Carpets are hard to maintain especially if you have light-colored ones all around the house. Unlike when you drop something on the floor and can clean it up quickly, things dropped on the carpet are quick to stain it.
Thus, be it a paint stain or blood, you can expect to be treating any type of it. Then some quiet stains appear over time and tarnish the look of your carpet.
Rust stains are amongst one of the toughest stains to remove from carpets but it surely doesn’t make it impossible.
Hence, how to remove rust from the carpet? What if you do not have a carpet cleaner? Can you use something from the home to clean rust from the carpet? Let’s know more!
Treat rust like any other stain and you will not find it hard to get rid of them. Remember, be it any surface, clothes, carpets, or metal pipes in your house, rust can only be removed using acid-based products.
But hold on! This does not mean you empty an entire bottle of acidic cleaner on the carpet because these are very delicate and can burn easily.
Thus, what should you do then? Hire a professional? Not a chance because these are expensive! Well, we have some great cleaning tricks up our sleeve that we promise will surely help remove rust in no time at all.
1. Remove Rust with Lemon Juice
Who does love gulping down a glass of chilled lemon juice on a hot summer afternoon?
We all do! But little do we all know that lemon juice can also help you remove rust from almost any surface. Hence, does it work on carpets too? Most certainly!
Citrusy lemons are acidic and hence, cut the rust from the deep inside to get rid of it. So, how to remove rust with lemon juice?
We would suggest the first scrap of the excess rust chunks from the carpet with the help of a knife, scissors or tweezers, anything you can find.
Next up, squeeze a few lemons and mix them in water to make a cleaning solution. Pour it in a spray bottle and spritz it over the stain. If not, dip a muslin in the solution and blot the area with it.
Leave it for 10 to 15 minutes, until the muslin absorbs the maximum amount of rust from the carpet, rub with a soft toothbrush if the need is and then rinse it off with cold water.
You can even use paper towels to pat it dry but make sure the lemon juice is all out before the area dries up completely.
2. Baking soda, Vinegar and Water
Okay, so this solution never fails! If you were not able to completely remove the rust using the lemon juice formula, no problem, lets us guide you into making another magical solution right in your kitchen?
Do you have baking soda and white vinegar at home? Great just grab a spray bottle and add baking soda, vinegar and water in and mix.
Either spritz the solution directly on the stain or wet a piece of cloth in it and blot the area.
Let it sit for some time and then rinse it out. This homemade solution is great for removing every kind of stain from your carpet while also removing foul odor that has been lingering in the house for a long.
Also, do not forget to vacuum it to dry or switch on the fans because you wouldn’t want any moisture developing with the carpet padding which can cause a lot of trouble later.
3. Lemon Juice and Salt
If you do not have enough lemons to make a concentrated cleaning formula then no problem. Just cut the lemon in half, sprinkle some salt on it and gently rub it on the stain.
Alternatively, add some salt to the lemon juice to make a thick paste and apply it to the rust stain.
Leave it for not more than 10 to 15 minutes and wipe it clean with a wet cloth. If the stain has lightened but is still there, repeat the process until it’s all gone. Although lemon juice is acidic but will not damage your carpet.
It is always better to use natural ingredients to remove stains from carpet because the ones available in the market if not known may do worse than good to your expensive carpet.
4. Carpet Cleaners
If homemade stains removal has not worked for you, go for carpet cleaners available in the market.
Cleaners like CLR are great to remove all types of stains from the carpet without potential harm.
Thus, if you have not given it a try, do use it before calling in professional carpet cleaners who might charge you high for their service.
Does CLR Remove Rust from Carpet?
Although DIY hacks work great when it comes down to cleaning stains from carpet, at times, the old stains can give you a tough time. Hence, when you failed at removing rust that seems to be very old, try CLR to remove it.
CLR is a great cleaner easily available in the market and versatile too. Whether you have tough rust marks to clean from the carpet or calcium deposits to remove from the bathroom floor, this one cleaner will let you do it all easily.
The CLR consists of ingredients that quickly dissolve calcium and lime deposits, which is why it is fast in removing stains from a variety of surfaces.
But is it safe to use on a carpet? Yes, it is! Just read the instruction and move accordingly.
A point to remember is before you blot the stain with some water or a wet cloth, pour some CLR on the rust and let it saturate for 10 minutes so it dissolves the sediment from the deep inside and helps remove it fully.
Moreover, if you are worried about damaging your carpet with it, no worries. As much as this product is quick to remove stains, it is super carpet friendly. It affects neither the color nor the fibers so you have the same pretty-looking carpet as before, just cleaner this time.
Is it Possible to Remove Rust from Carpet?
When you have carpets in the house, no matter how good they look, keeping them clean is the biggest hassle.
Imagine having a pearl-white rug sitting right in the middle of your lounge only to get ruined by a naughty kid that you welcomed as a guest. The horror!
But what not many people realize is that with the right products, you can remove the toughest of stains from carpets without seeking professional help. The idea is to get to cleaning a stain when it is still fresh rather than delaying the task.
Moreover, you can either make your carpet stain removers at home or go for a store-bought product. Just make sure whatever cleaner you are using, you let it saturate for some time before blotting the stain with a wet cloth.
In addition, if the need is, you can use a soft toothbrush to gently rub the stain and it will come out easily.
Moreover, when you have a rust stain to deal it, we can vouch for CLR. This product works great and gives you results in minimum time.
Relax and Enjoy!
Thus, if you still fail at removing the stain, just call in a professional for help because getting a new carpet is much more expensive than hiring a professional cleaner for stain removal.
John Wesley is passionate about cleaning industry especially vacuum cleaners. He is having more than a decade of experience in repairing and selling vacuum cleaners from a well known retail shop. When he’s not testing and reviewing latest vacuum cleaners for this site, he likes to spend time with his partner, 2 kids, and doing house projects.
