How To Get Crusty Stains Out Of Carpet (Tough, but not impossible!)

While most of us try to keep close tabs on our carpets, sometimes we might not realize that we’ve had a spill. When that happens, the spill can harden and form a crusty, tough-to-remove stain. 

What’s Causing Those Carpet Crusties, Anyway?

There are many factors that can lead to a crusty-hard-to-remove stain. They include lack of vacuuming, chemical spills, high humidity, high foot traffic (with dirty shoes on), and leftover cleaning residue. 

While these carpet scabs are hard to get out, they’re certainly not impossible. If you’ve got a stain that’s become crusty, you can get it out of your carpet with water, vinegar, and dish soap. Here’s how. 

Rub a Dub Dub, Dish or Hand Soap and Scrub!

Before you race into attacking the carpet stain with harsh chemicals, let’s start with the basics. Sometimes, all you need is a little bit of dish soap, water, and some good old-fashioned elbow grease. 

Water and dish soap is a great formula because it’s safe for a variety of different carpets. You can use it on sensitive carpets and you can use it to tackle stains if you don’t know what the substance is. 

After all, dish soap is designed to get rid of dirt and debris. That’s what makes it such a great method for cleaning your floor!

To use this method, mix a tablespoon of dish detergent (or hand soap if you don’t have dish soap in the house) with one cup of warm water. 

Then, dab the dish soap mixture onto your carpet with a paper towel. Once the stain is damp (but not soaked!) let it sit for a minute or two before cleaning up the water with cold water and some dry paper towels. 

The Old Vinegar and Water Trick

If the first method doesn’t work for you you might need a more powerful solution. In this case, you might want to pull out the distilled white vinegar that’s sitting under your sink waiting for you to use it (who else never bakes with that stuff?!).

To make this stain remover, mix two cups of water with one tablespoon of vinegar. Yep, you heard that right. One tablespoon is all you need!

Mix the substances together. The resulting blend is great for tackling tougher stains or stains that seem to have an unpleasant odor. 

Just like with the vinegar and water, you’ll dab this onto the carpet and let it sit for a few minutes. Then, use fresh water and a dry paper towel to clean up the mixture from the carpet. 

Note: After you loosen the crusty, you’ll need to do a bit of scrubbing. You may find a rag or a cloth towel works better to get the crusty off the floor for the scrubbing phase, as paper towels can flake off onto your floor as you rub. 

Tough Stains? Add Some Baking Soda

If you to clean sticky residue or other heavy-duty stains you can use baking soda and vinegar to get rid of them. This method is pretty much the same as using vinegar and water, except that you’ll add baking soda to your vinegar and water mix. 

Alternatively, you can sprinkle the baking soda on the stain and then apply the water and vinegar mix. Whichever works for you!

Either way, the mixture will start to foam up as it works at the stain. Our advice? Let it foam for an hour, rather than just a few minutes. This will help loosen the stain even more. 

Keep It Simple: Carpet Cleaner

Sometimes you might find that spot cleaning your carpet works a little better than you’d bargained for. The result is that the stains leave pristine-looking patches on your carpet and the rest of the carpet looks comparatively dirty!

To get rid of this issue, you can use a portable carpet cleaner to go over the rest of your carpet. Add solution to your carpet cleaner as recommended by the manufacturer. 

It will take you a few hours to go over your entire carpet. Afterward, you’ll need to allow the carpet to dry for up to eight hours. However, the result is well worth the wait!

Frequently Asked Questions

How Do You Get Hard Crust Out of Carpet?

You can usually get hard crust out of carpet with dish (or hand) soap and water. If that doesn’t work, try using vinegar and water to get crusty stains out of your carpet. Keep in mind that the older the stain is the more difficult it will be for you to get the stain out of your carpet. 

Why Is My Carpet Crusty?

Carpets become crusty for a few different reasons. The most common ones include a faulty vacuum, chemical spills, high humidity, high foot traffic, and leftover cleaning residue.