Clean It Up
UK Floor Cleaning Forum => Carpet Cleaning Forum => Topic started by: Joe W Brown on September 21, 2012, 01:22:07 pm
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Following advice from people on here I thought I'd have a go at speeding things up on the job.
1 small room (maybe 3.5m by 3m) - synthetic, 1 small hall (3.5 by 2m) - wool mix and 2 small polyester rugs to be cleaned
Both rooms where very heavy traffic marked, not been cleaned in years if ever. Rugs where good condish though.
I arrived at 10.15
- Hoovered all rooms. North south east west where I could. Took maybe 5-7 minutes.
- Mixed up some power burst. Normally I would use split-x with orange-x, but I thought I'd follow people's advice and try Powerburst.
- Sprayed all carpets, focussing on traffic lanes.
- Agitated with sebo. At this point I sprayed some Eco-x (solvent spotter) on some of the traffic lanes and agitated some more.
- Rinsed all rooms with my air flex storm at 500psi.
Well all rooms rinsed. Time taken so far 1 hour, from arrriving at house.
The synthetic carpet looked a good few shades cleaner, although the traffic lanes still looked brown on the cream carpet.
The wool mix didnt appear to have changed much at all. Traffic lanes very visible, the red pile looking a very dirty brown colour. I have pics that I'll post up later.
Rugs looked clean. But then again they looked clean when I got there!
I then went on to spent 45 mins testing out Spot-x and warm mpower (mixed at maybe 1:20) on the traffic lanes. Didn't seem to be making much difference so at 12pm I packed up. Client said when prompted for oppinion "yeh, they look much better", but something about the robotic tone of her voice suggested that she was dissapointed. Normally at this stage I would waste about half a bottle of spot-x trying to improve the traffic lanes and the grotty wool carpet. I would have spent another 1 hour maybe 2. But no - I packed up.
At 12.15 I said goodbye to client and left. Job took 2 hours.
Ill post up photos of finished clean later. I'm certainly not walking with a spring of pride at the moment. :(
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Both rooms where very heavy traffic marked, not been cleaned in years if ever. Rugs where good condish though.
Don't expect miracles on a neglected carpet, you are a carpet cleaner not a magician. The one important thing in this situatuion to prepare the customers for the limited results. 2 hours sounds reasonable.
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M power at 1:20 mix is far far too strong...
It needs water mixed in with it to work.... The lowest ratio should be 1:80...
1:100 is usually right with hot water and dwell time of 10 mins (this includes agitation) before extraction...
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Both rooms where very heavy traffic marked, not been cleaned in years if ever. Rugs where good condish though.
Don't expect miracles on a neglected carpet, you are a carpet cleaner not a magician. The one important thing in this situatuion to prepare the customers for the limited results. 2 hours sounds reasonable.
Unfortunatly I'm competing with many companies in Norwich who promise "carpets like new"
I wish I knew what their secret was. Maybe I should have used some oxi-brite today?
Also, would enzall have helped?
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M power at 1:20 mix is far far too strong...
It needs water mixed in with it to work.... The lowest ratio should be 1:80...
1:100 is usually right with hot water and dwell time of 10 mins (this includes agitation) before extraction...
Oh ok Thanks Hector.
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Both rooms where very heavy traffic marked, not been cleaned in years if ever. Rugs where good condish though.
Don't expect miracles on a neglected carpet, you are a carpet cleaner not a magician. The one important thing in this situatuion to prepare the customers for the limited results. 2 hours sounds reasonable.
Unfortunatly I'm competing with many companies in Norwich who promise "carpets like new"
I wish I knew what their secret was. Maybe I should have used some oxi-brite today?
Also, would enzall have helped?
Don't get frustated by your competitors claims. Same rule applies... they are not magicians either.
IMHO, what you need is more experience, not a list of cleaning products. We've all been in the same situation when we started. :)
Spend a day or two with a more experienced ccleaner as suggested on the other thread.
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When they're fairly grotty I always ask them
what their expectations are then tell them what's
possible.
John
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Both rooms where very heavy traffic marked, not been cleaned in years if ever. Rugs where good condish though.
Don't expect miracles on a neglected carpet, you are a carpet cleaner not a magician. The one important thing in this situatuion to prepare the customers for the limited results. 2 hours sounds reasonable.
Unfortunatly I'm competing with many companies in Norwich who promise "carpets like new"
I wish I knew what their secret was. Maybe I should have used some oxi-brite today?
Also, would enzall have helped?
They lie or do not take on dodgy carpets . You decide who you work for, not the customer
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Hi Joe
Have you tried hot water yet?
Cheers
Doug
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Not yet Sweet Doug.
I'm planning on investing in a Lava for my storm soon.
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Hi Joe
It will make a big difference.
Cheers
Doug
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Why you call him "sweet Doug"? Something you not telling us you's two??! :D ;) ;)
Anyway, how long did you leave the powerburst down for? should be atleast 10 minutes dwell time before you extract. Longer if a minger. Also, make a stronger mix if its a minger (double the dosage) and be more heavy handed in the traffic lanes.
Like sweet doug said, heat also helps.
Sometimes its worth going over the carpet again i.e. pre-spray, quick agiate and extract. But only experance will tell you if its worth it.
Do you rinse with an acid rinse? Maybe worth trying Formula 90. Really does make a differance on smelly carpets.
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Joe are you cleaning with cold water and expecting to get good results?
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I know some bang on about cold water rinsing (we all know where that came from) :), also these people say that by applying a warm / hot prespray is what does all the work and that the rinsing / extracting is merely just picking up the crap that the pre-spray has loosened.......well thats B******s. Rinsing / extracting with hot water is far more effective than using cold water. If the carpet is light medium soil the Prochem Pure Clean is what id choose. Apply and allow 5 minutes dwell. If a real minger then Prochem PowerBurst would be my choice, apply and allow 5 minutes dwell.
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I cant get on with fresh water rinsing let alone cold water rinsing.
In tank and hot water all the way for me. (when I aint encapping the other 95% of the building)
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Totally agree! I've tried all this cold water rinsing lark!!! hot rinse all the way!!! :)
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Make sure powdered pre sprays are thoroughly dissolved too
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I don't think I've ever rinsed at 500 psi, do many of you do that? You must be forever filling your portable.
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Joe
Cut your pressure down to 200psi and get a heater the magma is good on mingers use formula 90 liquid at half dilution
in the tank and let the powerburst work dwell dwell dwell stop wasting spotters as there expensive the best advice I can give
you is dont keep buying chems hoping to find the holy grail its not been invented read the info on products and learn what to
use and when to use it cleansmarts hd microsplitter is a great product for the type of work you had never boosted it if light
coloured I use spm from solutions
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Why you call him "sweet Doug"? Something you not telling us you's two??! :D ;) ;)
Anyway, how long did you leave the powerburst down for? should be atleast 10 minutes dwell time before you extract. Longer if a minger. Also, make a stronger mix if its a minger (double the dosage) and be more heavy handed in the traffic lanes.
Like sweet doug said, heat also helps.
Sometimes its worth going over the carpet again i.e. pre-spray, quick agiate and extract. But only experance will tell you if its worth it.
Do you rinse with an acid rinse? Maybe worth trying Formula 90. Really does make a differance on smelly carpets.
Re: Just classic
« Reply #4 on: Yesterday at 03:37:04 pm »
Hi Guys
reminds me of some years ago cleaning a suite for a friend.
I noticed on his wall planner he had put Doug - sweet( he is dyslexic)
I said to him at the end that I didn't realise he felt this way about me!
Cheers
Doug
Thanks everso much for you replies, everyone. Very much appreciated.
Jim - do you think boosting cleansmart hd is too much? Up until now Ive tended to use microsplitters where I can (splitx or woolx) and always boost with orange-x when there are traffic lanes involved. Is this a bad idea?
Im gonna give Mpower and powerburst (later for dirty carpets especially) a play round i think, but i understand what u are saying about no magic solution.
I will certainly look into hot water extraction asap.
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you is dont keep buying chems hoping to find the holy grail its not been invented read the info on products and learn what to
use and when to use it cleansmarts hd microsplitter is a great product for the type of work you had never boosted it
I've had a callback this week (my first)... customer wasn't happy about a sofa I'd cleaned with split-x, even though I'd worked really hard on it. I had to agree, it just didn't look 'great'. So I re-cleaned it with HD-X - it was a quick and spectacular improvement. Customer wanted to see the colour of the waste water... it was black!
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Why you call him "sweet Doug"? Something you not telling us you's two??! :D ;) ;)
Anyway, how long did you leave the powerburst down for? should be atleast 10 minutes dwell time before you extract. Longer if a minger. Also, make a stronger mix if its a minger (double the dosage) and be more heavy handed in the traffic lanes.
Like sweet doug said, heat also helps.
Sometimes its worth going over the carpet again i.e. pre-spray, quick agiate and extract. But only experance will tell you if its worth it.
Do you rinse with an acid rinse? Maybe worth trying Formula 90. Really does make a differance on smelly carpets.
Powerburst was left down for at least 10 mins.
I always acid rinse when going high ph.
Thanks
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Joe,
Your comments about the red carpet reminded me of a job I did a couple of years ago.
I did the quote at night (winter, under electric lights).
On close inspection following cleaning (in daylight), I could see that the well worn traffic area fibres were actually a different colour to the rest of the carpet. During the quote, in bad light, they had just looked dirty.
The fibres were grey at the bottom, changing to red at the end of each strand.
Re; Powerburst. It's pretty powerful stuff and does not fail very often. Are you putting enough down (or as Tony says, are you leaving it long enough)?
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Well i added a scoop per litre and let it dwell for at least 10 minutes. Warm water.
Today I have my orion pro back, so no more warm water presprays as it mealts when it gets hot :(
Ill be glad to stop using bnq value sprayer (dribbler) though
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You guys make me laugh with all this talk about hot v cold rinsing. If you have done the right preparation with prespray and agitation, the rinse can be hot or cold, it is just a carrier for the emulsified soil. If you take a look at encapping, it provides chemical and agitation with no rinsing or heat but cleans extremely well even on some mingers.
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You guys make me laugh with all this talk about hot v cold rinsing. If you have done the right preparation with prespray and agitation, the rinse can be hot or cold, it is just a carrier for the emulsified soil. If you take a look at encapping, it provides chemical and agitation with no rinsing or heat but cleans extremely well even on some mingers.
(http://www.cleanitup.co.uk/smf/1348304106_wot e sed.gif)
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ok, lets talk HWE, what would need less prep work? cold or hot rinse? In my little experience ::) i would say hot rinse, so, less prep work= Less time
As the saying goes time is money!
;D
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That only works Billy if you have a fire breathing truckmount with a LARGE BLOWER ;D
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That only works Billy if you have a fire breathing truckmount with a LARGE BLOWER ;D
Its not the size of the blower, its the way you use it! :D
But joking aside, what i said above is right, i can see your comparison with encapping, but some will also argue that a heated pad will work better than a non heated pad, i do not have enough experience with a heated pad to make judgement on that though
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Plenty of different sprayers around I use this one from Restormate http://www.restormate.co.uk/epages/15094.sf/en_GB/?ObjectPath=/Shops/15094/Categories/Carpet_Cleaning_Accessories/Sprayers (http://www.restormate.co.uk/epages/15094.sf/en_GB/?ObjectPath=/Shops/15094/Categories/Carpet_Cleaning_Accessories/Sprayers), never had a problem with heat some cheaper ones too but I use the second one down. They are really helpful so give them a ring, if not Ask Cleansmart i'm sure they will have one more suitable.
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you is dont keep buying chems hoping to find the holy grail its not been invented read the info on products and learn what to
use and when to use it cleansmarts hd microsplitter is a great product for the type of work you had never boosted it
I've had a callback this week (my first)... customer wasn't happy about a sofa I'd cleaned with split-x, even though I'd worked really hard on it. I had to agree, it just didn't look 'great'. So I re-cleaned it with HD-X - it was a quick and spectacular improvement. Customer wanted to see the colour of the waste water... it was black!
The problem here is that you should never have cleaned the suite outright untill you were satisfied that you had identified the right pre-spray appropriate to the level of soiling.
You should start by cleaning the dirtiest cushion using your base pre-spray, SPM for instance, something you know works in most cases. (M Power is very narrow in the range of soils it will move so isn't a good indicator) After scrubbing in the pre-spray trying extracting it (with hot water) and if the result is less than perfect you now know your base chemical needs some help.
You could then use something like Fabric Restorer, or even Ultrapac Renovate, lightly sprayed onto the now half clean cushion and scubbed in and then extracted. When you have that one cushion as you want it, you then know how to clean the rest of the suite, which is far better than cleaning the whole suite only to find it is not up to standard and have to re-clean it again in front of a disgruntled customer.
Simon
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Hot water everytime, you wouldn't wash oil or crap off your hands with cold water or wash yor clothes in cold water, so why do carpets and upholstery????
Why make hard work for yourselves?
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Bob, did you see the Dynamall thread. I did not see them them using any hot water just chemicals and agitation, it looked pretty easy work to me and no heat.
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Joe
Some good advice there personnally if I want a boosted splitter I use spm if you have a couple of pound ;D
to spare get a solutions sample pack I do like cleansmarts products over time you will learn the way it suits
you to use the chems to get the best results I have never had a problem using hot water in my orion when
funds allow get crb for the mingers and keep the duo for the cleanish carpets