How To Remove Gum From Carpets & Furniture

Gum on the carpet is a common complaint from our carpet cleaning customers and the remedy is NOT to try to cut it out of the carpet  with scissors. Deluxe Dry Carpet Cleaning service provides carpet and upholstery cleaning for residential and commercial customers in the Greater Manchester areas.

We have found that it is almost never necessary to resort to such drastic measures, there are plenty of other ways to remove gum from your carpets or furniture. These remedies will work for any sticky residue in the carpet or on your furniture E.g. tar.  Cutting your carpet will damage the fibres and the look of the carpet, it often causes a lot more trouble than a small spot of gum.

Kids love gum and its easy to drop a piece that they have been chewing … in no time it has been ground into the carpet fibres and as time goes on the original colour of the gum patch gets darker as more dirt sticks to it. Now you have a black or dark stain on the carpet and it looks difficult to deal with… Don’t panic you already have tools at home that might get rid of that gum or tar spot and if they don’t work you can easily buy some that will almost definitely remove it!

Why Gum is a very common carpet stain…

So much chewing gum is sold that is no wonder we see so many gum stains on customers’ carpets. 2 BILLION dollars of chewing gum is sold in the US alone! The worlds biggest chewing gum manufacturer is Wrigley, and they have a 35% share of the global chewing gum market including a vast number of secondary brands and there are at least another hundred top chewing gum makers in the world.

What is Gum? What are you dealing with?

Most chewing gum is made up of

·         A gum base

The base of chewing gum was once made of chicle … a naturally occurring chewy, elastic substance  Since the 1990s gum manufacturers use a synthetic rubber with the same properties.

·         Sweeteners and flavouring

Sweetners and flavourings are why we buy chewing gum. Everyone has a favourite flavour and manufacturers supply an enormous choice of flavours. Sweeteners are sugar or synthetic sweeteners such as sorbitol and aspartame

·         Softeners and Preservatives

Softeners are usually vegetable oils or glycerin. They are formulated to the type of gum and used to make the gum soft when it is chewed.

Preservatives are added to gum to keep it fresh until sold

Here are our best tips on how to remove gum from Carpets & Furniture

1.Freeze it with Ice

Get a ziplock bag and put some ice cubes in it and zip it up, or use one of those plastic ice packs used to keep lunch boxes cool.

Rub the bag over the gum or tar patch until it hardens, make sure the gum is frozen and not just cold. When the gum is as hard as you can make it try to chip the gum off. Use a plastic blade or a rounded metal blade …. not a knife. Be very careful that you don’t damage the carpet. Collect the gum chips with a piece of kitchen towel and dispose of them so they don’t spread around and cause more sticky patches when they soften.

2. Remove Gum from Carpets with a Freezer Spray

 HG Aerosol Chewing Gum Remover

You can order this spray from Amazon.co.uk it costs £5. 99 . The  spray  freezes the chewing gum more quickly and effectively than ice and is good for thick carpets where the gum has stuck down within the fibres. A few spays with this and the gum is frozen hard. Then you have to work quickly to remove the gum before it warms up . You can always respray to harden it again.

2. Remove Gum from Carpets with a Solvent

Goo-gone£4.99 from Amazon.co.uk

is a solvent for removing  sticky residues left after you remove a label and it can be used to remove some chewing gum stains. Use a cloth to apply the Goo-Gone, do not just squirt it onto the carpet. Apply small amounts working from the outside in and as the gum becomes soft, scrape it off the carpet fibres with a plastic blade or a metal spoon.

 Chewing Gum Remover from The Chemical Hut

This product is from Amazon.co.uk and costs £9.99 for 2 750 ml spray bottles. That is a lot of chewing gum remover! You could possibly split the order with a family member or a friend. The product is a blend of solvents that are claimed to be harmless. Apply this to a cloth first and then to the carpet, do not saturate the carpet because the solvent might affect the backing of your carpet.

 Sticky Stuff Remover from Lakeland £ 3.99

Sold by Lakeland.co.uk you can buy instore or order online. This is an excellent product similar to Goo Gone. It says on the label that it will remove chewing gum and Lakeland.co.uk have a no-quibble guarantee, so if it doesn’t get that chewing gum out you are entitled to a refund

Finishing Touches

When you are satisfied that all the gum has been removed from your carpet. Put some very warm water in a spray bottle and with a clean towel spray and dab the area working from the outside in. Do not rub or scrub the carpet and only work the area for a short time. Leave to dry and see what it looks like. All the gum should have been removed. If you are not satisfied. Try again.

Get Professional Help if these methods don’t work          Call Deluxe Dry Carpet Cleaning at 0161 768 0208