How to lift the pile on a carpet with a fork

All things wear out over time and lose their original appearance. Home carpets are most often susceptible to this problem: after all, furniture is placed on them, people walk on them every day, and they spill something. It is difficult to keep the house clean, especially if there are animals or children in the house. This will help you with useful tips for restoring pile, which do not take much time and are simple.

You can return the carpet to its previous condition at home, without resorting to heavy chemicals. The problem of dents and loss of fluffiness arises after moving furniture to a new place and after using the carpet for a long time. Unsightly dents remain, the pile becomes crushed and loses its beauty. There are several simple ways to get rid of furniture marks and restore frizz by making your own cleaning products and solutions.

An easy way to restore pile on a carpet

Long pile rugs are simply a miracle! So soft, pleasant, and what an image they create for the room. True, after a couple of months the pile looks tired. And furniture can absorb a fair amount of lint.

It's time to fluff it up:

We take a regular table fork.
We place it on the edge of the carpet as if we wanted to prick a cutlet.

We move the fork forward.
We take her in different directions.
The pile rises and fluffs up.

I remember this method from my childhood. Grandma used a fork to fluff out the dents from a heavy cabinet and comb out the lint after washing.

Traditional methods

Use a fork to lift the pile in areas where there are heavy wrinkles in the carpet, such as furniture marks. Act against the lint, as if combing it.
An iron with a steam mode will help lift the trampled pile - direct the steam to the jammed area at a distance of 10-15 cm and hold for a few seconds. You can combine it with the previous method and, after steaming, lift the pile with a fork.
Place a piece of ice on the jammed area; as it melts, the pile will soften and straighten out.
You can use products available in the kitchen - evenly sprinkle salt, soda, starch or bran over the surface of the carpet and leave for half an hour to an hour. These products act as an adsorbent and absorb dirt and dust, eliminating lint from them (we wrote more about this here). After this, you need to thoroughly sweep the carpet and vacuum it.

Washing and blow drying

All long pile carpets quickly become dirty. Dirty fibers wrinkle more easily and hold their shape less well. If something sticky gets on them, the threads stick together. In general, a fork to a dirty rug is like a poultice for a dead person.

Take carpet detergent (preferably). If this is not the case, dilute half a glass of shampoo in 5 liters of water.

We take the rug into the bathroom and wash it with a brush.

Rinse with running water.
We install the crossbar and hang it to drain for 1-2 hours.
Dry on the balcony on a wire rack for 8-10 hours.
We brush the slightly damp pile with a brush and at the same time blow it with a hairdryer. Half an hour, and the carpet becomes like new.

Solution

To lift the lint in long-pile carpets, you only need cleaning and one simple product. First, vacuum the rug, remove small debris and dust. We prepare a solution based on liquid soap, vinegar and hydrogen peroxide. Approximate ratio of ingredients: 1 part baking soda, 1 part peroxide, 1 part liquid soap per 1 liter of warm water. Mix all components and spray from a spray bottle onto the carpet. Leave until completely dry, then stir the pile using a stiff brush in a circular motion. At the very end, we vacuum and evaluate the result.

As you can see from all these methods, restoring lint at home is possible. The main thing is to strictly observe the proportions of compositions, solutions and execution techniques. After all the procedures, your carpet will sparkle with beauty and freshness.

Fabric softener

Long pile tends to accumulate static electricity. Therefore, the carpet may look “wrinkled.”

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In this case, this recipe will help:

Pour 200 ml of fabric softener and 200 ml of water into a 0.5 liter bottle.
Screw on the spray cap.

Spray onto the carpet (a little).

Dry for half an hour.
Vacuum.

Air conditioning is not only an antistatic agent. It also helps restore color, repels dust and dirt. The pile after it becomes beautiful, soft, elastic.

Ice or snow

Hairs crushed by heavy furniture are lifted using ice. You need to take a few ice cubes out of the freezer and place them on the areas of the carpet that need to be restored. You can’t wrap the ice in a bag; it should melt right on the carpet. After freezing and getting wet, the pile softens and easily returns to its original position. You can help him straighten up with a fork or a thin stick.

In this method, it is important not to overdo it with ice. Too much water can damage your shag carpet and flooring. Therefore, use small cubes in small quantities (2-4 pieces in each area).

It is good to clean the carpet and raise the pile in winter.

Hard brush

If the carpet is large, it will take several days to fluff it with a fork. Then it’s better to take a cleaning brush with stiff bristles. True, this is not very useful for the carpet. Hard bristles can snag the base. They also destroy the pile and make it shaggy. But in the absence of an alternative, the option has a right to exist.

Just don't scratch your carpet too often or too hard.

To some, the fork method may seem barbaric... Well, if you want to make it more complicated, you can use a special technique - a finishing machine for combing carpet pile. It looks like a powerful vacuum cleaner with a turbo brush. Only the pump in it is vacuum, with turbines. These are available in good hotels, sports centers and, probably, in cleaning companies.

How to restore fluffiness to a carpet

There are several time-tested and many housewives-tested methods that help restore a carpet product to its original appearance:

Cleaning with snow . We have been familiar with this method since childhood, because since Soviet times, as soon as enough snow fell, residents would appear on the street with carpets and brooms. However, the procedure of cleaning carpets with snow has its advantages and really revitalizes the surface of the product. To clean with snow, spread the carpet face up and cover it with a thin layer of snow, sweeping clean, untrodden snow with a broom. After this, sweep the snow from the carpet without allowing it to melt. Next, the carpet must be thoroughly beaten and allowed to dry.
We knock it out . Simply knocking dust out of the carpet, also familiar to us from childhood, very effectively raises the pile and returns freshness to the carpet. It can be done outdoors if a knockout stand is installed in the yard. Hang the carpet on it and go over it with a beater or stick, starting from the side where the carpet comes into contact with the floor. This will remove dirt and dust from the front side, and the pile will straighten out. In the same way, you can restore the pile on the carpet.
We wash it . Washing a carpet with your own hands is not an easy procedure; it is almost impossible to do it alone. But you can combine it with relaxation and invite your family and friends for a picnic, simultaneously taking a carpet with you to the pond. While the washed product is dried in the sun, you can enjoy your meal in nature. However, some people manage to wash the carpet in the yard by spreading it on the asphalt and rinsing it with a hose.

Please note that a wet carpet that has absorbed a lot of liquid becomes several times heavier, and it is difficult to handle it alone.

Carpet care

Everyone will probably agree that it is nice to have carpets on the walls or floors in your home. But, of course, caring for them is troublesome, since dust accumulates in them quite quickly.

Carpet cleaning is not an easy task . Old hand-made rugs, when well cared for, usually look better than new ones.

If the carpet is new, then for the first six months it is better to clean it with a soft brush, and when the pile is sufficiently compacted, then you can clean it with a vacuum cleaner. In the future, carpets should be cleaned once a week with an elastic grass broom or vacuum cleaner.
Carpets should not be cleaned against the pile.
In summer, carpets and rugs can be taken outside, placed on a crossbar so that the fold is not sharp, with the wrong side up, and beaten out with an elastic beater, then brushed with a soft brush. And the front side of the carpet should be cleaned with a not very stiff brush or a small broom dipped in water and vinegar. Also, carpets will be cleaner and brighter if they are beaten with a rag soaked in a water solution of vinegar (1 tablespoon of vinegar per 1 liter of water) - this refreshes the colors and makes them bright. Under no circumstances should you beat out a carpet by hanging it on a fence or a stretched clothesline, as this will destroy it.
In winter, it is good to clean carpets with snow. Spread the carpet on dry, clean snow, pile side down, and knock out the dust with a flexible rod or broom. Then turn it over to the other side and brush it with clean snow.
Large and heavy carpets have to be knocked out without moving them. Then they are cleaned with a brush dipped in salt water with a little citric acid added, then the colors will become brighter.
You can clean the carpet with this solution: 2 tbsp per bucket of warm water. l. washing powder for wool or synthetic fabrics and 1 tbsp. l. ammonia. Wipe the carpet with a damp cloth soaked in this solution, then dry it and let it dry thoroughly. Try not to let the base of the carpet get wet. The brush should be soft.
If you wipe carpets and carpets with a rag or sponge soaked in ethyl alcohol after cleaning, they will shine like new.
If the carpets and carpet runners are not very dusty and dirty, you can clean them with fine table salt, which should then be swept away with a broom dipped in hot soapy water or a weak solution of detergent (0.5 tsp per 1 liter of water). Contaminated salt should be replaced with clean salt as needed, and after cleaning, the remaining salt should be removed with a vacuum cleaner or knocked out. Salt can be replaced with dry sawdust or squeezed out tea.
The old method of cleaning a short-pile carpet or rug has been undeservedly forgotten. You will need tea from three to four brews. If it's dry, lightly moisten it with water. Scatter wet tea leaves all over the rug. Using a hard broom, carefully sweep the tea, moving towards the opposite edge of the carpet. By the end, wet tea will become overgrown with debris and trap dust, preventing it from rising. The palace will become clean, its color will become much brighter.
You can clean your carpet with an inexpensive home remedy. Mix 1 part white vinegar with 10 parts hot water or ½ cup household ammonia with 2 cups hot water. Use a carpet washing machine or scrub the solution with a stiff brush by hand. Then wipe the cleaned carpet with a damp cloth
If you spill paint on your carpet, act on it before it soaks in. Mix 1 ½ tsp. vinegar and 1 ½ tsp. washing powder in 2 glasses of warm water. Wipe off the paint with a sponge soaked in the solution (this will take time and effort) and rinse the former stain with cold water. With any luck, the unwanted stain will disappear.
To clean a fresh stain that hasn't had time to soak in, squeeze some non-gel shaving cream onto it and wipe it off with a damp cloth.
Fresh stains can be removed by wiping with a damp baby wipe before they have a chance to soak in.
A fresh stain on the carpet can be removed with soda. Pour over the stain, let sit for 3 minutes and blot with a paper towel.
To get rid of stubborn stains, dissolve 1 cup of household ammonia in 2 liters of warm water, apply to the stain with a sponge and soak until it disappears.
If greasy stains appear on the carpet, wipe it with a cloth soaked in gasoline or a mixture of equal parts of hot water and ammonia, or sawdust soaked in gasoline.
To remove old stains, you can prepare a mixture of gasoline and soap (add 1 part gasoline to 10 parts of soap solution). Soak the sawdust in this emulsion and leave it on the carpet for a while, then clean it thoroughly.
Grease stains can be easily removed from the carpet with a swab soaked in gasoline or ammonia. At the same time, in order to maintain contact with the solvent longer, you need to make a paste of gasoline with starch and rub it into the contaminated area of the carpet. After drying, the starch should be removed with a brush.
You can wipe the carpet from the front side with a sponge or brush moistened with an aqueous solution of washing powder (1 tsp in 1 liter of water) with the addition of 1 tsp. turpentine; This mixture removes dust and at the same time degreases the pile.
How to remove chewing gum. First, heat the desired area with a hairdryer to soften the gum. Press a plastic bag onto the stain - it will remove some of the dirt. It's worth trying to rub the gum with a plastic scraper. However, some traces of it will still remain - and here peanut butter will come to your aid. Rub a small amount onto the stain, leave for 5 minutes, then wipe off with a damp cloth. Finally, blot the stain with a mixture of warm water and a teaspoon of dish soap.

The color of the carpet can be refreshed

You can refresh the paint of carpets by wiping it with table vinegar or an infusion of mashed 2-3 raw potatoes in a liter of water.
If there is dust embedded in the carpet, sprinkle fine table salt over it, and then sweep it away with a broom soaked in hot water. Repeat the procedure several times, changing the salt, vacuuming or beating the carpet.
Wrap the dried tea leaves in gauze and wipe the mat with this swab.
Vinegar or ammonia diluted with water will refresh the paint (1 tbsp per 1 liter of water). Wipe the carpet with a rag soaked in the solution.
Carpet pile will become soft and bright if you clean it with sauerkraut wrapped in gauze.

Washing the carpet

If the carpet is very dirty and cannot be cleaned, try washing it. Of course, you can’t push her into the car, but you can still get her into the bathtub. Roll it up, place it on the bottom of the bath and fill it with warm water. When the track is well wet, gradually unroll the roll, sprinkle the unrolled area with any washing powder and scrub with a clothes brush. Roll up the cleaned part of the track again, and so on until the end. After washing the entire length of the track, fill a full bath of warm water and leave the track for a few minutes, then drain the water and begin rinsing the track with cold water, in parts, in the same way as you washed it. Gradually unroll the roll, rinse it thoroughly and immediately roll it up, and then dry it.

Carpet storage

Do not bend the carpets, but roll them into a roll so as not to damage their finish.
To better preserve a carpet that you don't need temporarily, first of all, thoroughly vacuum it and dry it in the sun. Then spread it on the floor, cover it with newspapers and put bags of mothballs. Roll the carpet tightly, wrap it in thick paper or cotton cloth and store it in a convenient place.

How to combat the most common stains on carpets

Red wine

Sprinkle the stain generously with salt and blot with a rag soaked in sparkling water. Or blot with a paper towel, pour a little white wine on top and wipe with a damp cloth.
If all else fails, mix 1 tsp. dishwashing liquid with 1 cup warm water and pour some onto the stain, then blot it with a paper towel and repeat the process with a solution of 1/3 cup white vinegar and 2/3 cup water .

Fruit juice

Dissolve 1 tbsp. l. washing powder and 1 ½ tbsp. l. white vinegar in 2 glasses of water. Rub into stain and blot.

Remove with cold water and a small amount of ammonia.

Fat or oil

Sprinkle cornmeal or starch generously over the stains, let sit for a few hours, and then vacuum.
Rub shaving cream into the stains, let dry and wipe off with a damp cloth.

Coffee, cocoa, tea

Act quickly. Pour soda liberally over the stain and blot, repeat if necessary.
Blot with a mixture of equal parts white vinegar and water.
Whisk the egg yolk, rub into the stain and blot.
Remove with cold water and glycerin (1 tbsp per 1 liter of water).

Ketchup

Hurry: once the ketchup gets absorbed, you won't be able to remove it. Sprinkle salt on the stain, leave for a few minutes and vacuum. Continue salting/vacuuming until the stain disappears

Beer, wines, liqueurs

You can remove it with warm water and washing powder. Wipe the stain with this solution, and then wash it off with warm water and vinegar (1 teaspoon per 1 liter of water).

Useful tips

The carpet should not be laid on freshly polished parquet; it is better not to cover the floor with mastic under the carpet and rug. Do not lay a carpet on a freshly washed floor.
The edges of a carpet lying on the floor will wear out and bend less, and the carpet will last longer if a thick braid about 2 cm wide is glued to the back of the carpet along the entire length of the edge with BF-6 glue.
To prevent the carpet from curling at the edges and corners, sew fabric pockets from the inside and place metal plates in them.
To prevent bald patches from furniture legs from appearing on the carpet, it is recommended to place pieces of rubber under them.
Furniture legs leave marks on the carpet or rug. Place a damp cloth over these marks and run a hot iron over it without drying it completely, then brush over the area several times. Nail pieces of rubber or leather to the legs.
Wrinkled areas on the carpet can be straightened: take two pieces of thin oilcloth or plastic film and a damp cloth. Lay one oilcloth on the floor, straighten the wrinkled area of the carpet on it, cover it with a damp rag, put another oilcloth on top and press everything down with a weight. After 1-2 days, the wrinkled areas will smooth out.
If piles have formed on the carpet, hold these places over steam for a few minutes, and then lift the pile by hitting the carpet from the inside with a cracker. Then iron the treated area from the inside out with a hanging iron until it dries.

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How to smooth carpet on the floor: several ways

Place heavy objects in places where folds, waves or bubbles remain: furniture, flower pots, etc.;

2. Ensure that the areas being leveled are exposed to direct sunlight. Exposure to a temperature of about 70-85 degrees helps smooth the surface.

3. Use a steamer - leave the uneven area exposed to steam for some time.

4. You can lightly dampen the finish using a flower spray or a bottle of window cleaner. When exposed to moisture, the carpet should expand.

If it was not possible to straighten the carpet using the methods listed above, you will have to dismantle it and then lay it again in compliance with the technology. Perhaps it was incorrect installation that caused the appearance of folds, unevenness and bubbles.

How to smooth carpet?

A rather unpleasant situation arises when irregularities suddenly appear on a stylish surface. The cause of this defect may be:

lack of holding the material at room temperature before laying;
no gap between the carpet and the wall;
accidental movement of loose pavement.

Carpet is always stored in roll form, which prevents wrinkles from appearing. There may be only small residual irregularities after unwinding the roll, and to eliminate them, the material is immediately rolled out and allowed to rest for at least a day.

There should be a gap of five millimeters between the edge of the carpet and the wall, so after unrolling it is necessary to trim off the excess. Wrinkles may appear both before and after installation.

In the first case, this can happen if the covering is laid with glue or adhesive in place, so when laying the same rules as when gluing wallpaper, we roll it out so that there are no voids left under the bottom.

If the carpet is not secured, much less laid on linoleum, then there is a high probability of shifting and wrinkles appearing. In this case, the room must be cleared of furniture and the covering should be leveled, and to prevent this from happening again in the future, the edges can be attached to the base with self-tapping screws.

Experts' opinion

Specialists from cleaning companies and dry cleaners are confident that loose lint on the carpet is the result of improper home washing and cleaning. Of course, the easiest way is to have the product professionally cleaned, and even have it removed and ordered for delivery. You will have to spend money, the service is not cheap. But you won’t have to waste time, and the item will be restored with a guarantee. Think about what you prefer: paying for the services of professionals or dedicating your own day off to your favorite carpet.

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Methods with a purely Russian approach

To lift long piles on the carpet, some housewives use a regular table fork! We haven't used this method, but the reviews about it are quite good.

The algorithm of actions is simple: immediately after cleaning with a vacuum cleaner, take a fork and run it through the fabric, lifting it and, as if whisking, the crushed threads. The procedure resembles combing, the pile becomes fluffy and tall. We have no doubt that the method was born in the Russian expanses. Advanced foreign citizens would not have thought of such a thing.