Marietta Carpet Cleaning True Story - Removing Carpet Blood Stains

This is another one of those true stories from my carpet cleaning business, and unfortunately, it is a sad one.

Carpet Blood Stains | Office Before

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It’s Tuesday – my scheduled day off to catch up on administrative duties in the office.

Sometime around 9:00 am, I get a frantic voice mail message from one of my clients. She had news that all of us who have pets in our families dread. Her pet cat had taken ill and had left massive blood stains on her carpet.

She had 2 questions:

Was I available to remove the blood stains?
If not, what would I recommend she do until I could make it to her home?

After 20 years in the business, this is not the first time I’ve fielded this type of call. Sometimes pets get sick. I immediately knew not only what she should do, but more importantly, what she should not do.

I called her back but could not reach her. I left a voice mail message letting her know the earliest I could get to her home would be the following morning.

In the meantime, I gave her instructions on how to handle the blood stains: it involves cold water and hydrogen peroxide.

About 20 minutes later I try to reach her again to find out she’s on the way taking her cat to the vet. I give her the instructions for removing the carpet blood stain, and she feels confident she will be able to handle it. Just in case, we make a tentative appointment for the following day.

Now the sad part. The illness was more serious that anyone thought. She called about an hour later and said her beloved family pet had to be put to sleep. She was understandably overwhelmed and really couldn’t face the thought of removing the blood stain. Was there any way I could possibly make it to her home that day?

My answer was, “of course!” Although I’ve had success in removing blood stains after they’ve been on the carpet for over 24 hours, and it could have waited until the following day, that wasn’t the point. She has had a devastating loss (one that I’ve also experienced in the past – an experience that brought this 6’0 225lb burly man to tears).

I also know she has elementary school age children would be home soon. Children having to come to grips with the loss of a pet was bad enough. The least I could do is make sure they would not to face the visual reminder. I get suited and booted and get out there as quickly as I can.

A point I should make is that blood stains on carpets are not of the cookie-cutter, one-size-fits-all stain variety. Each instance is different and has its own unique set of variables: carpet fiber, type of pet, pet’s DNA, pet’s diet/medication…that determine whether or not stain removal is possible.

In this case, a combination of protein stain remover, enzymes, oxidizers, sanitizers & molecular modifiers removed all of the stains from the carpet, as you can see from the pictures.

My client was beyond thrilled with the results (all things considered). So much so she said it was ok to take some after pictures to use in my blog. Although there are only 2 areas photographed, there were close to 10 areas with the same blood stains that were successfully removed.

Seeing her relief was well worth the time and effort. Although I would never want another client to go through this traumatic experience, if it should happen I’ll be there.