Clean It Up

UK Floor Cleaning Forum => Carpet Cleaning Forum => Topic started by: Mike Halliday on October 30, 2012, 06:27:39 pm

Title: Sun damage
Post by: Mike Halliday on October 30, 2012, 06:27:39 pm

did this clean today which had an interesting problem,


this photo is in a shaded area
(http://www.cleanitup.co.uk/smf/1351621129_carpet faults 017.JPG)
this photo is in front of the window
(http://www.cleanitup.co.uk/smf/1351621163_carpet faults 018.JPG)
the sun has caused the fibre not just to lose colour but also become very brittle, scraping with a knife takes off the end of the fibre showing that the colour loss is only on the tips.
(http://www.cleanitup.co.uk/smf/1351621233_carpet faults 022.JPG)

but this has caused a very unusual problem which shows on the following photo

Title: Re: sun damage
Post by: Mike Halliday on October 30, 2012, 06:32:00 pm

the red section is so weak in comparison to the other sections it has worn away leaving the other fibres higher
(http://www.cleanitup.co.uk/smf/1351621770_carpet faults 024.JPG)

Title: Re: sun damage
Post by: John Kelly on October 30, 2012, 07:06:32 pm

Probably due to a softer lighter wool being used which takes the red dye easier. When using darker dyes they can use coarser harder wearing (and cheaper) wools which tend to be darker and need a darker dye to hide the underlying colour.

Title: Re: sun damage
Post by: Mike Halliday on October 30, 2012, 07:11:39 pm

this is a 'Belgian Wilton' 100% polypropylene....... which I found quite interesting as the only difference in the worn fibres is the colour

Title: Re: sun damage
Post by: davep on October 30, 2012, 07:13:28 pm

What did the custy say when she walked in and seen you lying on the floor taking pictures?

Title: Re: sun damage
Post by: John Kelly on October 30, 2012, 07:15:59 pm

Thats scuppered that theory then. Looks like wool in your last photo.

Title: Re: sun damage
Post by: Len Gribble on October 30, 2012, 07:17:18 pm

Had similar on a pub carpet years ago but with the green

Title: Re: sun damage
Post by: Mike Halliday on October 30, 2012, 07:17:45 pm

Dave i takes lots of photos on jobs the customer never minds. I always take photos on existing damage... this photo is from the previous cleaner who shrank it!
(http://www.cleanitup.co.uk/smf/1351624561_carpet faults 007.JPG)

Title: Re: sun damage
Post by: gwrightson on October 30, 2012, 07:41:32 pm

So who was previous  cleaner Mike ?

Or will you let me know in private ? 

Geoff

Title: Re: sun damage
Post by: Shaun_Ashmore on October 30, 2012, 10:20:01 pm

I've seen that before on that same patterned carpet only conclusion I could muster was that the red dye running through the polypropylene made the fibre weaker somehow.

Shaun

Title: Re: sun damage
Post by: Paul Moss on October 30, 2012, 11:14:20 pm

Ha John, wool, you will have to get out of all the flood jobs and get out and clean a few carpets again  ;D  ;)
Ive seen this a fews with Belgium Wilton, its defo uv but im not sure why some parts raise and some parts drop. I do know its not colour sensitive as i have seen some reds raised and on other jobs the reds have dropped  ???

Title: Re: sun damage
Post by: jon barnes on October 30, 2012, 11:19:12 pm

hi Mike
I've always put it down to as 'how light is reflected of different colours'
Terry

Title: Re: sun damage
Post by: John Kelly on October 30, 2012, 11:22:50 pm

I've seen these patterns in wool wiltons before. A good days carpet cleaning would kill me now :)

Title: Re: sun damage
Post by: Jim_77 on October 31, 2012, 01:05:45 am

Shaun's reply above is spot on!

I had exactly the same problem many years ago when I was still green.  It was a commercial flocked carpet (well it was flocked when I was finished with it! :D) made up of little red and blue squares like a chequered pattern.

In the traffic lanes, after extraction they looked filthy... but after a closer look there was simply no red fibre left at all!  The water out of the machine looked crimson, but I realised it was all the little bits of fibres floating in it.  Luckily the building owner accepted it was the carpet not me.

Have seen it on BW's too some times, and occasionally on plain polyprops by a patio door facing south - you just get 'dust' off a plain carpet and maybe don't notice it but if you look carefully you can see the degradation - the pile will be a bit crumbly too.

Title: Re: sun damage
Post by: Paul Moss on October 31, 2012, 08:48:55 am

It really weird on BW , all these years and i have cleaned hundreds of them but never come across one that shrunk, even the cheap poope that some indian restaurants have that are hammered and ive given them major stick withnthe truck, but they still havent shrunk.

Yet I remember Dave Washbrookntelling me a few years ago that he just presprayed one and it shrunk infront of his eyes....... With prespray onlyyyy :o

Title: Re: Sun damage
Post by: Kinver_Clean on October 31, 2012, 07:50:44 pm

My only BW disaster was the same- prespray on a minger and it ripped the gripper out of the concrete.
Two days before Christmas- madam was not best pleased as it went 9" on 9 ft.
That was 20 years ago.

Title: Re: Sun damage
Post by: Andrew Briscoe on October 31, 2012, 08:57:01 pm

(http://www.cleanitup.co.uk/smf/1351716878_by window.jpg)

wilton in a golf club along the length of large window, like this within 3 feet of window
(http://www.cleanitup.co.uk/smf/1351716957_6 feet from window.jpg)

over 3 feet from window the carpet is fine