Stain Removal For Every Floor
For the dedicated home owner, someone who treats her or his home not merely as a storage space and a sleeping room but as an ongoing work of art that represents personal dreams, hopes and aesthetic standards, it’s important to think about flooring. After all, if your home is like the theatre in which private and domestic life takes place -- and social life too, depending on how many parties you throw -- then the floor is like the foundation of every scene. You want that foundation to be durable, attractive, and long lasting. And, of course, you want it to be free of stains, and other visual blotches that might take away from the glory of your entrance your own proscenium.
A popular flooring material in recent years, and one that doesn’t pose much of a problem for personal comfort and for the environment, but does pose some for stain removal, is cork. Since cork is both a natural and a renewable resource -- it is made by stripping trees of their outer bark, which then grows back again without harming the tree -- and is naturally somewhat resistant to water and other damage sources, as one would expect of a tree’s “skin” that has evolved to protect the tree from its environment. But as anyone knows who has ever opened a wine bottle, cork can tend to retain certain stains, making stain removal a real problem. Cleaning cork flooring involves using a neutral cleaner and water.
Vinyl flooring, in this moment of hard wood flooring’s ultimate trendification, is somewhat out of favor. It’s seen as a throwback to the manufactured, chemically enhanced 1960s, much like Day Glo, Valium, Formica, or colorful plastic drinking cups. But there are some situations in which vinyl makes the most sense. Vinyl is slip resistant and easy on your joints, having more “give” to it than most building materials. It offers a great deal of design flexibility, because it is easily cut into manifold shapes, and contemporary vinyl does not tend to have the harsh, factory look of older vinyl floors. And it’s a breeze to clean. It is naturally stain resistant (though scuffs can be more of a problem, as anyone knows who has ever visited a basketball court), so stain removal is not the issue that it is with most flooring materials. In any case, a bit of soap and water should handle most problems.
Carpet and carpet tiles are, of course, the traditional solution to all of your flooring needs. The case to be made for carpet is always a strong one. It retains heat during the winter, cutting down on heating bills. It is pretty, adding a visual counternote or bass line of support to the overall visual schema of the room. It is also susceptible to stains. Before installing carpet, then, any homeowner should have a stain prevention and stain removal strategy in place.
An interesting variation on the idea of carpet, though, is carpet tile. This strategy involves using (just as the name would seem to imply) small squares of carpet that are easy to remove one by one. A nice consequence of this, from the standpoint of stain removal, is that when a single square of carpet tile becomes irrevocably stained or damaged in any way, it can simply be cut out and replaced, without the homeowner’s having to replace the entire carpet (an expensive and inconvenient proposition, and a wasteful one as well).
But it’s not necessary, in any case, to throw in the towel on stain removal with carpets. One solution for spills and stains is to use a towel to blot the offending material before it has a chance to set in to the carpet. BLOT is the operative word in that sentence. Do not, whatever you do, wipe the spill, as this may simply spread it further. Blot it up with a soft towel as quickly as you can manage. The sooner spills are blotted up, the less chance there is of a permanent, disfiguring stain. Having blotted the spill, you will, with any luck, be able to clean up any residue with simple soap and water. Use a gentle soap and warm -- not hot -- water.
For any of these, have a safe, non harsh, non abrasive, all natural stain removal cleaner at hand.
About StainHotline.com
StainHotline.com, operated by The Casite Company, offers safe, environmentally friendly stain removal and upholstery protection products.For stain removal products to help with leather stains, carpet stains, wine stains, ink stains, and for odor removal, please visit http://www.stainhotline.com.
A popular flooring material in recent years, and one that doesn’t pose much of a problem for personal comfort and for the environment, but does pose some for stain removal, is cork. Since cork is both a natural and a renewable resource -- it is made by stripping trees of their outer bark, which then grows back again without harming the tree -- and is naturally somewhat resistant to water and other damage sources, as one would expect of a tree’s “skin” that has evolved to protect the tree from its environment. But as anyone knows who has ever opened a wine bottle, cork can tend to retain certain stains, making stain removal a real problem. Cleaning cork flooring involves using a neutral cleaner and water.
Vinyl flooring, in this moment of hard wood flooring’s ultimate trendification, is somewhat out of favor. It’s seen as a throwback to the manufactured, chemically enhanced 1960s, much like Day Glo, Valium, Formica, or colorful plastic drinking cups. But there are some situations in which vinyl makes the most sense. Vinyl is slip resistant and easy on your joints, having more “give” to it than most building materials. It offers a great deal of design flexibility, because it is easily cut into manifold shapes, and contemporary vinyl does not tend to have the harsh, factory look of older vinyl floors. And it’s a breeze to clean. It is naturally stain resistant (though scuffs can be more of a problem, as anyone knows who has ever visited a basketball court), so stain removal is not the issue that it is with most flooring materials. In any case, a bit of soap and water should handle most problems.
Carpet and carpet tiles are, of course, the traditional solution to all of your flooring needs. The case to be made for carpet is always a strong one. It retains heat during the winter, cutting down on heating bills. It is pretty, adding a visual counternote or bass line of support to the overall visual schema of the room. It is also susceptible to stains. Before installing carpet, then, any homeowner should have a stain prevention and stain removal strategy in place.
An interesting variation on the idea of carpet, though, is carpet tile. This strategy involves using (just as the name would seem to imply) small squares of carpet that are easy to remove one by one. A nice consequence of this, from the standpoint of stain removal, is that when a single square of carpet tile becomes irrevocably stained or damaged in any way, it can simply be cut out and replaced, without the homeowner’s having to replace the entire carpet (an expensive and inconvenient proposition, and a wasteful one as well).
But it’s not necessary, in any case, to throw in the towel on stain removal with carpets. One solution for spills and stains is to use a towel to blot the offending material before it has a chance to set in to the carpet. BLOT is the operative word in that sentence. Do not, whatever you do, wipe the spill, as this may simply spread it further. Blot it up with a soft towel as quickly as you can manage. The sooner spills are blotted up, the less chance there is of a permanent, disfiguring stain. Having blotted the spill, you will, with any luck, be able to clean up any residue with simple soap and water. Use a gentle soap and warm -- not hot -- water.
For any of these, have a safe, non harsh, non abrasive, all natural stain removal cleaner at hand.
About StainHotline.com
StainHotline.com, operated by The Casite Company, offers safe, environmentally friendly stain removal and upholstery protection products.For stain removal products to help with leather stains, carpet stains, wine stains, ink stains, and for odor removal, please visit http://www.stainhotline.com.
