Clean It Up

UK Floor Cleaning Forum => Carpet Cleaning Forum => Topic started by: John Kelly on May 22, 2014, 04:19:36 pm

Title: Musty carpets
Post by: John Kelly on May 22, 2014, 04:19:36 pm

We are coming up to that time of year where cleaners sometimes suffer from callbacks due to carpets remaining damp and starting to smell.
This is due to the high humidity in the air which prevents any more moisture from the carpet evaporating off.
This allows the moisture to remain in the base of the carpet for a long period, often days and results in the growth of invisible moulds and mildews which is what causes the musty odour.
This is especially prevalent on empty rentals where you clean and then shut the door behind you.
Two ways to combat this, one is to rinse with a suitable product which will prevent any moulds or mildews to grow. Suitable products are Clensan, Microkill or Formual 429. These are broad spectrum biocides which deal with Bacteria, Fungi and Viruses.
Ordinary deodourisers usually only deal with Bacteria, so are not suitable to combat this problem.
The second way to deal with it is to force dry using airmovers, Dripods etc.
If you do suffer from an incident of this nature, don't be tempted to re-clean the carpet or just spray a deodouriser, this will only increase the moisture and make things worse.
You can advise the client to air the room thoroughly and it will eventually dry out, once dry, the mildews etc will die off and the smell will go. You could also spray one of the products mentioned and force dry or just force dry.

Title: Re: Musty carpets
Post by: Richard Meads on May 22, 2014, 04:47:08 pm

Good post, thanks John  :)

Title: Re: Musty carpets
Post by: Graham Airey on May 22, 2014, 06:28:48 pm

Hi John,

Thanks again for the call today, it was good to get a straight answer for once instead of asking for advise on a certain forum and just getting people bickering among themselves.

Clensan has been ordered to avoid any future problems.

Regards

Graham

Title: Re: Musty carpets
Post by: CleanerCarpets on May 22, 2014, 08:40:41 pm

Good post John - better than the Old Boys Club usual blinkered answer

Title: Re: Musty carpets
Post by: Doug Holloway on May 23, 2014, 07:29:57 am

Hi Guys

I pretty much use Clensan in my rinse as routine this time of year, in fact anytime when I think drying is going to be slow.

I use Formula 429 as problem solver when flood cleaning.

My supplier says I buy more than anyone else but still spend less than £100 a year on it so hardly a massive cost!

Cheers

Doug

Title: Re: Musty carpets
Post by: Darran Pryce on May 23, 2014, 11:23:09 am

Great thread.

We had a few issues of this last year. Will invest in some blowers.

Title: Re: Musty carpets
Post by: Simon@arenaclean on May 25, 2014, 12:19:59 am

I stand to be corrected but Clensan has changed, previously it could be added to fibre and fabric rinse or crystal green in the rinse tank. For some reason this was changed where it should now be applied sperately with a sprayer and then rinsed, which means cleaning the carpet and rinse, spraying Clensan, then rinsing again with either Crystal Green of Fibre and Fabric Rinse.