How To Get Dried Candle Wax Out Of Carpet

How to Remove Wax From Carpet in 3 Steps

A pro shares his method on how to remove wax

Introduction

Candle wax accidentally dripped on a plush carpet may look like a hopeless mess, but with a cool head, a hot iron, and a few tricks of the trade, you can make a big wax mess disappear.

Materials Required

Heavy duty carpet cleaner

Project step-by-step (3)

Step 1

How to get wax out of carpet: Scrape, dampen and spray

The first step in how to clean up wax is to scrape off any hardened wax

Clean

Scrape the wax loose with a butter knife (be gentle with Berber carpets; the loops fray easily). Vacuum up the loose wax and scrape off any remaining wax chunks.

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Step 2

Iron the carpet

iron

Dampen a white cotton towel, fold it in half and place it over the wax. Press an iron set on "high" over the towel for 10 seconds. The heat will draw the wax out of the carpet and into the towel. Repeat until the wax is gone (you may have to hold the iron in place for up to 30 seconds). If the towel dries out, rewet it, and if it becomes loaded with wax, grab another one.

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Step 3

Scrub in carpet cleaner

carpet

Spray carpet cleaner on the stain and scrub it into the carpet with a spoon. Dab it dry with a clean white towel, then let the carpet air-dry (it will appear slightly darker until completely dry). Light-colored carpets and dark stains may require several scrubbings. Your holiday party was going great—until your favorite aunt (who probably had had a little too much eggnog) knocked a lit candle onto the carpet. Everybody's quick to offer the old standby solution of ironing over a paper bag, but when we asked a professional carpet cleaner how he suggests how to remove wax, we heard a different story on how to remove wax from carpet. A paper bag can overheat and burn the carpet if you think that's how to get wax off the floor, and should not be used to remove wax. Instead, how to get candle wax out of carpet involves rounding up a butter knife, spoon, iron, carpet stain remover and white cotton towels. The following steps will leave your carpet cleaner than a surgeon's fingernails. Learn how to get wax out of carpet.

Photo 1 shows how to remove the large chunks of wax from the surface. You should get rid of most of the wax at this stage. Scraping the knife against the carpet will probably leave the area a little fuzzy. To remove the fuzz, lay a scissors flat on the carpet. Push down lightly on the pivot of the scissors, and trim off any fuzz.

Now it's time to use a heat exchange to reach deep down into the heart of the carpet fibers to draw out the remaining wax (Photo 2).

There's a good chance the wax will discolor the area, especially in a light-colored carpet. Take out the spot with heavy-duty carpet stain remover (Photo 3).

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