Glue and adhesive

In detail

Adhesive is designed to bond and to resist water, so the aqueous route that handles coffee and tea has nothing to work with. The carpet trade's sequence is solvent-first: a non-flammable spot removal solution or dry-cleaning type solvent, then a weak detergent solution, then a lukewarm rinse. The irony of the treatment is worth stating plainly, because it is the reason for the warning attached to it. A carpet is itself held together by an adhesive — latex bonding the primary and secondary backings — and the solvent that softens the glue on top cannot tell it from the glue underneath. Hence the instruction: never pour solvent directly onto the carpet or allow it to reach the backing, because it can damage that latex. The failure is structural, invisible from above, and not reversible by any later cleaning. Solvent therefore goes onto a cloth, in the smallest quantity that does the job, and is worked from the edges of the mark inwards rather than flooded across it.