How to remove candle wax from your upholstery?

November 5, 2021

We’ve all hosted dinner parties, what better than setting the mood with some candlelight? However If not carefully handled this “mood lighting” with caution, it can drip onto your beautiful textiles! Do not worry, This happens the best of us occasionally. It may seem like the end of the world when you see the vanilla fragranced candle trickling down and sinking into your gorgeous rug, especially if it is not yours. Before thinking about how to redecorate the whole house or how to blame your in laws remember there is still time and hope. At Magic Carpet Cleaning we understand that accidents happen and that’s okay! Fortunately, we have got you covered and have put together a simple procedure and some professional tricks that will help lift off your waxy, oil-based stain.

Things you will need:

  • A bag of ice or an ice pack
  • A hairdryer or iron
  • A butter knife
  • Vacuum cleaner
  • Parchment paper

Remember: If you are unsure about removing the candle wax for your carpet, rug or sofa, call us at 02089302650 and we can talk the procedure with you step by step!

  1. Place a bag of ice on top of the wax stain and allow it to freeze for a few minutes. It normally takes no more than 10 minutes to complete this task. Make sure the ice bag does not get wet, as the wax will become even more difficult to remove if there is moisture.
  2. When the wax is solidly frozen, scrape as much as you can off the carpet, rug or sofa with the point of a butter knife. Be careful not to cut or damage the fibres within your textiles while doing this.
  3. Clean all of the scraped-off chunks of wax with your vacuum cleaner.
  4. Put the knife away and place parchment paper on top of the residual stain if there is still some wax on your carpet that is difficult to scrape out.
  5. Heat the parchment paper and the wax underneath it with your hair dryer or iron on a medium to high setting. When the parchment paper begins to absorb the wax stain, rotate it around so that there is always a clean area over the wax.
  6. Repeat this until all the wax has been lifted off the carpet.
  7. If the candle wax that melted over your carpet was coloured, dab the affected areas with a towel dampened with rubbing alcohol until the colour is gone.
  8. Finally, vacuum the area where the wax was to ensure that every last trace of the stain has been removed.

Magic Carpet Cleanings Top Tips:

TIP #1: When using the rubbing alcohol, at Magic Carpet Cleaning UK, we strongly suggest you to test it on an unseen area of the carpet, such as a corner of the room or a leftover patch of carpet after it has been fitted. This ensures that you are aware of any reactions that may occur inside the fibres within your textiles before applying it to remove the stain.
TIP #2: Begin blotting using the rubbing alcohol from the centre of the dyed wax stain- this ensures that the stain does not become larger while being blotted.
TIP #3: Magic Carpet Cleaning UK highly suggests waiting for expert assistance with delicate fabrics such as velvet or swede. Because any liquids that come into touch with such materials would leave an unwanted residue or watermarks, they can only be cleaned with a dry cleaning approach (see Magic Carpet Cleaning’s dry cleaning method here).
TIP #4: If you do not have parchment paper, you could use a paper towel.

How to get candle wax off your sofa?

Fabric sofa:

  • Leave the wax to solidify once it has been poured. Fill a plastic bag with ice cubes and place it over the stain to speed up the process. If you try to wipe the wax away before it hardens, you’ll only spread it everywhere and cause a worse problem.
  • When the wax has set, remove as much as possible. Any dull, flat-edged tool, such as a butter knife or spatula, can be used to achieve this. Simply chip away at the wax until as much as possible has been removed.
  • Apply an absorbent substance to the stain, such as a paper towel or parchment paper. Set your iron to medium heat and iron the paper towel carefully. The paper towel absorbs the wax as the heat from the iron melts it. To avoid accidentally ironing the wax back into the sofa, change the paper towel as soon as you notice the wax absorbed into it. Replace the paper towel sheets with new ones.

Leather sofas:

We understand that leather sofas are a popular choice in the UK. Even though at Magic Carpet Cleaning UK we do not specialise in leather, we know a leather specialist will have professional methods and advice on how to remove wax from your sofas. Therefore we do advise that if you unsure, call a professional! After all it is easier to ask a professional than to remove your sofa from your home space!

Can’t get it out?

If you can’t get it out, it’s alright! This just implies that your carpet may need to be refreshed by one of our trustworthy technicians. The upholstery will be fresh and pristine after our team of expert carpet cleaners and technicians are finished with your stain. We provide more than just physical assistance and services; we are pleased to offer any free advice or recommendations. Only a small number of companies can removes tough stains and solids from your textiles without damaging a carpet. Hence if we can’t remove candle wax residues or stains, no other company can! You can relax knowing everything will be taken care of by Magic Carpet Cleaning UK. Our treatments, which are designed to work with both the stains and the carpet, this means that they are far more powerful than those available on the market. We extract it immediately after application and remove the stain without harming the texture or colour of the carpet. Please feel free to call us at 02089302650 for more information.