[wayne zabel]

I often get asked if i know of anything/way of getting indentations out of carpets.The only one I know of is putting ice cubes on them - does this actually work and is there any other way of improving these?

[The Carpet Cleaning Pro]

steam works

[Aquakleen Restoration Services]

Its actually water not the ice as such that makes it work sometimes. For really bad indentations the only thing you can do is put 'blocks' underneath the carpet pushing the affected areas up.

[Jim_77]

If we're talking about wool carpets.....Indents from light furniture aren't too serious, because it will only be the pile that is crushed.  As said above, simply wetting them and gently brushing up the pile should improve them a great deal.  The ice cubes thing is a load of tosh, and potentially dangerous as it could lead to over-wetting and browning.  Have seen it myself quite a few times.

With heavier furniture the indents will be permanent.  You have to remember there are 3 things on top of each other: the pile crushed, the backing of the carpet stretched and the underlay crushed underneath that.  Even if you can bulk the pile back up, the other two elements of the problem will remain unchanged.

With polypropylene, it has a high memory so you probably won't be able to do much about it.  However they should lessen over a longer period of time if constantly brushed back up.  Heat can help a bit.

Nylon is somewhere between the two.

[oliver collins]

Hi

I was told by a carpet retailer that its the underlay that gets damaged and takes longer to spring back

Oliver

[Doctor Carpet (Ret'd)]

Nothing magical about ice cubes. An ice cube is simply a "defined" amount of water. Using an ice cube stops clients pouring a whole bucket of water over one dent!

When asked if I'll remove them I say I will but I'll have to charge the client for my time. It's a subtle way of getting clients to do simple jobs which I hate doing and they hate even more paying somebody else to do!

A better approximation of a defined amount of water is an egg-cupful amount of warm water which will allow the wool fibres to lose their memory and allow you to retrain them with tweezers/plyers.

But as has been said already-if the underlay is also crushed you will still have furniture dents even if the pile is retrained.

Rog

[Nigel_W]

The ice cube remedy often works in the right hands. I have had a number of clients successfully attend to their own indentations using this method. They are always very happy when you suggest something that doesn't cost them any money

http://designcare.co.uk/how-to/furniture-indentations-carpet/

The reason an ice cube works better than just water is because it melts very slowly and therefore allows the carpet fibres to fully absorb the water  and spring back into shape.

Nigel
www.designcare.co.uk

[Shaun_Ashmore]

I agree with Nigel it can work but I advice a little bit of white vinegar added as not to leave cellulosic browning.

Shaun