Cleaning those little pebbles out of carpet

[Daox]

So, I got an aveo the other day and started cleaning it up. The first thing I did was vacuum the whole thing out. However, the previous owner must have had a gravel driveway or something because there is a ton of tiny pebbles embedded in the carpet (and no floor mats of courses). Does anyone have a good way of getting those out? I've worked at it with the shop vac, but it really doesn't seem to be able to pull them out amazingly well. Just wondering if anyone has any tricks.

[MetroMPG]

I've always been able to get embedded stuff out of carpets with the shop vac and the wand attachment (smallest opening increases suction).

I'm guessing you've tried that and "scrubbing" the tool back and forth and it still didn't work? It usually does for me, but takes a lot of patience to scrub enough.

Maybe Bigs will have some advice (detailer at heart).

[Meneilley]

You are going to have to shampoo your carpet, pretty easy, just get some hot water and a wash mit, and use either car wash or carpet soap. Scrub the carpet with the wash mit and make sure you get the carpet good and wet, then take a bristle brush and scrub in a circular motion, then suck it all up with a shop vac. If there is still some dirt in the carpet, repeat the process again.

Hope this works for you!

[petrified.rabbit]

Buy floormats and cover the rocks!

[Thymeclock]

If they really are tiny pebbles, shampooing the carpet won't remove them. What you need is something to lift them up so the vacuum cleaner can grab them.

One suggestion is to blow them with compressed air. You will need a very fine nozzle on your compressed air line to do this. Another possibility is to use a very stiff bristle brush to get down to where they are in the carpet and get them moving around. As you are doing this, use the fine orifice vacuum wand with your other hand to suck them up once you dislodge them.