Bleached Spot in the Carpet – Patch or Re-Dye?

At some time during the life of your carpet you may encounter a stain that is just not treatable with simple spot treatments. One common occurrence is when a substance pulls the dye from your carpet and leaves behind a white colorless or bald spot in the floors. When this happens there are a few different options. The most common repair solutions would be to remove the affected piece of flooring and patch in a new piece or to re-dye the spot to match the rest of the floor. Which route to go depends upon your personal preferences and the severity of the carpet’s condition.

Re-Dyeing

Re-dying the carpet is seemingly the easiest solution especially if you do not have any extra scraps of carpet hanging around the house. The benefits of re-dyeing instead of patching include not just a simpler fix, but the ability to not even recognize the affected area of carpet at all when you employ a professional that can exactly match your carpet’s original color. Sometimes a patch can be more noticeable especially if the carpet is older and pretty worn in. Placing a fresh piece of carpet in with the the older carpet can stick out for a while until is is worn in. New fresh fibers are going to be noticeable next to older ones.

Here are some questions to ask the person performing a dye repair before you have them dye the carpet:

• Do they have a certified dye technician to perform the work?
• Do they have any reviews of their work?
• Do they have material safety data sheets and information on the product they use to dye with?
• Do they use liquid or powder dyes? (Powder can leave a residue)
• Can they make a color match guarantee?
• Do they have a written guarantee?

There are some cases however where re-dyeing is not the best option.

Carpet Patch

If whatever has damaged the carpet degraded the carpet fibers you will want to use a carpet patch rather than carpet dye. Dyeing damaged fibers is not going to solve your carpet repair dilemma in this case. If a chemical is strong enough to bleach out the dye in your floors you will want to give it some time to see what damage it causes to the fibers before going the dye route. In some cases you may find that the chemicals where strong enough to completely pull the fibers from the backing of the carpet leaving you with a sort of hole or bald spot. In this case you will need a carpet patch. Even if you just have a slight fraying of the fibers it is best to go the patch route as dye just cant fix a frayed or missing carpet fiber

All Kleen is able to make simple carpet repairs. For more information on our repair services give us a call