Black carpet, caked salt

[Lakeside Detail]

Hi guys, detailed a 2014 Ford Fusion today that went through a horrible Michigan winter with just the OEM all weather mats for protection, which is pretty much none. Black carpet with salt caked thick, maybe 1/8in. on some spots with no carpet visible.

I vacuumed while chipping away at it, removing as much as possible while dry. Then I hit it with the steamer lightly, and the carpet turned murky gray. I then extracted and dried the area. Then I used Folex, let it soak, brush lightly, extract, and dry. I repeated this 4 times. I would say the carpet is 90% clean.

On the worst salted areas a murky grey spot remained, but the carpet feels normal again. Do I just need to keep working it to get it perfect, brush harder, or did this much caked salt cause damage? I was kind of afraid to brush it really hard, the worst areas I thought could of been damaged from the salt.

I informed the customer about weather tech mats, he ordered them while I was still vacuuming.

[HD.Detailing]

use carpet brush on DA before any cleaning, be shocked how much that will remove

[kevin_1981]

use carpet brush on DA before any cleaning, be shocked how much that will remove

HD Detailing - Do you mean to use the brush while the carpet is still dry? I ask because my g/fs car has the same issue. An abudance of salt caked onto the floormats, as well as the seats! (she drives people around a lot, and instead of people putting their wet bags on the floor, they ended up putting them on the seat.

[parttimer]

Throw them in the laundry machine.

[Audios S6]

I use a similar method to the OP, but do not steam as it seems to just spread the salt.

Break-up, Brush and vac as much as possible. Then go straight to extraction. Pretreat with a mild acid, like citric acid or vinegar. Do the extraction a little at a time, it may take 3-4 times soaking a small section and extracting to clear it. If you try to do a large area and soak it, the salt migrates and you get the gray areas.

[HD.Detailing]

HD Detailing - Do you mean to use the brush while the carpet is still dry? I ask because my g/fs car has the same issue. An abudance of salt caked onto the floormats, as well as the seats! (she drives people around a lot, and instead of people putting their wet bags on the floor, they ended up putting them on the seat.

yes

[Lakeside Detail]

Ill have to pick up some DA brushes. I don't have any yet. But, I think the bristles may just glide over caked salt. I tried to brush it pretty heavily at first and no salt was removed. I had to chip it away with a small sharp plastic scraper.

You think the stiffest DA brush would be best?

[EVOlved]

Rinsed mine with the pw that seemed to take care of it.

[Lakeside Detail]

That's a good idea, I thought about it. I need to make a buy a cone to prevent water overspray. I just don't go blasting a pw on customers interior. Maybe a short blast with a cone.

[Donn W]

Carpet brush, zep carpet shampoo and steamer

[HD.Detailing]

Ill have to pick up some DA brushes. I don't have any yet. But, I think the bristles may just glide over caked salt. I tried to brush it pretty heavily at first and no salt was removed. I had to chip it away with a small sharp plastic scraper.

You think the stiffest DA brush would be best?

i have a little green/aqua colored one that works great.. doubt salt would stop it.. I also have a bigger black one that attaches like a pad and that probably wouldn't work as well for thick salt.. but for the seats should work great.. then after the brush of course some folex and steam.. maybe extraction..

I'm cautious with extraction because sometimes it's like opening pandoras box

[parttimer]

If its the actual interior, I too vote for carpet brush on a DA. I had a bad one a few weeks ago, pretreat and used the DA polisher, got all of it out after shop vac and DA brushing.

[richy]

Hopefully the salt hasn't dyed the carpet in that area. Salt is corrosive and is activated by water. My steps for removing salt is as follows:

1) Vacuum first getting as much as possible trying to break it up
2) Liberally spray the salt stains with straight 100% white vinegar (Vinegar will neutralize the salt and won't re-activate it)
3) Vacuum again
4) Use Folex with DA brush if required
5) Wipe well with white terry towels
6) Vacuum
7) If above steps have not removed stains, follow up with steam/and or more Folex

[Marszczak]

Usually I'd just put it into washing machine. That is quick and safe, still effective.

[alanwkelly]

After reading this thread about removing caked on salt I'm pasting this which I composed after a recent experience pulverizing salt using no water.


Caked salt removal - waterless pulverizing

Got salt?
Have you got salt hardened on your fixed-in-place auto carpets?

Reading about how to remove caked on salt that had dried on the fixed-in-place auto carpets, I found most, if not all, used water which I knew that was "problem making"

Yesterday, faced with that job, and fuezled in part by a healthy dose of raw greens, I used my engraving tool in conjunction with the vacuum for pulverizing the caked salt into a salt powder that was easily vac'd from the carpet.

Begin to end time: about 1 minute per square inch.
My carpet: 144 square inches, two hours complete.

No drying time!