What is Wicking?

Have you ever cleaned your carpets or had a professional carpet cleaning, only to find that when the carpets dry, stains and odour return, or even worsen? This has a lot to do with the wicking effect.

Professional carpet cleaning is designed to thoroughly clean the “pile” of the carpet. The pile is the fibres that make up the part of the carpet that you see. It may be tight, like a berber, or it may be thick and long like a shag. Past the pile, is the backing, and under the carpet itself is underlay. The problem is, spills do not confine themselves to the surface, or the pile of the carpet. If you don’t find the spill immediately it may soak through the backing and into the underlay. The spreading of the stain below the surface will often be larger than what you see on the surface. 

When your carpets are professionally cleaned, the spills deep in the carpet, and possibly into the underlay can “wick” or be drawn up the damp carpet fibres to the surface, where they appear larger than before, and bring an unpleasant odour. 

If the spot or stain was from urine, Alberta Carpet Cleaning uses a professional grade, pet safe enzyme based product called Bio-Treat ™ to treat urine stains and odours. Bio-Treat ™ is applied following your cleaning and the active formula works over the next 24 to 48 hours to actually digest any residual organic material and stains, improving the appearance and the smell. For extensive staining/odours that return to the dry carpet after the use of BioTreat™, we will return to reapply the product to ensure the stain is thoroughly and completely digested.