Stark rug flooded - yellowed, need some help

[the rugman]

Picked this very large stark rug up from a flood. Class 1 but may have been wet for a few days - weekend home barely used. Got it the shop and extracted to remove excess water and also used acid rinse. Flipped over in 1/2 and dried using fans - flipped over other 1/2 and dried other 1/2 of backing. Too heavy to totally flip. Front side kinda yellow (latex?). Cleaned using Encap Hydrox. came out pretty good but still a little yellow. Would love to get this last 10-15% of yellow out. Any ideas? Hopefully this will show in the pics. Don't have one of the back but typical Stark rug. As you can see it is heavier in the low spots where the rug was sculpted.

[LisaWagner]

Wow - that is really a big difference. It is completely evenly yellow in those areas - and that white area in the first photo is very distinctly white - and you sure it was not like this before? That perhaps furniture covered the white areas?

Usually yellowing is uneven, not as consistently even as this is (except if it's sun exposure related).

Even if you use hydrogen peroxide to whiten this (which by the way DOES cause structural damage depending on the strength) - you would need to apply in the cream areas only - that is a lot of hand work.

I guess give me a little more info on this first photo - the left rectangle - did you touch that one or not? The water surely did not exactly cover the neighboring areas perfectly along that line - I want to know why this difference is here. And do the fibers feel the same? (i.e. is there potentially any residue in the yellow areas - you would be able to feel that.)

Great photos by the way - just give me a little more info on photo#1.

Lisa

[the rugman]

Wow - that is really a big difference. It is completely evenly yellow in those areas - and that white area in the first photo is very distinctly white - and you sure it was not like this before? That perhaps furniture covered the white areas?

There was a LARGE marble coffee table on it when I get there - might have been other stuff before. If you look at the second pic (little fuzzy) you can see some other yellowing. Rug was about 1/2 wet - rolled up and brought to my shop right away.

Usually yellowing is uneven, not as consistently even as this is (except if it's sun exposure related).

Even if you use hydrogen peroxide to whiten this (which by the way DOES cause structural damage depending on the strength) - you would need to apply in the cream areas only - that is a lot of hand work.

I guess give me a little more info on this first photo - the left rectangle - did you touch that one or not? The water surely did not exactly cover the neighboring areas perfectly along that line - I want to know why this difference is here. And do the fibers feel the same? (i.e. is there potentially any residue in the yellow areas - you would be able to feel that.)
I will check the feel on Monday. I exracted the whole rug with an acid rince when I got it in. Odd thing is that there is yellowing down in the "grooves". I used Encap Hydrox after it dried - I find it takes yellowing out pretty good.

Great photos by the way - just give me a little more info on photo#1.

Lisa

[the rugman]

Back in the shop today - rug was stiff and had a powder on it - could be latex or encap (I used it pretty heavy). Vaced really good - lightened it up quite a bit but not totally gone. Took more pics to give a better look. I extracted a small area with an uph tool and formula D to see if that helps - still a little wet but didn't look much different.

[LisaWagner]

You know Bob - I'm tossing around whitening avenues, from hydrogen peroxide, to bleaching agents, to the bisulfides ... and none are going to avoid you having to apply carefully by hand in the areas that are not the greens here. It's a lot of time... and if it's not perfect - you get stuck.

If it was woven, you could play with it, dry it face down and wick any issues to the back - but here, with it having been wet and face up, that latex is an issue, especially if you feel the stiffness also.

I think I might TEST a mixture of Rx for browning, in one stripe (makes it seem like abrash in case it goes bad....) - give it an acid rinse. Do one area, see if it makes ANY difference at all. Let it dry completely. Look at it from both directions.

You might also test a real hydrogen peroxide solution, around 10%, get it in a foamy state so you can apply the SUDS to a stripe area (I like to do it in sunlight) - and see if that does anything as well.

If one works great - then determine how much time it would take you - and CHARGE for this. This is beyond the standard wash.

If both options do nothing - I'd stop. But that's me. I like to stop when it's still THEIR problem before I make it MY problem. You know what I mean?

Let me know what happens...
Lisa

[the rugman]

Thanks Lisa - I may tell the ins adjuster that this one is a goner - this yellowing is all over. I have a feeling this one was wet for a while as nobody was home. I may try your ideas in a few small areas just for my own knowledge though.
Also - lots of powdery substance on this thing. Difficult to vac out. You can get down and scrape it with a pocket knife and it comes out and lightenes up. I used a hand Grandi Groomer to work the grooves and get the powder out.
Before i left last nite I scrubbed an area with my Cimex and X-Tol to see if that would loosen some of the powder - will see today. Yes this is becoming presonal for me!!!!

[Jason Whaley]

Acetic acid 5% is what I would try....

[sam miller]

I would hit it with 2 scoops haitian cotton powder with 2 to 3 oz of all fiber rinse in 5 gal of water in a porty and do a quick spray the whole thing evenly then extract allow to dry. also upholstery emulsifier from prochem 3 to 4 oz with 1 oz energizer or oxy plus basically sodium percarbonate 5 gal water light wash see if that pulls any of the wicked yellow then I might try the heavy stuff in the white only also identify the powdered residue hopefully not carpet fresh if using the haitian solution put it in the sun for an hour not to long the sun will activate the bisulfite and pop the whites you just dont want to pop the green. also using very little haitian give you a little brightening but not to much to fade rug the all fiber rinse will charge the haitian up but it should till be safe.

good luck

I see Lisa cringe still you get a drop of cream in the green it'll bleach so be very careful.

[the rugman]

Update - Cust wants rug back and will pay for work done as we tried to save it. He will have adjuster look at it. Told us rug was 35K!!!! (tag on back says : Stark, made in Hong Kong!).
also - only thing that brightened the white was urine stain remover.