Do you ever wonder why stuff wicks back up?

Here are a couple of pics I took of a carpet sample that I poured an entire cup of coffee in just one small area which you can clearly see in the first picture. I then turned the sample over and you can see how far it spread into the backing. I thought this was pretting revealing. Of course, if there had been a pad it might not have spread as much, but it would have still spread a lot into the pad and backing.

My personal favorite solution.

I have for many years used Chemspec Absorb-a-stain in these types of situations when I know wicking either has occurred or is very likely to occur. If you use the product according to directions it works fantastic. I always rewet the stain with a general purpose spot remover or I will thoroughly extract with an upholstery tool or wand. Then apply an even layer over the stain going out at least double whatever the size of the stain on the surface is. Note that if there had been a pad under the sample it would have contained the stain to a much smaller area, but in a glued down carpet I imagine it could spread just like the picture shows. It has worked 100% of the time. The underlying stain will wick up into the Absorb-a-Stain over a matter of hours. I always leave it down overnight and tell the customer to use a dust pan and get as much up as possible and simply vacuum the area afterwards. I have never had a stain come back using this procedure and it's a heck of a lot faster and easier than pulling the carpet or using a water claw althoug that would work well for this situation too. The Absorb-a-Stain is my preferred weapon of choice for this type of situation though. The stuff just plain works. http://www.jondon.com/catalog/produ...d=982&osCsid=87926ff11e763751a1e347015ffb0f07 The water claw would definitely be my second choice if I felt Absorb-a-Stain would not handle the situation. I have only had one situation where I needed to do a second application because of the large amount of liquid involved over a large area. Interlink sells a very similar product called Stain Absorb that I imagine would do just as well,but I've never personally used that product.