[Ben Lugg]

Hi,
had to try and remove nail varnish stain from a short pile wool rich carpet today and it proved to be an extremely lengthy business. It was two full bottles of deep red varnish spilt a week ago. I used craftex acetone glue remover blotted with damp terry towels and in between rinsing and a final acid rinse with prochems ff rinse. Took ages. The final result was ok but there still remained a very slight mark. Customer signed pre clean survey with limitations explained beforehand.
Has anybody had good results with such a stain on wool ?
I also read somewhere that hairspray would work well but is this just on synthetic carpets.

Ben.

[markpowell]

Acetone would have been my choice, very similar to what you used.
Mark

[Doctor Carpet (Ret'd)]

I posted on this recently.

I tend to use Prochem's Gluespot. It does ok but as you say there can be a residual mark.

For want of nothing better to do wit my time I tried sodium met on it and,blow me, every single residual mark came out.

My stain was one bottle of aubergine coloured nail varnish on a light beige plain 80/20.

I was there 55 minutes but charged £85 but I considered it a specialist clean issue. the carpet in a bedroom was probably worth about £500-£600.

Roger

[JandS]

Doc

What exactly did you do with the sod met.
Have never used the stuff but it sounds good.

John

[markpowell]

I posted on this recently.

I tend to use Prochem's Gluespot. It does ok but as you say there can be a residual mark.

For want of nothing better to do wit my time I tried sodium met on it and,blow me, every single residual mark came out.

My stain was one bottle of aubergine coloured nail varnish on a light beige plain 80/20.

I was there 55 minutes but charged £85 but I considered it a specialist clean issue. the carpet in a bedroom was probably worth about £500-£600.

Roger

I heard that Prochem have discontinued gluespot now, must admit it was good stuff, the Sod Met route sound interesting Roger, what method did you use Boiling Water / steam??

[james roffey]

I would be very interested in a cure for Nail varnish removal found it very hard to deal with on a white polyprop recently it was rock hard 

[Ben Lugg]

Thanks for the replies.
Would also be interested to know how you apply the sodium.met..

Many thanks.
Ben.

[Ken Wainwright]

There are two staining issues with nail varnish. Laquer and pigment. The laquer must always be treated first using solvents as above. Quite often, this will remove all of the pigment too. If it doesn't, as "Peachy Cheeks" says, use Sodium Met. For those who haven't used it before, I would advise initially using a branded version such as Chemspec's Spray and Go. This will allow you to familiarise yourself with the product along with having written instructions and manufacturers technical support to help you. Only when you are more familiar would I say go with generic product.

Remember the rule of thumb. Synthetic dyes: Reducer. Natural dyes: Oxydiser.

Safe and happy cleaning
The Ken

[Michael Smallwood]

I had a situation where I was slowly and carefully getting rid of some nail varnish. The customer came breezing in and said thats easy. Next thing I knew she had poured nail varnish remover on the carpet - it did what it said on the bottle.

I flushed the area copiously and there was not a mark left behind.

[Doctor Carpet (Ret'd)]

Thank you "The Fount of all Knowledge" (You Ken? Och aye! ) for your comprehensive, as ever, answer. Coudn't Wouldn't  have put it better myself.

Mark, I make it up with warm water, apply with a pipette, cover with a dry cloth and then hold a hot iron over it. As in many cases the carpet is wool rich I find about 30 seconds or so is sufficient to see if there is an improvement in the stain. If improving then apply further heat.

When ready to assess, flush out to neutralise the reaction. To really check on results dry off the carpet with a hair dryer (get the best you can by going to a ladies hairdressing salon and buy the type they use).

Then if necessary start the process again.

Does that answer your question, Mark?

Roger