Clean It Up

UK Floor Cleaning Forum => Carpet Cleaning Forum => Topic started by: M.Acorn on June 16, 2012, 02:22:52 pm

Title: Strange white marks all over carpets
Post by: M.Acorn on June 16, 2012, 02:22:52 pm
(http://www.cleanitup.co.uk/smf/1339852793_2012-06-16-176.jpg)
(http://www.cleanitup.co.uk/smf/1339852820_2012-06-16-177.jpg)
(http://www.cleanitup.co.uk/smf/1339852844_2012-06-16-178.jpg)

Never seen anything like this before, his wife had flooded the bath, he has recently moved back into the house after renting it out for 6 or so years, my guess was whoever lived there in that time had a bit of an addiction to shake and vac, or possibly some other type of supposed carpet cleaning powder ?
Have said I will accept no responsibility if it does return and he was happy with that, the entire house was like this..
Title: Re: Strange white marks all over carpets
Post by: JandS on June 16, 2012, 03:03:17 pm
Nose candy  ;D ;D

John
Title: Re: Strange white marks all over carpets
Post by: Rich M on June 16, 2012, 03:26:35 pm
Looks to me like water marks from a flood.

Rich
Title: Re: Strange white marks all over carpets
Post by: M.Acorn on June 16, 2012, 03:27:47 pm
Well she did flood the bathroom, but the entire house was like it to a degree
Title: Re: Strange white marks all over carpets
Post by: Kinver_Clean on June 16, 2012, 04:03:29 pm
A good example of flood tide marks. With any luck it should come out. I would rinse with plain water first to see what happens, there may be a high concentration of residue from a bothched clean.
Title: Re: Strange white marks all over carpets
Post by: M.Acorn on June 16, 2012, 04:05:57 pm
It did all come out, but was just concerned it may reappear , gave it a good flushing out, so we will see
Title: Re: Strange white marks all over carpets
Post by: Carpet Dawg on June 16, 2012, 07:38:07 pm
Did you put an airmover on it?

Forcing the drying process would help any wick back / reappearing problems.

To me it looks like someone has been on thier hands and knees and tried to clean it using 1001 or some other crap from the supermarket. Looks like soapy tide marks. Seen similar problems before and this was the cause.

Tony
Title: Re: Strange white marks all over carpets
Post by: Gary Longley on June 16, 2012, 07:41:43 pm
Did you put an airmover on it?

Forcing the drying process would 95% of the time garantee it not to reappear.


Where's the evidence to back this claim up? Why by using an air mover/s will it guarantee the non return of whatever this is or any other stain?
Title: Re: Strange white marks all over carpets
Post by: Carpet Dawg on June 16, 2012, 07:46:58 pm
I edited my post just before you posted.

If you have done any training you'd probably know the anwser  ;)
Title: Re: Strange white marks all over carpets
Post by: peter maybury on June 16, 2012, 10:09:47 pm
The white marks in the carpet are the salts or contominants that were in the water that flooded the carpet. As a wet patch dries from the perimeter in,  the contaminants wick to the perimeter and concentrate there.
Using air movers to dry the area quickly stops any contaminants from concentrating into a particular area.
I would l recommend some training if you are not aware of these situations.

Peter
www.carpetcleanercardiff.com (http://www.carpetcleanercardiff.com)
Title: Re: Strange white marks all over carpets
Post by: K.O. Glanville on June 16, 2012, 10:15:51 pm
By a strange co-incidence, these two posts were on top of each other.

Carpet cleaner caught w***ing in custy house New « 1 2  All »    garyhumphreys    24    459    Today at 07:54:49 pm
by Craigp
      Strange white marks all over carpets

Could it be a powder that contains a bleach, (not familiar with your brands over there), has been sprinkled onto the carpet. ?

Otherwise I would go with a cellulosic browning stain if your carpet is jute backed, although the white colour and the grainy type pattern is not consistent with water damage, in my opinion.



Shorty.
Title: Re: Strange white marks all over carpets
Post by: wynne jones on June 16, 2012, 11:06:59 pm
Maybe she was using bath salts. And she may have puts some in the bath too.  ;)
Title: Re: Strange white marks all over carpets
Post by: Gary Longley on June 16, 2012, 11:31:33 pm
I edited my post just before you posted.

If you have done any training you'd probably know the anwser  ;)

Arh, now you've edited your post it makes more sense and negates my question.
Title: Re: Strange white marks all over carpets
Post by: craignozza on June 17, 2012, 12:01:54 am
It could be that the carpet is layed on a concrete sub floor and its effloresence  coming up through the wet concrete into the carpet  ;)
Title: Re: Strange white marks all over carpets
Post by: M.Acorn on June 17, 2012, 10:10:53 am
Was in a 3 story house, only the ground floor was concrete, other rooms have wooden floors, it was powdery I gave the worst area on the top floor a rub and powder was evident.
The only area that was not really bad were the parts of the stairs where the powder did not stick  ;D
Title: Re: Strange white marks all over carpets
Post by: Doug Holloway on June 17, 2012, 11:19:55 am
Hi Guys

I would be 99% sure these are sodium salts, primarily carbonate deposited due to water.

They can be quite insolouble but hot water should do the trick.

An advanced solution if a line persists is to use some hydrochloric acid but you must know what you are doing and test to see if the carpet is colour fast first, this is a solution only for those with good chemistry knowledge and practice, gloves etc.

Cheers

Doug
Title: Re: Strange white marks all over carpets
Post by: Gary Longley on June 17, 2012, 03:11:48 pm

An advanced solution if a line persists is to use some hydrochloric acid but you must know what you are doing and test to see if the carpet is colour fast first, this is a solution only for those with good chemistry knowledge and practice, gloves etc.

I think when someone writes this then carpet cleaning is getting silly. Clean the carpet as normal, dry it if possible & if it comes back the customer will just have to replace. Putting Hydrochloric acid in a carpet, I've heard it all, really for heavens sake. You could do more damage by using that stuff than anything else and not only to the carpet....  oh, we're carpet cleaner's not industrial scientists!!

Title: Re: Strange white marks all over carpets
Post by: jon barnes on June 17, 2012, 08:31:34 pm

I think when someone writes this then carpet cleaning is getting silly. Clean the carpet as normal, dry it if possible & if it comes back the customer will just have to replace. Putting Hydrochloric acid in a carpet, I've heard it all, really for heavens sake. You could do more damage by using that stuff than anything else and not only to the carpet....  oh, we're carpet cleaner's not industrial scientists!!


[/quote]

What do you think is in rust removers?
Title: Re: Strange white marks all over carpets
Post by: Doug Holloway on June 17, 2012, 09:14:39 pm
Hi Guys

I did think hard about introducing a bit more chemistry than usual but did stress it was only for those with a good grasp and technique.

There are quite a few carpet cleaners who understand chemistry, some of us even worked as one ;)

Cheers

Doug
Title: Re: Strange white marks all over carpets
Post by: elliott cleaning on June 17, 2012, 09:35:33 pm

An advanced solution if a line persists is to use some hydrochloric acid but you must know what you are doing and test to see if the carpet is colour fast first, this is a solution only for those with good chemistry knowledge and practice, gloves etc.

I think when someone writes this then carpet cleaning is getting silly. Clean the carpet as normal, dry it if possible & if it comes back the customer will just have to replace. Putting Hydrochloric acid in a carpet, I've heard it all, really for heavens sake. You could do more damage by using that stuff than anything else and not only to the carpet....  oh, we're carpet cleaner's not industrial scientists!!



A few days ago a thread was running on 'Professional or Trade'

This gives  a pretty good example that the two catagories exist and both are represented on this forum.
Title: Re: Strange white marks all over carpets
Post by: Andy Hogarth on June 17, 2012, 09:51:09 pm
Quote
oh, we're carpet cleaner's not industrial scientists

 ;D ;D ;D ;D Yeah what do you know Doug??  ;D ;D ;D ;D


I've seen similar marks on commercial entrances where they throw tons of salt down on snow and ice and it gets walked inside
Title: Re: Strange white marks all over carpets
Post by: Neil Williams on June 17, 2012, 10:07:39 pm
I don't think Doug was advocating putting down neat Hyrdocloric acid, because gloves would be the least of your problems as the carpet and your shoes melt ;D
Use a product that contains an acid that will act like a mild descaler.
Rust Remover is normally ph1 (top end of the scale) but I don't recall that damaging my fingers unlike a neat acid would do.
Title: Re: Strange white marks all over carpets
Post by: Gary Longley on June 17, 2012, 10:44:59 pm

An advanced solution if a line persists is to use some hydrochloric acid but you must know what you are doing and test to see if the carpet is colour fast first, this is a solution only for those with good chemistry knowledge and practice, gloves etc.

I think when someone writes this then carpet cleaning is getting silly. Clean the carpet as normal, dry it if possible & if it comes back the customer will just have to replace. Putting Hydrochloric acid in a carpet, I've heard it all, really for heavens sake. You could do more damage by using that stuff than anything else and not only to the carpet....  oh, we're carpet cleaner's not industrial scientists!!



A few days ago a thread was running on 'Professional or Trade'

This gives  a pretty good example that the two catagories exist and both are represented on this forum.

Yes, but the point is that customer's still see us as plain old carpet cleaner's and nothing more, whether you're experienced or not.
Title: Re: Strange white marks all over carpets
Post by: peter maybury on June 18, 2012, 01:10:50 am
A lot of my customers have used different  carpet cleaners over the years and do not veiw us all the same.
There are alot of people who are experts on things they do not have a bloody clue about.

Peter
www.carpetcleanercardiff.com
Title: Re: Strange white marks all over carpets
Post by: Billy Russell on June 18, 2012, 06:28:10 am
There are alot of people who are experts on things they do not have a bloody clue about.

Peter
www.carpetcleanercardiff.com

Yeah, i hear your one of them!  ;D