Removing chewing gum from carpets

Flavia Perugini <fperugini [at] mountvernon__org> writes

>We have a serious problem with chewing gum being dropped by visitors
>onto the modern carpets in our buildings.  Several attempts to
>remove the gum have been made but we are still looking for the best
>method and material. ...

I was surveyor of all works at Madame Tussaud's waxwork exhibition
hall in London in the 1970s and remember the maintenance staff froze
the chewing gum that had been trodden into the carpet, then crushed
it so that it could be removed by vacuum. It seemed to work and
didn't seem to cause further damage to the wool, much of which was a
looped pile in Brussels weave.

Peter Maitland Hood
Mercia House
51 The Green
Banbury
Oxford OX16 9AB
UK
Fax: +44 1539 623662


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                  Conservation DistList Instance 18:36
                 Distributed: Sunday, January 30, 2005
                       Message Id: cdl-18-36-011
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