Stains from a ball point pen can appear on your carpet as if by magic, apparently from nowhere or they can be the direct result of a broken or leaky pen or from the shoe of someone that stepped in ink. It’s a very common stain that we see often especially if our customers have school aged children.

Successful removal of an ink stain depends on how old the stain is and how serious  stains vary from superficial smudges affecting only the upper fibres or surface of the carpet to a deep blob that has reached all the way down to the carpet backing.The type of ink will also determine how difficult to remove the ink also.

There are additional limits on stain removal depending on your carpet type- many modern synthetic  carpets are very sturdy and will stand up to any type of cleaner including bleach. Older carpets have to be treated more carefully and wool carpets in particular must not be treated with any type of bleach or oxy – type cleaner

What Ink Type

There are marking inks, permanent inks, printing inks, carbon paper inks, ball point pens, india inks and the list goes on.  One of the difficulties of successful removal is that each of these inks can contain different components which can require different stain removal procedures.

Take special care with ink stains

Do not rub or scrub the carpet. Be particularly careful when dealing with a stain when the fibres of your carpet are damp or wet, they are more vulnerable and easily distorted by scrubbing or harsh treatment – never use a toothbrush or anything other than a clean absorbent cloth when cleaning a carpet stain.

Avoid spreading an ink stain

An ink stain can be very deceptive – a small stain, that is almost invisible  can easily blossom into an enormous stain if you saturate it with liquid. Keep the moisture added to the minimum and the ink stain should be treated from the outside inwards to prevent it spreading. Our best advice is GO SLOWLY Try to be patient

Some inks are water soluble and they will respond to water based treatment,  other inks are only soluble in solvents such as alcohol. There is no easy way to treat a stain except to try the methods below.

Try these remedies and see if they help.

• ISOPROPYL ALCOHOL: Wet a clean cloth with rubbing alcohol and use it to blot the stain, starting at the edges and working your way inwards to prevent the stain from spreading.  Follow with a clean dry cloth blotting the dissolved dye Continue re-wetting and blotting until the spot fades away. This will probably take 30 minutes or more. Follow with a dry cloth blotting and pressing firmly to absorb any dissolved dye. When the stain is gone, make a dilute solution of Bissell carpet cleaning detergent in tepid water ( follow manufacturers instructions), apply with a small spray bottle sparingly and then dry by blotting with clean dry towel or microfibre cloths. Follow with clean water spray
• HAIRSPRAY: We can’t vouch for the success of this claim, but many people believe that hairspray can help remove ink stains. It works in a similar way to alcohol, which is why we simply recommend using rubbing alcohol. But if you don’t have any IPA ( Isopropyl alcohol) and want to try it, spray hairspray onto the stain and allow the hairspray to sink in for 3-5 minutes. Then, apply a dilute solution of carpet cleaner such as Bissell and blot up.
• K2R Stain Remover

With all of these products, we recommend that you do a test patch on an unimportant and unseen area of the carpet beforehand. Some products can permanently stain your carpet. Also, always remember to blot (not rub) and don’t pour a liquid product directly onto the stain (this could cause the stain to spread).