1. Grease

Grease can be present in many foods, as well as substances that end up on the ground we walk on every day. There are a lot of oils and grease as a result of cars that can be difficult to see on black asphalt. But there are also greasy and oily foods that can drip or fall.

The same characteristics that make oils and grease effective lubricants make them easily absorb into fabric. The high viscosity of the liquid means it is fine enough to easily fall into all the threads of rug fibers. But as easy as it binds, it causes quite a bit of trouble getting out.

2. Protein Rich Foods

Eggs and chocolate end up on a lot of lists because of how hard they are to clean. In the case of chocolate, the color certainly makes it harder to cover up or completely remove, but the underlying issue is the protein, which can coagulate and set very permanently.

The trick to protein stains is to clean them while they are still in liquid form. As soon as they move into a solid state, most of the binding damage will be done to the rug. Even returning them to a liquid form will not make the cleaning easy (though it will make it easier).

3. Bodily Fluids

Many bodily fluids have proteins in them, similar to food. And in the case of waste and expulsions, the proteins from food may even be mixed in with the bodily fluids. Color is also important because the difference in color from fluid to fabric increases the cleaning difficulty.

The difference in color matters a lot to stain removal. The general rule is that the darker the stain, the harder it is to remove. This is because most rug stain removal processes rely on lightening the stain, so it becomes imperceptible. You will need to call for deep cleaning to remove rug stains from bodily fluids.

4. Ink

Permanent markers or basic office pens can leak. And once the ink lands on a fabric floor covering like a rug, it is going to do the exact thing it was intended to do with a piece of paper. The intention for ink is to permanently stain a surface, which can happen intentionally or unintentionally.

It will not help if the ink is black, which as the darkest color, is one of the most difficult to remove. Red ink is also very hard to clean because the red dyes are often more potent (based on the elements needed to create the color red).

5. Red Wine

The molecular properties of wine are known to cause staining to teeth, but wine will stain rugs just as easily (and more severely). Red wine has several of the same chemical components used to make dyes and inks, which are sought after for their ability to leave lasting stains.

The compounds for dye and ink are chromogen and tannin, respectively. When they are present in a liquid, like wine, absorption into a fabric is made much easier. The trouble then becomes, how do you remove the dye you don’t want without harming the dye you do want in the rug? And the answer to that question comes from a rug cleaning service.