You can’t stop looking at it…
That blaring indentation in your carpet or rug, just staring at you, taunting you.
You moved the furniture, and now there are seemingly permanent valleys and sinkholes in the carpet where they once stood… a blemish on your otherwise clean, healthy carpets.
(Are the dents from some kind of sticky spill? I’d call a professional carpet cleaner before making it worse and damaging your carpet.)
You tried waiting, hoping it would come to it’s senses and rebound eventually. You tried teasing it out like a scared puppy, but it’s clear that it’s not going to come out on it’s own.
It happens.
The fibers can take only so much smashing down before they start to stay that way. Yet, carpets are generally resilient, and I have a few tricks up my sleeve to show you.
Time for action:
Step 1: Vacuum and Brushing
First step is to do some light brushing to fluff up the fibers and give them space to breath. Followed by vacuuming to try and revive the natural pile of the carpet again.
Still nothing?
There’s a chance that older carpets may not have resiliency to bounce back…
“There are, however, limitations by the type of pile fiber. If the pile is made of non-resilient olefin, as in olefin Berber or level-loop olefin commercial carpet, the indentation may be permanent. That’s a characteristic of the fiber. This is why non-resilient olefin often is combined with resilient nylon in several popular carpet styles.”
But don’t give up yet! I have some tricks up my sleeve yet…
Step 2: Advanced Measures
Option A: Damp Towel and Iron Method
The IICRC recommends trying a damp towel, laid on the carpet indentations, then using an iron to essentially steam the carpet through the damp towel. Then while it is still warm, you do some brushing to further tease out the smashed fibers back to life.
You could try that, or you could try…
The Magic Option: Simple Ice Solution
This one is fascinatingly simple. Lay small ice cubes in the indentations and let melt.
Magically, it enlivens the flattened fibers back to life.
Just be careful not to drench the carpet. Use just enough for the indentation.
That’s all there is to it!
Protecting Your Carpet from Furniture Dents in the Future
Okay, you got it bouncing back… now what?
How do you avoid stamping a new canyon into your beautiful carpets in the future?
Sometimes you just can’t avoid it, but here’s a tip if you’re concerned:
Use larger pads beneath the feet to spread out the impact.
One of the biggest reasons for the indents is all the weight of the furniture and everything the furniture carries is concentrated in one little spot, or one thin line. By spreading out the weight a little with a pad that is larger than the original feet means you are also spreading the impact.
Use the extra-thick, extra-stiff pads cut into as large a shape as you can reasonably use and place them beneath the feet.
It’s won’t 100% eliminate compaction, but it will help for the future of your carpet.