Grass
Four agents deep — solvent, detergent, vinegar, then ammonia — because it is pigment, sap and soil arriving together.
Precautions
- Test on an inconspicuous area first
- Ventilate the area
- Never mix with other cleaning products
In detail
A grass mark is not one thing: it carries chlorophyll and other plant pigments, plant sap, and whatever soil came in with it. The carpet trade's sequence reflects that by running longer than most, through a dry-cleaning type solvent, a weak detergent solution, a white vinegar solution and finally an ammonia solution. Two of those steps carry warnings worth repeating. Solvent must not reach the carpet backing, where it damages the latex holding the two layers together, so it is applied to the cloth. And ammonia, the last resort, can cause a colour change if used improperly, so a hidden area is tested first — and a caution the trade page does not carry is that an ammonia solution used where a bleach-based product has been is the documented route to chloramine gas indoors. The standing prohibitions apply as they do across the database: never a stronger detergent concentration, never a laundry detergent of any type because laundry detergents may contain optical brighteners, and never an automatic dishwashing detergent because many contain bleaching agents.
Why
- Grass is explained by Pigment retention
Sources for this page
Sources
Spot Solver: spot and spill removal procedures
The Carpet and Rug Institute (CRI) · Trade or professional body
Relied on for: That grass is treated with a dry-cleaning type solvent, then a detergent solution, a vinegar solution and an ammonia solution, that solvent must not reach the backing, that ammonia can cause a colour change so a hidden area is tested, and that laundry and automatic dishwashing detergents are excluded. (states this directly)
Hazard Alert — Worker Health and Safety: Mixing Bleach with Other Cleaning Products Can Be Deadly
New Jersey Department of Health, Environmental and Occupational Health Surveillance Program · Government or regulator
Relied on for: That combining an ammonia product with a bleach product releases chloramine gases, and that exposures arose from one product being applied where another was already present. (states this directly)