Stain removal

[tonyhazell]

Please help! I returned from work to find that the cat had knocked an aloe vera plant on to the carpet, leaving an ugly brown stain. Any ideas please as to how to remove it?

[NickStone]

I take it it's the potting compost that's stained the carpet and not the plant itself I don't have a definitive answer but I do know that the worst thing to do is scrub at it. The idea is not to spread the stain but to dab or suck it out. I used to have a Vax (vacuum/cleaner in one) and that worked great. However, I discovered that if you just use a little of the Vax carpet cleaner mixed with a little water, you can do spot cleaning without the machine. The other thing that might work is steaming the stain out. A wallpaper stripper will do this, if you just use the nozzle, rather than the plastic plate. Depends on the fabric of the carpet, though. It might melt polyester. However, bear in mind that if you get a small piece of the carpet clean, it may still look odd because the rest of the carpet will then look slightly darker (because it's not as clean.)