How to Get Bubble Gum Out of Your Carpet

Carpets are easily stained and even completely ruined by all sorts: wine, blackcurrant juice, cats marking their territory. But the worst carpet cleaning job so far… ?

Maybe images of dilapidated drug dens, or decomposing bodies wash across your imagination, and you’d be right, they’re pretty awful. But the hardest carpet cleaning ever was in a pub. The carpet was caked in the usual beer spills, traipsed in mud and street that had been dragged in and sprinkled with crisps.

But that wasn’t the worst of it. The worst was the bubble gum.

Spilled wine or blood will send most carpet owners into a spin, but a steam clean will sort both out pretty easily.

Gum is another story! Bubblegum and chewing gum in the carpet should be removed ASAP … no messing here. Pick out as much as you can the moment it hits the carpet; anything remaining, heat with a hairdryer until it’s really sticky. Lay a piece of plastic over the gum and gently pull at it until you have the majority out. When the heating part is over, place an ice-pack over what is left of the chewing-gum. Now leave the ice-pack to freeze the gum, which will make the gum easier to snap off — much easier than sticky gum. Freeze the gum every time it starts getting sticky; pick at the chunks until you have everything you can get out, out. A small dab of dry-cleaning fluid will get rid of the final bits.

Armed with our professional carpet cleaning equipment we swanned in, expecting another pleasurable pub job with a pint at the end of it. Obviously, we vacuumed first to get rid of the worst of the grit and grime. After spray freezing the bubble gum spots, we steam cleaned the carpet. Before that first steam clean was dry, we could see that the bubble gum wasn’t going to come out very easily.

With the initial steam clean, the carpet looked excellent, apart from the countless dots of chewing-gum and bubblegum – honestly, why would you spit gum on a carpet? – all over the carpet.

Again we freeze sprayed the gum and steam cleaned. And again. It took eight hours, three cans of freezing spray and several steam cleans before we were able to enjoy our pints.

The publican was delighted. Understandably. When we’d gone in to the pub eight hours earlier we’d never have believed so much gum could hide in a carpet — and we’ve done a lot of carpets.
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