cats knocked oil lamp on carpet, contents spilled
spank your cat until it behaves..... Seriously you needed to put towels, to draw the oil out first thing. Keep doing that until there is none left to draw. Naptha as in Fels naptha or you might try lighter fluid....make sure you are well vented. A wet vac MIGHT do the trick as in the local carpet shampoo rental place. If all else fails call a pro. Obviously your concerns are an oil based product which might harm the dyes...or loosen them and anything else strong enough to attack the oil may be too strong for the dyes.... Oil lamps really should be kept in a safer place and used only as an aux light source when the electric goes out....open fire lighting has ALWAYS been dangerous....not trying to sound lecture like but over the years I have learned both candles and oil lamps are probably not a good thing in lieu of flashlites....not as romantic but far less likly to take out your entire house.
place paper towels over the effected areas to soak up as much as you can, replacing the towels as needed, then, if you have one, take a wet/dry vacuum and a spray bottle with warm water and spray the area then vac it up repeat this process until they oil is up. this also works well on other spots, just use clear water, no soap or spot removers.
Since you have a cat, why don't you try Cat Litter? It is absorbent and can't make it worse. I have no clue if that will work, but I have seen it used for oil spills on roads and such. -maria
You did not mention if the result was ONLY (which is bad) a soiled spot or did it result in delamination... (the carpet coming up into a ripple type look)... Normally.. I say normally.. Spilled lamp oil, baby oil, or too much solvent applied to any carpet, will cause delamination. This can only be repaired from the back or by injecting new adhesive into the carpet's backing. If it does not show effects of delamination, you might try two things.. rubbing with HOT soapy water.. if not workilng, try usisng denture cleaner on the spot(s)
I'm going with Norman777 on this one. chances are the carpet is ruined in that spot already. Adding another flammable solvent to it will only make it worse. The padding underneath will absorb it and keep wicking it back to the carpet for days. The carpet WILL delaminate from the backing and ripple up, and leave you with an area in need of a repair. Long story short, get ready to call a carpet guy. If you don't have any excess carpet from that room, you'll want to go get a piece of rem carpet and pad from a carpet outlet that's big enough to do the closet you are going to get the piece to repair that area out of. Total cost of about $125-$225 depending on where you live and how decent the guy that does it is. By decent I mean nice, quality of work is a moot point since it really won't match perfectly for a couple of months at least. Just make sure they replace the pad also. Good Luck.
