How to Repair Cigarette Burns in Carpet
by Steven Gillman

Description: Tips for repairing and/or minimizing the appearance of cigarette burns in your carpet.

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Who do you hire to repair cigarette burns in carpet? A good carpet cleaner will usually be able to do it for you. On the other hand, why not fix them yourself? Here are the simple steps to take.

Light Cigarette Burns

If there isn't a hole, but just a surface burn, you are in luck. This repair can be an easy one. Just get a small pair of scissors and start snipping off the blackened or brown ends of the burnt fibers. If the damage isn't too deep, you may not even notice the small depression left. You can hide it further by trimming the tufts around the burn, so the spot blends into the surrounding area. If what is left is still too visible, you may want to try the method for repairing holes.

Cigarette Holes in Carpet

Unless you grab that lit cigarette within seconds after it drops, it will usually burn a hole in your carpet. What do you do then? To start with, you can improve the appearance of the spot by trimming away the burnt ends of the fibers, as described above. Of course, you are still left with a noticeable hole.

You need to fill this hole with new fibers from the same carpet to make it invisible. You can snip some tufts from any leftover piece of the carpet if some was saved during installation. Otherwise, you have to take them from the existing carpet. Find an area that is fairly well hidden, like behind a door. You can also take some pieces from several different places, so there is no visible thin spot anywhere.

Carefully coat the bottom of the burn hole with waterproof glue. Using tweezers, push the carpet fibers into the glue until the hole is full. When in doubt, overfill it - you can always remove a few fibers later if necessary. Cover the spot with a clean white cloth or plain white paper towel and place a heavy weight on it (books or heavy lamp will work). Allow the glue to dry for several hours.

Once it is dry, you can fluff up the fibers by vacuuming, to see how well you made the repair. It should be difficult if not impossible to spot the damage. If a few of the new fibers are standing up too high above the rest, you can carefully trim these, and then you are done. For less than a dollar's worth of glue you can repair cigarette burns in carpet.

Steve Gillman worked in the carpet cleaning industry for years. For more on carpet-care, and How To Remove Carpet Stains, including specific stain-by-stain removal instructions, visit http://www.HowToRemoveCarpetStains.com

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