Vomit
Mechanical first, then four agents. The one thing the trade sequence does not mention is the smell, which is the reason most people are cleaning it.
Precautions
- Test on an inconspicuous area first
- Never mix with other cleaning products
- Ventilate the area
- Wear gloves
In detail
Vomit is a mixed soil — protein, fat, acid and food particles — and the carpet trade's entry opens the way the particulate entries do rather than the liquid ones: blot with a dry white cloth, gently scrape semi-solids with a rounded spoon, then break up solids and vacuum. Only after that does chemistry begin, and it runs four deep: a weak detergent solution, a white vinegar solution, a lukewarm rinse, and an ammonia solution last. Two of those steps carry their own warnings. The detergent dilution must never be made stronger, and laundry detergent of any type is excluded. Ammonia can cause a colour change if used improperly, so a hidden area must be tested first — and CleaningHQ adds the caution the trade page does not, that an ammonia solution applied where a bleach-based product has been used is the documented route to chloramine gas in a home. What the entry does not address is odour. It is a stain-removal procedure, and the residue responsible for smell can soak into backing and underlay below anything a surface treatment reaches, which is why the mark can go and the smell can stay.
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 vomit is treated by blotting, scraping semi-solids with a rounded spoon and vacuuming solids first, then with a detergent solution, a vinegar solution, a lukewarm rinse and an ammonia solution, and that ammonia used improperly can cause a colour change so a hidden area must be tested. (states this directly)
Verification: a person has read the passage relied on.
Read on — Sprints 5-10 read fifteen entries stain by stain. Sprint 30 enumerated the database from the publisher's own spot-solver sitemap — 296 entries — and read 134 more, chosen by open demand and by soil class rather than alphabetically, plus the generic 'Unknown' entry. 135 of 296 entries now read. Supports the claim as stated.
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)
Verification: a person has read the passage relied on.
Read on — Page 1, the two case reports and the bleach/ammonia and bleach/acid paragraphs; page 2, the "DANGEROUS CHEMICAL COMBINATIONS — DO NOT MIX" list and the safe-work-practices panel. Supports a wider statement — our claim was widened. The register gained authoritative support for three hazards CleaningHQ had not recorded: bleach with alcohols, hydrogen peroxide with acetic acid, and the sequential-use route evidenced by both case reports. Incompatibility records were added for the first two, and the sequential-exposure wording on the existing bleach-and-acid record now rests on a case report rather than on inference.
Last reviewed by a person on .