Clean It Up
UK Floor Cleaning Forum => Carpet Cleaning Forum => Topic started by: Emil Dinev on July 16, 2012, 11:15:15 am
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Hi everyone,
I have had an enquiry about an office flooded carpet that smells badly. I am to view the carpet later on today, but was just wondering if anyone can help with possible method of cleaning and products to be used for getting rid of the smell. Will be able to give more info later on.
Any thoughts highly appreciated.
Cheers
Emil
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Acidic rinse and clensan.
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Extract excess water
Uplift carpet.
Remove Underlay and dispose.
Sanitise sub floor and carpet.
Take moisture reading and record.
Install dehum and airmover. Leave to dry out. 24-48hrs carpet, sub-floor is much longer. Continue to monitor with weekly visits until moisture are acceptable on damp meter.
Once dry, refit new underlay and carpet. IF it hasn't shrunk. Clean carpet.
If carpet is badly damaged remove and dispose, or advise customer accordingly.
Remove equipment and issue with a drying certificate. Job done. Charge accordingly for equipment hire
If you just go in (which I've seen on many occassions) and extract excess water and clean. The carpet will be remain damp smelling for days afterwards, because the moisture will be coming out of the sub-floor.
If its a big job sub-con to a fire and flood company and get a markup
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Thanks guys, I don't know yet what type pf carpeting they have, i'll find out this afternoon. It's likely to be carpet tiles in which case obviously the underlay part will be skipped. I will let you know how i get on with it.
Thanks again.
Emil
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Hi Emil
I hope you got on well.
What tends to happen so often is that there is an ingress of water. The client tries to dry it on a DIY basis and succeeds in drying the top of the fibres. The problem of the odour is coming from below where you would clean.
Of course a lot of the answers you get need to be filtered through what you actually find. Half the battle is getting an honest explanation as to what actually occurred, how much and what type of water flooded the carpet and what, if at all, the client has tried to do to remedy the situation.
As you have stated if it is an office carpet it is likely to be carpet tiles. There may well be moisture trapped below the bitchumen level of the tile. Uplifting and drying is the order of the day. it is also possible that the flooding has reacted with the glue sticking the tiles to the floor. This is much more problematical and there are no quick/cheap fixes. Explaining the situation to the client and setting out your stall (you do know what to do , don't you?) and charging accordingly is the way to put this problem to bed.
You must of course explain that whilst treating an odour you will end up masking the problem and as to whether you are successful will only be known once the treated area has dried out.
Explanations before you start doing anything are fine. If you wait until after you have worked on it will only sound like an excuse.
Good luck (and happy, steep learning curve).
Rog