How to Get Vomit Out of Carpet (and Clean Up Safely After Gastro)

To get vomit out of carpet, put on gloves, lift the solids, soak up the liquid, then wash the spot with a weak dishwashing liquid solution and cool water. Blot, never scrub. Rinse with plain water and press the area dry with paper towel.

If the vomit came from a stomach bug, treat it as a health job as well as a stain. Keep children and pets out of the room, open a window, bag everything you used and wash your hands well. Once everyone has recovered, have the carpet hot water extracted, because heat is what sanitises carpet.

Three things to avoid: vacuuming it first, using hot water on the stain, and pouring bleach on carpet. This guide explains why, then walks through the clean-up step by step.

It can be. Gastro viruses such as norovirus spread through contact with vomit and faeces, and NSW Health notes they can also spread through the air when someone vomits. University of Minnesota Extension says norovirus can survive on surfaces for up to two weeks, which is why a quick wipe is not enough after a bout of gastro.

Not every vomit comes from a bug. A child who ate too fast or got car sick is a stain problem, not an infection risk. If you are not sure of the cause, clean as if it were a bug. It takes a few extra minutes and protects everyone else in the house.

Both NSW Health and healthdirect advise wearing gloves and a mask when cleaning up vomit. Rubber kitchen gloves are fine if you wash them in hot soapy water afterwards, but disposable gloves are easier.

Wool carpet or a wool rug? Use a gentler wash. Godfrey Hirst's wool guide recommends one teaspoon of wool-approved detergent and one teaspoon of white vinegar in a litre of warm (not hot) water. Test it on a hidden spot first, blot gently, and call a professional if the mark is not lifting.

Found it after it dried? Lift off any crusty pieces with a blunt knife or spoon and bag them. Do not vacuum dried vomit either. Dampen what is left with the dishwashing liquid solution, wait a few minutes for it to soften, then carry on from step 4. Older stains often need two or three rounds, with the carpet drying between each one.

The steps above remove the vomit and the stain. After gastro, you also want to deal with any germs left in the carpet, and this is where carpet differs from hard floors.

Keep bleach for hard surfaces. NSW Health recommends a freshly made bleach solution for disinfecting surfaces after gastro, but its infection control guidance warns that bleach solutions can bleach furnishings and fabrics. Use it on tiles, vinyl, toilets, taps and door handles, following the directions on the bottle. Never mix bleach with other cleaning products.

On carpet, heat does the work. The same NSW Health guidance says contaminated carpet should be washed with detergent and hot water, then steam cleaned. University of Minnesota Extension gives the target: 70 °C for five minutes, or 100 °C for one minute. A home steam mop or hire machine may not hold those temperatures long enough to rely on.

That can sound like it clashes with the advice to use cool water. It does not. The two steps do different jobs. Vomit contains protein, and heat can set protein stains into carpet fibres, so remove the stain first with cool water. Then sanitise with a proper hot water extraction once the stain is out.

Timing. NSW Health advises keeping up extra hygiene until 48 hours after the last vomiting or diarrhoea. That is a sensible point to book a carpet clean, once the whole household is well.

A smell that hangs around after cleaning almost always means residue is still in the carpet. Start by rinsing the spot again with plain water and letting it dry completely.

Once it is dry, a light sprinkle of baking soda left for a few hours and then vacuumed can help with a faint smell. Do not spray air freshener or perfume over it. That covers the smell for a day or two while the cause stays put.

If the smell keeps coming back, especially on warm days, the vomit has probably soaked through to the carpet backing or the underlay. Surface cleaning cannot reach that far. It needs a hot water extraction that flushes the backing, not just the tips of the fibres.

The same method works for pet vomit, including cat hairballs. Lift the solids, soak up the liquid, wash with the mild dishwashing liquid solution, rinse and press dry.

Pets often return to the same spot, and repeated accidents build up in the underlay over time. If you are dealing with regular pet accidents, our pet stain and odour carpet cleaning treats the carpet more deeply than a standard clean. If the problem is urine rather than vomit, see our guide on how to get dog urine out of carpet. And if your pet is vomiting often, it is worth mentioning to your vet.

The laundry detergent point surprises people. The Carpet and Rug Institute warns that many laundry detergents contain optical brighteners that can dye carpet fibres, leaving a patch that looks different in some light. Plain dishwashing liquid is the safer choice for spot cleaning.

A small, fresh spot is usually a DIY job. Call a professional carpet cleaner when:

• the vomit came from a stomach bug and you want the carpet properly sanitised
• a stain or colour mark is still there after a few rounds of treatment
• the smell keeps coming back once the carpet dries
• it is on wool carpet or a valuable rug
• it has soaked into a large area
• you are moving out of a rental and the carpet needs a professional clean for your final inspection (see our end of lease cleaning)

Our carpet steam cleaning uses hot water extraction, which flushes the carpet backing as well as the fibres. Stain treatment usually adds $30 to $60, and you can see the full rates on our carpet cleaning prices page. We clean carpet across Canberra and Queanbeyan; see our Canberra carpet cleaning page for what is included.

If the vomit landed on a couch or mattress instead, our upholstery cleaning service can help. For other household spills, our complete guide to removing carpet stains covers the most common ones.