[Tony Stewart]

I cleaned a downstairs room and a bedroom today. The bedroom carpet was a wool mix and 20 years old. He had just had it refitted from an old house and wanted a clean after he had decorated the bedroom. This was the result after I had cleaned it with the Extraction Pro...........awful. You can see the traffic area round the bed.
I vacuumed well, sprayed with traffic clean and left a 10 minute dwell time. Used Extraction pro and HWE as per Prochem's manual. I just could not get the darned thing clean. The traffic areas were still looking dirty. Customer was OK about it as he said it was much better than it was. However I had cleaned it then went over it again with Stain Pro and a stiff hand brush and extracted with FF Rinse on the blacker areas. I did not want to do any more as I don't want to over wet the carpet. I need to call the customer just for my own personal pride of standards and re-clean it if necessary after it has dried but thought you guys may have a better idea of what went wrong. The tank was filthy so I know muck has come out! What was worse he gave me a tip.

[markpowell]

Try Powerburst pre-spray, make sure you agitate well and rinse.
Did you agitate the traffic areas?
Looking at the pic it looks like uv damage and a badly worn carpet. You would never ever bring that up like new, your expectations may be too high mate
Mark

[Gary Humphreys]

have you got a before because it doesnt look too bad to me. Not all carpets will come up to your satisfaction you know - wear etc.

[Gary Humphreys]

Just reread your post and you got a tip Lol.
Not that bad a job then?

[markpowell]

Would have looked 100% better if you had reset the pile too.
Have you attended a training course yet ?
MArk

[markpowell]

Would have looked 100% better if you had reset the pile too.
Have you attended a training course yet? Im surprised you went over again with stain pro as it is a protein spotter you would have been better with ultrapac renovate
Mark

[Craigp]

Tony don't worry too much, this is what's called in the trade- a sh*t carpet, often cheap crap are found in bedrooms. You can't polish a turd!

Looks like nylon.

[derek west]

did you run a bonnet over it to see if it was slipper or sock dye transfer, water won't get that out but a bonnet will improve it. providing you get transfer on the pad.

[Tony Stewart]

Thanks guys.
I have powerburst in my kit but it just did not seem to be a grease problem to me.
Did agitate the traffic areas as per usual
Yes been on the Prochem course and the Cleansmart course but you guys are a better course after that!
Bonnetting would be my next option I suppose. I could be sock dye transfer I suppose..........I had that before on a white carpet and if you looked up real close you could see little stands of fibre also wich gives it a clue. I was up close and personal with the hand tool to give it an extra go the second time.
It may be just that the carpet did not live up to my expectations. As I say he gave me £5.00 as a tip anyway!

[Len Gribble]

Tony

It appears you spent a lot of time on it good for you, but your profit took a hit!

I only have Power burst in my kit as a pre-spray, running ff rinse wasteful it’s synthetic, fresh water rinse would be OK as it would for 80/20 (do I need a tin hat )

Len

[Tony Stewart]

Thanks Len, Yes I suppose profit did but when you are learning your craft I feel it's better to get it right. The cleaning courses are fine but it practice that makes you a bit better. Took 1 hour and 15 mins

[craignozza]

The main thing is the custy was happy ..thats what were all aiming for isnt it 

[peter maybury]

Prochem training is good but they obviously promote theirown products and not what supplier can give you across the board top chemicals so would suggest the ncca as an alternative trainer. What is the cleansmart training not heard of that before?
Peter

[Tony Stewart]

Peter
Cleansmart Nottingham run a carpet and upholstery course run by Derek Bolton (top guy!!)

http://www.cleansmartsupplies.co.uk/acatalog/Carpet-cleaning-training-course.html

[Jim_77]

Hi Tony,  some constructive criticism, not meant to offend but to offer advice

Are you sure it's 80/20?  Although the photo is blurred, there appears to be quite a coarse texture to the pile in the traffic areas which is an indication of polyprop, partly matted down and therefore losing the original definition of texture.  Blah blah, waffle, not very important anyway.....

One thing I'm very curious about... is that a really tiny room with a tiny wardrobe, or is your wand like, 2 foot wide  Or is it a walk-behind machine?

I think there may be two areas letting you down here:

1) Chemistry.  Although prochem do a certain number of products which are very good, you'll find some far superior products from other suppliers. Powerburst is still arguably the "daddy" on a wide range of extreme soiling cases, doesn't have to be just greasy.  I would have added an oxidiser in to my pre-spray too on this one.

2) Agitation.  Maybe if you'd have had some form of mechanical agitation on this, with a more effective pre-spray, it would have turned out a lot different?

Also, if you are using a walk-behind type machine you'd undoubtedly get more consistently better results with a more powerful extraction unit in these situations

P.S. This Xmas, ask Santa for a phone with a decent camera

[from edge2edge]

Morning Tony I think the Cant polish a turd staement sums this situation up perfectly,,,,,,,,,,,,Alan

[Tony Stewart]

Hi Jim,
Think you may be right. Did a flame test but probably misread the results.............should have put it in water too to test if it floated (no pun intended as to the next post!)
As to the machine its a Prochem Steempro Powerplus which I would have thought would be enough. I know you perhaps have a truck-mount which would have been better. I also think that just filling it with hot water from the customers tap meant it was not hot enough to do the job as in this case it probably needed a bit more umph!Wand is standard 2 foot.
I agitated with a brush and being a strong guy felt the brush had done the job. I could have used my rotary but feel sometimes to take that in too just to agitate the carpet seemed in the past a bit of overkill. I know people swear by the sebo for agitation I was put off by some guys saying they spent more time cleaning the blessed rollers.
The only problem I have Jim is that whereas I can use the phrase a bad workman always blames his tools.......the camera is an Iphone 4 so I am blaming the photo tool!!!
But thanks ever so much for the advice I think you are probably spot on (no other pun intended!!!)

[Doug Holloway]

Hi Guys

Tony, I wouldn't bother too much with acid rinsing on this type of carpet, go for a higher pH.

Cheers

Doug

[robert meldrum]

TWO FOOT WAND ??

[clinton]

He gave you a tip so must be happy with what work you did on it mate.

[Billy Russell]

TWO FOOT WAND ??

Rob,

You took the words right out of my mouth!!!!!

[Tony Stewart]

Rob
Sorry it's 12 inches I got confused with another piece of equipment!

[tony bish]

Tony I have fitted a lot of second hand carpets refitts,especially now people are tightening their belts , and what people dont realise which we always tell them before hand is carpets will always take the shape of the room they were in ie lumps bumps ,and they will have crushed pile were perhaps units beds etc were and this will not come out ,also you would be surprised how the sun bleaches carpets so consequently when you refitt them they look awfull with patches everywhere .A carpet will wear by a door or in a heavy walk area  so if you then fit it in a bedroom off a wall for instance it will look as if it is dirty which is in fact carpet wear.I could go on and on but wont bore the pants of you,but will reitterate that a second hand carpet will never go down or clean up like one that has been specifically laid from new for that house,unless of course it has only been down for a very short period and even then it would have problems imo .So dont beat yourself up about it ,and the cant polish a turd is very apt ,which I nearly fell of my chair laughing about ,need to remember that one. 

[The Great One]

Hi

Tony as stated it's wear and tear, where they have constantly walked around the bed wearing out a traffic lane as they went, see a lot of it.

The only way to get rid of it is to change your name to jesus and invoke a miracle.

Martin

[Helen]

If the customer was happy then fine...... I am sure they did not expect miracles with a 20 year old carpet

[Jim_77]

Hi Tony, it must just be a trick of the light or the camera angle or something, it looks like a really wide wand track, much wider than 12 inches!!!

The sebo is a doddle to keep clean, you just have to turn upside down, switch it on and suck the crud off with the cuff of your vac hose. Takes about a minute at the end of a job

I have an iPhone4 too and I'll agree, the camera is bloody awful.  I still keep my old Sony Ericsson C905 in the van, its cybershot camera is as good as any small dedicated digital camera!  They're improving the camera on the iPhone5 apparently, still got 11 months of contract left so maybe treat myself next year to that!

[Dave_Lee]

Hi Tony,
It sure looks like a synthetic to me. Having done everything that you have, I think you can say it is clean.
The part where the bed has been is obviously more like the original colour and the rest has 20 years of UV fading, which not only lghtens the original clour but can drastically alter. Our deep pile emerald green carpet is a prime example, at the patio door area it has changed to a blue like appearance.
Being synthetic also those darker areas around the bed area could contain lots of 'Sock Dust', minute sock fibres that become trapped in the pile, which the extraction cleaning will not remove. This is common with synthetics and although the carpet will be clean after working on it, darker shaded looking areas, especially in front of the sofa or around the bed will remain.
Upon close inspection you can see the darker sock fibres and using your finger nails should be able to scrape a few loose to confirm this condition.
Dave.

[Len Gribble]

Tony

Training is good but hands on 


If it’s any consolation I done the same type carpet (polyprop) last Friday with the porty (black Max) customer was so surprised I got the stain (her word or was it) out which another cc last year couldn’t. Understand he had pipes coming from the van methinks it’s one of the wannabe TM brigade well I hope he was. No tip 

Before any one ask why didn’t I, the van was used by wife for the hay pickup

darker sock fibres also apply to wool carpets TV feet syndrome.

[Chris Hawkes]

Tony

You are a carpet cleaner, not a carpet magician.  You can make them clean but you can't remove the wear.  Yes, you might improve your technique/solutions but the customer was so happy he gave you a tip - you can't have done that bad a job.

Keep trying your best, keep trying to improve and you won't go far wrong.

Chris