STAIN REMOVAL | HOW WE HELP YOU

One of the most common problems in all of chemistry and materials science: how to do stain removal. From a scientific perspective, oil on the garage floor, red wine on a white rug, and chewing gum on your pants seat all present different cleaning challenges (at least until self-cleaning clothes hit the market). Let’s look at how stains work, and why to choose CPR24 Restoration to do stain removal.

GROUND RULES

A stain depends on two factors: the contaminant and how it interacts with the material it hits. Most household stains are surface ones, where the contaminating substance flows into the gaps of a material, such as the fibers of a cloth or the pores on a concrete floor, and become trapped there.

Another form of stain is due to a molecular reaction. For example, those notorious yellow marks appear on the armpits of your white shirt because your sweat reacts with the aluminum chloride in your antiperspirant. Fortunately, those stains are extremely rare and usually deliberate.

In all cases, your first step should be to pretreat the stain as quickly as possible. This means wiping up any excess spillage and then putting down something that will start to draw out the stain. If you don’t see any effect you have to contact with CPR24 Restoration. It’s a stain removal services company that can help you in those cases.

WE ARE THE BEST FOR:

-CLEANING TOOLKIT

We pretreated the stain and choose the right substance that is needed to clean it. That’s because different types of contaminants respond to different cleansers. The most common stain removers are surfactants. Surfactant molecules have two polar ends, one hydrophilic (or water-friendly) and one hydrophobic.

Another approach is that we use oxidizers. These substances don’t remove the staining substance itself; instead, they blast the part of a molecule responsible for color, called a chromophore, with oxygen molecules. Strong oxidizers knock chromophores out completely. We also test weaker oxidizers on fabrics before deploying them on a large scale.

Also popular, especially for organic stains, are enzymatic cleaners. These use sets of enzymes to break down the molecules of the staining substance. Lipases, for example, break down lipids like olive oil. Many of these are more environmentally friendly than their harsher brethren. But these cleaners can vary widely in concentration and the type of enzymes used. For this reason, we use them in specific cases.

And for the toughest of the tough stains, we use solvents like rubbing alcohol and acids. These harsher cleansers let us dissolve, grind off, or corrode away the tenacious color.

SO RIGHT NOW LET’S TELL YOU SOME WAYS THAT WE USE TO DO STAIN REMOVAL!

-RED WINE

You may not think of your red wine as a dye, but it’s full of anthocyanins, which are common natural dyes for textiles. Even worse, when you find them in wine, they’re dissolved in alcohol and water, making your glass’s contents the perfect cocktail to ruin any cloth they touch.
When possible, we use a surfactant to remove the stain on the surface. If that is not enough, we can apply an oxidizer to knock out the chromophores.

-HONEY AND OTHER SWEETENERS

Syrups like these mostly consist of sugars, which love water. A little H2O should pull them out. In most cases, we can just scrape off the goo and then dab at the stain with cold water. If a mark remains, we can try a light surfactant as well.

-CHOCOLATE

Chocolate is a one-two punch. It’s both oily, so you’ll need a surfactant, and organic since the sweet treat includes vegetable oil (such as cocoa butter) and various cocoa solids.

-SWEAT

Fortunately for your laundry bill, you can tackle sweat stains with multiple approaches. We recommend tailoring your approach with the item itself. Dyed delicates, for example, should respond well to surfactants. We recommend But with light-colored, sturdy items, save yourself some energy: We recommend you to make a paste of baking soda and warm water and rub it into the stain. Let it dry for up to two hours and then wash it out.

-BLOOD AND OTHER BIOLOGICAL MATERIALS

Anybody who lives with a baby animal (including baby humans) quickly becomes familiar with the many fluids and semi-solids that escape our bodies—and the seemingly-permanent marks they leave on everything. The good news is, if the stain is fresh, we recommend you to use water will likely erase most of it. If you can’t do it, we will help you with our surfactants.

-GRASS

The grass is a bit tougher than other biological stains, because, much like red wine, it’s a fairly effective dye—especially on light-colored clothing. We recommended you to start with an enzymatic cleaner, preferably one specifically designed to tackle these kinds of stains. If there’s some stain leftover, or enzymatic cleaners don’t meet the bill, we will do it with an acid.

-TONER AND INK

Since the ink is supposed to be permanent, we resort to solvents for this type of stain. Also, we use an oxidizer to take the color out of what’s left.

These are just the most common stains, of course, but also have other types very complicated. If you have problems with stains make us a call or write us an email and we will be always ready to help you.