Spots Returned on Carpet After Shampooing
 

My daughter moved into a house a year ago that has off white carpeting in the family room. She has little kids, 5 & 2, and of course it gets very dirty. I shampooed it for her and it looked great. Within a few hours though the spots in the heavy traffic area are back. I have hardwood floors so I don't deal with carpets. Does anyone have experience with this?

Oh yes! Had off white carpet throughout the entire house. Loved it, but it needed to be cleaned about every three months. Whenever you use a spot cleaner , it removes the spot but leaves behind a " greasy" substance that isn't noticeable until later after it had been walked over with dirty shoes. We finally gave up and now have brown carpet, which I hate, but it doesn't show anything!!lol

A dry process is the best way to clean carpet.

Sandy

Happens to me all the time. I think that there is still some soil or whatever made the stain still in the carpet backing or pad and when you suck up the water, it pulls it up. So, even though you cleaned the carpet "on top" when the water came back up, it was dirty again. At least that is what happens here. After I clean it there is still dirt at the bottom when you spread the threads. At least you know it is cleaner than it was! lol

Never thought of putting down towels...smart idea until it dries.

I put down some old sheet blankets, tablecloths, etc. until the carpet is completely dry. Also have had good luck with Spot Shot in removing stains.

When I had carpet I hired a service to come clean it. The guy used plain rubbing alcohol instead of water, said it tried in minutes and did a better job. If you do your own cleaning use the rubbing alcohol instead of water in the machine. I use it to spot clean my area rugs.

Someone once spilled a cup of coffee on my berber carpet, I scrubbed and it would reappear, and the more often I scrubbed it the larger the spot became. I had a professional carpet cleaner come and they told me the secret is to dry the carpet as quickly as I could....so with the help of floor fans, I did just that and it finally went away.

Try a Capture Kit (0n line) to spray, sprinkle dry granules, rub it in, let dry and then vacuum. Best method I've found after 50+ years.Those spots will come back with other methods.