spraying, it took several washes to get the stain to come out. Here are the before and after pictures, showing the great result he achieved.
Our customer was relieved that the mark was so much better. And we were delighted to be able to give him a happy – and stain-free – start to the New Year.
