Getting gum out of your carpet

[MTL_4runner]

Well, my 3 yr old somehow figured it was ok to just toss his gum on the floor and seems to have felt it unnecessary to walk around the giant white wod on the floor which soon became so deeply embedded in my nice new basement carpets that it was impossible to distinguish gum from carpet fibers. So I went online to see if there were any tricks.

I tried the ice in a bag technique but it doesn't get nearly cold enough to do jack squat. Peanut butter....sorry, I've already got a mess to clean up, I'm not going to add to the problem! So the method that really worked well was to use WD40 on the remaining gum and it just dissolved before my eyes. Then I used a towel to push into the carpet to soak up as much of the remaining WD40 as I could. Now the problem then is the carpet will smell and attract dirt so to get out the smell I used boiling water with a small bit of dishsoap and poured on the area from about 2ft high. Then I soaked up the soapy water with another towel as bect I could. I followed this with a final pouring of pure boiling water from the same height and again soaked up any excess. Finally the smell is gone and so is the gum.

Someone also suggested turning a can of air upside down and spraying the gum. I'd imagine that would be cold enough to allow you to shatter the gum with the edge of a credit card and vacuum it up before it turned goey again (not sure if it would also break off the carpet fibers too from the extreme cold).

Just wanted to share for others caught in the same predicament. :D

[Seanz0rz]

the canned air works wonders.

wd40 is a wonderful invention!!!

thanks for the tips, im sure i will have to battle gun in carpet at some point.

[Texas Jim]

I have a Carpet Cleaning Business and I would never pour boiling water on carpet. It is made from mostly syntic-th stuff, recycled pop bottles, ... The best thing to remove gum is to run by a carpet cleaning supply store. They make a product called citrus gel, it will smell like oranges, look for a distributer in the yellow pages. The gum will simply come out. Don't do the WD-40 because it is a lubricant and will leave a greasy spot .... Water is OK to dilute something... Remember there is a pad below the carpet, get it saturated and you will start a science experiment. MOLD, not good. Kool Aid is the turfiest stuff to get out. The best thing I recemend is to apply water to the general area, tap is OK doesn't have to be hot. It will help dilute the Kool aid so that when you do have the carpet cleaned professionally it will more than likely come out. Also avoid the Chain Carpet cleaners (ie Service Master, Stanley Streamer,) find a local company they will be less expensive, and not try to sell you crap like fabric protector, (You don't need it,) trust me, it a scheme to get you to spend more money! Avoid package cleaning deals, ask if there is a price for you moving the furniture or not, and what they charge PS/FT (per square foot.) If you only need the walk ways cleaned then only clean there. Also make sure the cleaner uses a "truck, mount," cleaning system. That is the best. DO NOT USE THE DRY POWDER!! They just grind the powder into your carpet, and it makes it very diffcult to get clean!!! The powder just builds up!!! Yes, your carpet is dry, but if a truck mount does your cleaning it will be dry in 24 hours minmum. Truck mount cleaning is the best in the indrusty. The worst thing I have ever gotten out of a carpet was a bottle of finger nail polish in a teen agers bed room, white carpet also. It took me two days and a very strong solvent... I know I killed some brain cells that time. I wouldn't do it again. No One could afford to pay me for it. Any questions contact me PM .... TJ

[calrockx]

canned air, held upside down, hurts if you get hit by a blast of it.

[MTL_4runner]

I have a Carpet Cleaning Business and I would never pour boiling water on carpet. It is made from mostly syntic-th stuff, recycled pop bottles, ...

TJ, I totally agree that you shouldn't do that on a regular basis, but boiling water is not hot enough to melt PET (pop bottle plastic). This is because boiling water can never go above 212F degrees (unless you're below sea level) and PET melts at over 250F degrees. I used the hot water/soap to dissolve the WD40 then more hot water to dilute the soap since that can attract dirt too. Thanks for the tips on the pro carpet cleaning (unfortunately we don't really have any local guys, just the chains you mentioned so that's why I decided to just do it myself). I also forgot to mention that I used my shop vac at the end to remove whatever was left in the area (not as good as a carpet cleaning machine, but effective none the less).

I agree with Charles, if you play with compressed air in liquid form, be very careful because it is extremely cold and will burn the heck out of you if you aren't paying attention.

[98Roamer]

The truck mounted cleaners use hotwater extration but they can't use extremely hot water because the twist in the carpet fiber is set with heat. The hot water will relax the twist in the carpet fiber cause the fibers to flatten.
Also, if you use to much of the solvent you risk causing premature delamination of the backing of the carpet, which is it's strength. IE: I'm sure you seen the rolling carpet in heavy traffic areas.