Residue and resoiling

In detail

A treated spot that looks worse than its surroundings a month later was usually never finished. The carpet trade body gives residue a heading of its own — Residue Precautions — and the mechanism is blunt: many spot removal solutions leave residues in the carpet that ATTRACT SOIL. What is left behind is tacky, passing dirt sticks to it, and the patch collects soil faster than clean carpet does. The result appears weeks later, which is why nobody connects the two. The warning repeats on the individual agents. Detergent needs thorough rinsing because its residues cause RAPID soiling. The amyl-acetate kind of nail polish remover, and the POG removers built on it, leave residues that must be flushed with a dry solvent. Two details make this preventive rather than corrective, and both are easy to skip. Rinsing is REPEATED — several rinses, blotting dry after each, not one pass. And the rinse is itself a risk: the recommendation is a MIST SPRAYER, specifically to prevent OVERWETTING, because the cure for one problem is a good way to cause another. The ban on exceeding the stated concentrations is the same logic. A stronger solution does not clean better; it leaves more behind.

Why

• Carpet is explained by Residue and resoiling
• Blotting is explained by Residue and resoiling

  Why the last step of a blotting sequence is rinsing rather than stopping when the mark has gone.