Carpet Wax On Your Carpet?

Removing candle wax from carpets can be quite a proper pain. If you are not careful, you can make a right mess.

I have been a carpet cleaner for twenty years and have seen so many wrecked carpets where people have tried to remove candle wax from carpets themselves. Often, when we give it a try on their own, they bring on way more issues than they solve.People often panic and rush straight in without thinking, which is usually a recipe for disaster.

They either do not get all the wax out or (more likely) permanently damage the carpet

In my twenty years in the cleaning business, I’ve seen many ruined carpets.

More often than not, during an end of tenancy clean a cleaner will discover the familiar anvil shaped burn on a carpet. This is the tell tale sign of a botched home attempt at candle wax removal.

Does this sound familiar?

Professional carpet cleaners have developed ways of dealing with wax without damaging the carpets. The key is preparation and a "softly,softly" approach.The most important thing is to not damage the carpet. I cannot be with you to supervise so if you have any doubts, don’t proceed.

Carpet cleaners use various things to help remove wax from carpet fibres.

An iron with adjustable temperature control, aluminium baking foil, a roll of white paper kitchen roll, Some water, a wooden spatula (or a very

blunt knife) and a drop sheet (to protect the carpet) and something heat proof (to stand the iron on)

Here’s how to do it

1/ Get an off cut or old piece of the same carpet.

This is what you are going to try these techniques out on before you damage the actual carpet. Have you ever heard the phrase "Never practise in a Cup Final"? In other words, make your mistakes on something that does not matter

First, work out how much heat to use If you are trying to remove wax from synthetic fibres like nylon or olefin (polypropylene) you have to be very careful. These can melt at relatively low temperatures. If you melt the fibres, you have had it. There is no "back button" here. Once they are damaged, they are damaged.

2/ Melt some wax and drip it on to the test piece Make sure it has set hard and cooled down

The first thing to do is to remove as much of the wax as possible BFORE you use any heat. This is best done with a soft, blunt object such as a plastic / wooden spatula or door wedge. be careful that you do not get too aggressive as you could pull out fibres that the wax has engulfed.

3/ Take the aluminium foil and carefully wrap it around the base of your iron. There is a very good reason for this.

If you do not place this foil here, then wax will spread all over the base of the iron. Not only will it burn but it will leave dirty deposits on the next thing to be ironed. This could be the next carpet or maybe someone's best,expensive blouse or shirt!

Listen carefully, as this is probably the key part

4/ Using many squares of paper towels from the roll, fold them together and then make sure you get them wet enough to make sure there are no dry spots. Wrap them in another couple so the whole package is wet but not dripping.

Here's why this is important.

This paper towel, once wet has a double function. Firstly, it helps to cool the carpet beyond where the wax is. Secondly it concentrates the heat of the iron on to the piece of carpet where the wax is.

As the middle bit dries out it absorbs the wax. Overall, the iron is in contact with the carpet for a far shorter time. The towel has to be positioned directly over the wax. Make sure the wax is smack in the middle

5/ Using the lowest heat setting, place the iron onto the paper towels. Count out loud to 8 and then lift it off.

6/ Check the paper towel The center of the towel should be a bit dryer than the outside. It should also be warmer.

Repeat 5/ If there is no change, turn the heat up slightly.

Go through the steps again (particularly Step 5). You should notice less wax on the carpet and more on the paper towel

You may find that the towel gets too dry. Simply wet it and start again. Change it once it pulls out too much wax. Repeat 5/.

Caution is the keynote here. By going slowly, bit by bit, it is much easier to avoid trouble You can avoid most problems by doing a few trial runson an unwanted piece of carpet. If you damage that, it does not matter

Just keep repeating the process gently After a while you'll get just the right heat levels for optimum success. It is so easy to try and do this quickly. You must resist this. If you go too fast you are asking for trouble (with permanent damage the likely outcome)

If all of this succeeds, try the same procedure on the actual wax deposit on your carpet. Hopefully, it will magically disappear.