Carpet catastrophe

[Gemini]

Last night whilst we were out trick treating OH had a catastrophe.
On the hearth we have a tea light holder, It consists of a plate with little stones on it and 3 holders, 2 squat round ones and one taller slimmer one.
The candle in the taller one suddenly really flared up, and OH tried to blow it out which didn't work. She then put some wet tissue on it. It sort of leapt out and fell onto the carpet, metal tealight case and wax. We now have a melted circle and line in our carpet (new in January)
Thank goodness OH was in the room I suppose but I think if she had put plate on top to extinguish the flames this may not have happened. Hard to know what is best to do in these emergencies though.
The insurance assessor is going to come and look next week.

[Oma]

Oh dear Gem that's the thing about candles isn't it you can't leave them unattended , you just wouldn't expect things like that to happen .
many years ago we had only been in our house a few weeks when a cinder jumped out of the fire and burned the carpet , the insurance would only pay for a rug to cover it , so we bought a lovely sheepskin only for B to drop hot ashes on it a week later 😲😊

[Mimi]

Gem , what a shame about your carpet , would you be able to hide the stain with a rug or a tall vase with some dried flowers perhaps. ?

Years ago MIL had a fire in the sitting room , the TV suddenly caught fire and luckily a neighbour was able to put it out without too much damage . All that was burnt was the TV and some ceiling tiles that were all the rage in the 70s . They were made from polystyrene and they melted. The toxic fumes from them must have been dangerous . All the insurance company would pay out for was 4 tiles that had melted . They had to redo the ceiling but not with tiles I may add

[Nanto2girls]

Oh dear Gem. Like you say,thank goodness OH was in.
Hoping you get a good outcome from the insurance.

[Daisy]

Gem, what a shame for your lovely new carpet. You can only be thankful it wasn't worse and OH acted so quickly.

Hopefully the insurance assessor will agree you can't cover it with a rug. About 10 years ago 'somebody' visiting our house spilled bright red acrylic paint on the landing. We tried really hard to clean it up and managed to reduce the brightness of it a bit. So we claimed for a professional clean. When the assessor came he took one look and said there's no way we could clean that, have a new carpet! We'd never even thought of such a thing, but I think it helped that the carpet was relatively new at the time. As yours is even newer they can see you're not trying too pull a fast one - why would you want to change it after just a few months. So fingers crossed!

[Gemini]

OH spoke to the small local firm where we bought the carpet from.
According to them the insurance should cover the whole (lounge and dining room, all one carpet) carpet. She said they will try to get us to go with their carpet supplier and fitter, but we are entitled to say no. She said they may also offer us the cash. So , we shall see.
A rug can't go there as it is beside, not in front of the hearth. A plant or ornament could cover it.

[Plantaholic]

That is very upsetting but things could have been worse, I am not a candle user because I have no sense of smell.

[Qwerty]

Oh dear Gem what rotten luck, if it had just been hot wax you could have got it of with an iron and brown paper , but a burn I think I would have cried , I do hope you get it sorted through the insurance some of these companies are monkeys , but all the same glad you were insured

[Sunshine]

If you have a spare piece of the existing carpet, a good carpet fitter should be able to repair it. I have seen it done, where they used a tea plate to cut a circle out of the damaged carpet, then another circle from the remnant. They were able to match it, making sure the pile of the carpet goes the same way. They used spray adhesive to stick the new piece down. This only works if the existing carpet isn’t worn or it would show too much. Good luck.

[Daisy]

Sunshine - I'd forgotten until I read your post, but many years ago we had several repairs to carpets when we were in Haslemere, when the naughty little puppy we had then used to chew holes in them! You could never see where the repair was.

[Gemini]

Sunshine , I had heard about the circular repair method too. Apparently the shape doesn't draw the eye to it as a square or straight edged piece would.

[Daisy]

Gem - now the assessor has been and it looks as though you're going to get the go ahead for a replacement, are you going for the same colour or will you choose something different?

[Gemini]

Neither Daisy!
As the carpet is less than year old, we can do without the hassle of refitting, we will take the cash option. Also we would have to pay for the fitting, not covered by the insurance. So, we will get the carpet company we bought it from to repair and and have some cash left

[Plantaholic]

That sounds the best plan Gemini.

[Qwerty]

👍🏻 Glad it’s sorted Gem 🤦♀️