UCB Parents Advice about Household Management
Removing wax from fabric & carpet
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How to get wax out of carpets
January 2003
We have had a small accident with some candle wax dripping over
a table on to carpet. I haven't ventured to touching it yet as I
have tried and failed in the past to get hard wax off a pile
carpet.
Does anyone out there have any secret tricks that work ? The
carpet has quite thick pile and the wax seems very stuck on.
Please help
Thanks
Try covering the designated waxed spot w/newspaper and then
running a hot iron over it- move the newspaper and keep ironing
until you get the mess up- its worked quite well for our wax
mishaps. Good luck!
Marian
As the daughter of a parish priest I have spent extensive periods of my
childhood getting wax out of carpets! The best (and gentlest) method we
found was using a warm iron and brown (parcel) paper. Heat the iron on
its lowest setting, unplug and allow to cool, then cover the wax with the
paper and iron over it briefly. The wax should melt a little and transfer to
the paper like a grease spot. Repeat with a new patch of paper until
nothing more transfers. You may be left with a greasy residue on the
carpet but that comes out with carpet cleaner. Good luck.
Claire
I've had success with removing candle wax from carpet and
tablecloths by using a warm iron with a piece of paper towel
between iron and wax. break off as much of the wax as you can
with a butter knife and vacuum. then use iron (medium heat?)
with a paper towel in between to slowly melt and lift wax - wax
will stick to paper towel. If there is a lot of wax, it may take
a while and a few sheets of paper towels.
cynthia
This goes for fabric too: first freeze it - fill a ziplock
baggie with ice and lay it on top of the wax and leave it there
for a while. This gets it really hard so it doesn't smear or run
into the carpet more. Now pull/break/cut/scrape off as much of
the wax as you can. Keep re-freezing it if it gets soft. (For
fabric, actually put the item in the freezer for a few hours.)
Once you have all the wax you can get off the surface, you want
to melt it and soak it up with paper towels or newspaper. Lay
some folded paper towels or other clean absorbent paper over
the wax and blot it with a hot iron, each time
replacing with clean paper. Keep doing that till no more wax
comes up. If the carpet is nylon, test how hot you can get it
before the carpet melts along with the wax! Finally, clean with
soap to get the rest of the wax out.
Ginger
We had a candle which spilled over to our carpet and we used ice
to chip it away. It worked very well and most of the wax is
gone. You may also want to check the Hints from Heloise website.
tabnand
One thing that works for clothes, and possibly for carpets, is to
put down a paper towel and iron it on top of the wax spot. Heat
melts wax and capillary action draws it up into paper towel. Low
heat is all you need.
good luck
the way I get wax of other surfaces is by freezing the wax.If it's on
a table I take an ice cube and gently rub it over the the wax or if I
don't want the suface to get wet i put the ice cube in a little zip
lock bag.The wax comes right off. Never tried it on a rug.Try
freezing it and picking up the pieces of wax or have a vacum cleaner
ready to go.Good luck!
june
Ha! I know this one - put down paper towelling, then a real towel
and iron it so that the wax melts and goes into the paper. Also
works for tablecloths etc. May need to have several goes if the
carpet is thick.
fiona
Gather the following tools...
* hair dryer
* iron
* stack of white absorbant cloths (diapers or paper towels work
best)
1. Soften the wax with the hair dyer and get as much out using
your fingers.
2. Heat iron to med high if your carpet is wool / low if its
synthetic --be very carful with synthetic, you can easily do
scorching damage
3. Place a layer of cloth over wax, and use iron to melt area.
Cloth will absorb melted wax. Repeat this step with clean cloths
until no more wax comes up.
4. Wipe surface of iron clean while it is still warm
good luck.
Susannah
I haven't used it, but I notice Undu makes a wax remover now.
good luck
In the past I've used wax paper on top of the offending wax on
the carpet and a warm iron on top of that. The wax is attracted
to the wax paper through the heat of the iron.
Hope that helps!
naomi
For wax in cloth place brown paper bag over area and then run a hot
iron over that. I thilnk it should work the same with a rug. good luck
helen
Use a hot iron with brown paper to absorb the wax. I've used
ripped-up pieces of brown paper shopping bags to good effect.
Just move to a clean part of the sheet often enough that the iron
doesn't get too waxy. Good luck.
Kate
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