The Truth About Bleach Cleanable Carpets

Most High Street brand carpet suppliers are advertising the “benefits” of “bleach cleanable” carpets. On the face of it, this would appear to be a good thing right. For example, you get a really bad stain on the carpet. No problem. Just clean it off with bleach, and Hey Presto! No more stain.

Understandable then why this type of carpet is flying out the doors of retailers up and down the country. Young families with small children/pets and the accidents that will inevitably happen, it seems like the ideal product.

So what’s the truth about this type of carpet?

The carpet is made form a form of plastic. The colour is added to the plastic resin while in liquid form before being extruded into carpet yarn. That’s why bleach doesn’t affect the carpet colour.

Now we get to the scientific bit. Bleach however, is not a cleaning product any better than plain water. What bleach does is two-fold; it disinfects (kills germs), and it bleaches (strips colour). When we refer to bleaching it is often mistaken for cleaning. Bleaching however, is referring to chemically or atmospherically altering colour. So with regard to a stain on your carpet, the bleach will disinfect the stain and it will alter the colour of the stain (in many cases so that you won’t see the stain). Has the stain been removed? No, you just can’t see it because it’s colour has been altered.

Sounds great so far. However, household bleach is made from Sodium Hypochlorite and as such it is a toxic chemical. At the very least it can burn your skin when you come into contact with it. Perish the thought of a child or pet licking the carpet. Bearing in mind that these carpets are aimed at families with children and/or pets, do you really want bleach on your carpet?

Also, the bleach remaining in the carpet becomes a very sticky residue for further dirt and dust to stick to.

The manufacturers of these carpets do recommend that bleach only be used in a very diluted form. Even so, this is not ideal. Unless you have some means to rinse and extract all the remains of the bleach, it is not really advisable to use it at all..

The cleaning and stain removal of carpets requires an in depth understanding of carpet fibres and their construction, along with the ability to select the appropriate cleaning products to safely restore them.