When renovating our house, we opted to use hardwood floors in the living room and hallway, and carpet in the bedrooms and office. This was opposite of the way we purchased the house as it had carpet in the living room and hallway, with hardwood floors in the bedrooms and office. After shopping around at several bayshore contractors for good quality carpet, we ended up using Home Depot as they had higher quality carpet, with cheap installation. We were quoted roughly $2100 for full house installation (both berber carpet and the thick berber padding) and the removal of old carpeting and pad. Going with the same configuration at a San Francisco Bayshore contractor was around $2500 and they didnt carry the the soft name brand carpet we wanted).

Anyways, we opted to get a rather light uniform carpet color (Color is almost white – which may have been a bad choice considering were thinking about having kids sometime soon) and within the first year of having it, weve stained it several times. I then decided it was time to invest in a carpet stain remover and went to Target to do some shopping. I brought home a product called “Spot Shot” and decided to give it a try (I got mine for $3.29 for a 14 oz can). Out of all the other options for carpet stain removal, I opted for this one because of two main selling points:

• The ability to remove OLD STAINS from pets, greasy foods, motor oil, red wine, blood, grape juice, show polish, cola, mud, coffee, and lipstick (I liked this one because the stains have been sitting in the carpet for a while now).
• The ability to do so without scrubbing and rubbing. You just have to blot the area after use.

I did pick up another product called Oxi Clean, but it comes in a powder form and you have to mix it with water and rub and scrub…Im too lazy for that (its a sunday!), so I went with Spot Shot as you just shake the can and shoot it (there might have been a subconscious pull for me to select this one, me being a man and all).

Here is a picture of the spots I was trying to remove. The spots dont really show in the pictures, but they were noticeable and would not come off with just plain water and a paper towel.

Before Spot Shot

After Spot Shot

The directions tell you to just spray the stuff on the stain and to not oversaturate it. I covered it pretty well with the liquid and let it sit for a few seconds. Then I used a clean LAP pad (clothlike thing they use to wipe up blood in the hospitals…my wifes sister is a nurse in the OR) to blot out the stain. To be honest, I did scrub and rub a bit to see if i could get it to work faster, but I dont think I needed to. The directions mentioned that I might need to repeat until the stain is removed, it was just barely noticeable after the first application, so I did it twice. After the second application, the stain was gone.

Overall, the product reminds me a lot of brake cleaner, just spray it on and wipe it off (it actually evaporates fast though). I even used it on one of my kitchen table chairs and it removed an old oily stain. Im pretty impressed with the way this product worked, and no longer stress too much about when we have kids, as this stain remover should do the trick with anything they get on the carpet. I guess this post turned into a Spot Shot review…

So with this done, when my wife comes back, ill show her how awesome I am and get more love points!