How do I get deep furniture impressions out of my carpet?

December 23, 2006 10:28 AM

How do I get deep furniture impressions out of my carpet?

We are rearranging the rooms in our house. We have very short pile carper, Berber I believe. Anyway, you can tell where every piece of furniture was located previously. I realize some of them will smooth back out over time, but some are very deep and compressed. For example, I just moved a 6-ft rolling metal shelf with probably 4-500 pounds on it. It's been in the same spot for 18 months, I don't think the impressions from those wheels are coming back up.

I'm going to get furniture feet to put under everything from here on out. Hopefully the impressions won't be as bad in the future.

Any ideas would be appreciated.

posted by thir13en to home & garden (7 comments total)

Steam. Carefully hold a steam iron a few inches above the problem areas. Be careful though, dropping a hot iron on your carpet will not help!
posted by COD at 10:40 AM on December 23, 2006

You can find a lot of good stuff if you search for "Remove Furniture Dents from Carpet"
posted by blue_beetle at 10:42 AM on December 23, 2006

Well steam is right, but I recommend getting a steam vacuum cleaner in - either one you hire yourself, or the professional carpet cleaners. They did wonders for the dents in our carpet.
posted by Jimbob at 11:00 AM on December 23, 2006

The ice cube thing that appears in many of the links from blue_beetle's Google search really works. My mom always used that.

Just put an ice cube in the dent overnight; when it melts and evaporates, the dent will be gone.
posted by synaesthetichaze at 11:03 AM on December 23, 2006

Put a towel over the dent, and then lightly place a steam iron set on high over the area. Let the steam penetrate the towel for a half-minute or so, then remove and check the dent. Redo as necessary. The dent should disappear.
posted by Flakypastry at 11:08 AM on December 23, 2006

blue_beetle: Ironically, I didn't check Google first, but obviously I should have. I wanted to know people's experiences with different methods, and the first link I went to had just that.

I think I was also anxious to post my first mefi question!

Thanks.
posted by thir13en at 11:14 AM on December 23, 2006

Well, the ice cubes didn't work for me. I can't even tell a difference. I'll try the steam iron next.
posted by thir13en at 2:56 PM on December 26, 2006