Ash on carpet

[edwardkelly]

I can't imagine there's usually many 'cleaning' related questions here, but I figure this one was reasonably on topic.

The guys that installed my stove laid out sheets on my floor to protect the carpet while doing the install. When they rolled up the sheets we discovered there was obviously ash on the back of them as they left a couple of nice ash blotches on the white carpet. Before I kick up a stink and complain to the business that did the install I thought I'd see if there were any easy ways to get it out... I've tried vacuuming but there's still obvious ash patches.

Given how much everyone here deals with stoves, fire and the resultant ash I thought someone here might have some great tip for getting the stuff out of carpet. Any advice?

 

[Backwoods Savage]

Edward, are you sure this is ash? If it were it seems that a vacuum would pull it out. Maybe not if it is a wool carpet.

You might also try a shop vac as they have greater suction. Other than that, perhaps I'd send a cleaning bill to the installers.

 

[edwardkelly]

Yeah it's definitely ash/charcoal. It's pretty thick carpet and has been 'walked in' because it was on the bottom of the sheets they laid out (then walked back and forth on).

Sending them a cleaning bill will be the end result if there's no easy way to get it out, I just figured I'd give it a shot first.

I'll try it with the shop vac, only thing is that sucker is filthy, I'll have to be careful not to leave it dirtier than when I started. Regular vac sucked most of it out, but there's still a grey tinge going on.

 

[Backwoods Savage]

Edward, if you have an old comb, you might try combing it while using that shop vac. But it sounds as if it is pretty bad and my guess is you'll end up sending a bill.

Good luck.

 

[Dix]

Oxy clean.

 

[Heem]

are you sure you want a wood stove in your house?

 

[FORCE FAB]

White carpet and woodstove doesnt sound like a good combo

 

[rickw]

I saw you pics on the other thread; it looks like you'll be putting in a pad/throw rug/something dark in front of the stove. Kind of hard to completely avoid ashes.

 

[cgeiger]

We had a similar situation on our off-white carpet. I had pulled out the liner to clean it (when we had a direct connect) and accidentally let it touch the floor. Well, needless to say we had a nice little black spot. Tried the vacuum and that just beat it into the carpet further while sucking up a bit of it. If I remember correctly, after we bought a carpet shampoo/vacuum (dog + 4 kids) it took it up but only after several iterations of vacuum and shampooing. I'm not even sure the pros can get it immediately out but maybe they know something we don't (probably).