Clean It Up
UK Floor Cleaning Forum => Carpet Cleaning Forum => Topic started by: Dan Williams on August 02, 2006, 09:40:32 pm
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I just started cleaning this light cream chinese wool rug and I just am a bit cautious on over wetting it but I can not seem to get the stains and dirt out of it. Is it alright to use HWE on it with a wand?
Any help would be appriciated
cheers
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Providing it is a wool chinese rug then
Turn up side down and vacuum for 2 min then flick over (removing the dust off the floor) and vacuum the front. Do this until theres little dust coming from the rug.
Pre-test with a wool safe pre-spray. Pre-spray and agitate with VERY soft brush on a host machine or similar. Extract with an acid rinse or wool safe rinse depending upon the dyes.
Groom and then clean the fringes and speed dry.
Chinese wool rugs usually have a very fine wool sometimes mistaken or called silk. It will be impossible to remove really heavy stains or dye stains from it but you could try BUT this type of rug has a tendancy to lighten in local areas where spotters have been used.
Mark
PS. Someone with more experience may have more specific advice for the stains but from my experience they dont come out easily.
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Hi
I would suggest using your hand tool rather than the wand, you will get a more intense rinse plus the rug will dry a lot quicker.
Derek
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Chinese wool rugs usually have a very fine wool sometimes mistaken or called silk.
Mark
No. Wool is wool and silk is silk - don't get the two confused.
I would also follow Cleansmarts instructions, they're alot safer ;)
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Cleantime
Correct wool is wool and silk is silk but I didnt say otherwise merely stating that sometimes customers mistake the fineness of the chinese wool for silk and of course there are rugs with both fibres woven into them.
Dont see how cleansmarts instructions are any safer apart from the agitation which when done with a very soft brush will improve the cleaning dramtically.
However the real secret of rug cleaning is the dry soil removal which can be difficult with these types of rugs due to their thickness.
Mark
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Danrosswil
Good advice so far, although agitation is fine! Without agitating you wont get as good a result. We have cleaned hundreds and hundreds this way and they come out very well indeed. The only thing I would be wary of is what chemicals you use. Play it safe and all wil be ok. Dont use rotary scrubbers as they will take Ages to dry :P
Silk chinese should only be dry cleaned (with limited results).
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Hi,
Spend more time vacuuming the rug than any other cleaning operation. It is worth trying to elevate the rug off the floor on a dusting board (essentially mat that has lots of holes in it) as this will quicken the dry soil removal. Like Mark said, keep vacuuming it face down untill the amount of dust falling out of the rug is small then turn it over and vac the face a few times.
Test, test and test some more. If you test properly it will never become your rug. eg We have seen one example of dye stability on one edge of the rug, but not the same colour on the other side (vibrant pink dye on a hand made Maroccan wool). We allways test all the colours on a few different areas of the rug to ensure stability across the entire face. Test your cleaning mixture and your rinse mixture, i guess in theory you should also test both mixtures at the cleaning temperature (i think this is going a bit too far and have never bothered)
Personally, i would prefer to use a wand on rugs like this as they put out more water. We have found that upholstery tools (intentionally) have a vastly reduced flow rate and dense pile wool rugs really need that bit more rinse. We dry at 40-50% rel humidity @20-25°C and have never experienced problems with drying times due to overwetting. A prominet CC figure said at a training event that these rugs can be submersed, its not really about how much water you use, more to do with how you dry them.
Hope this helps
Graeme
Access Cleaning Solutions
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Graeme
Good advice.
How have you set-up your drying room and what equipment do you use for heating and humidity control?
thanks
Mark
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All this advice.
Just wet clean the rug normally and get the job done. Hand it back to the custy and get paid. Simple!
If you spend all day vacuuming a rug then God help you ;D
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In almost all cases an area rug or Oriental Rug should be totaly immersed. It is not how wet you get the rug it is how long it stays wet after you have cleaned it. I use an air line to get any dry soil out of the textile and have found this to be the most thorough way. I would never use a vaccum on an Oriental nor would I use hwe to clean it. Where most rugs are made they are cleaned with immersion sometimes just in a river and hung over a tree to dry. P.S. If you dont clean both sides of the rug and even inbetween the knots you arent doing the job properly and this can not be done with out immersion and certainly not with a hwe machine or any of the rinky dink dry systems out there.....just my opinion........As to the original post, these are relatively easy rugs to clean and just pure old rain water and a very soft brush will usually get out most stains......but not with a wand of any description or hwe....... Feel free to e-mail me as obviously there is a boat load of things to go through and I would be happy to discuss them, best, Dave.
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stick in the washing machine, intense wash at 1000 degrees, then straight in the tumble dryer! NOT REALLY, It's Friday! Listen to the other advice, probably safer.
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Well said Cleantime Europe. Just get on and clean the thing. I guarantee if u showed a customer a pre vaccced and unpre vacced wet cleaned rug they wouldnt see any difference. In fact would anyone.
Chris
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Cleanability
Try shaking a rug after you clean it and see what comes out of it.
Mark
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Why do half a job, removing the grit from a rug is one of the most important parts of the cleaning pie and will help to prolong it's life. There is nothing worse than taking a rug back to it,s owner, opening it out on the floor and seeing a cloud of dust come out of it. It is tempting to run over a rug quickly but if you want the best for your clients do not cut corners.
Derek
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Well said Derek. Best, Dave.
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Thank you for all the feedback dudes 8)
It is funny how now one has mentioned browning and what the best way to remove stains cos they are a bitch to remove
cheers
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If it is cleaned properly it shouldnt brown so there wasnt a need to mention it. With regards the
staining, most soils will come out of an area rug again if cleaned properly. Much easier than wall to wall
carpeting because you can clean both sides, immerse the textile and just keep on cleaning till all that is
going to come out comes out. Mostly this will be everything, best, Dave.
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Liahona, excuse my ignorance but what vessel do you use to immerse the rug in. Also if you had a saturated rug from a leak what would you suggest as the ideal dry down procedure. I would suggest air movement and dehum, and extraction??
regards
Darren
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Darren, sometimes as in most cases I just put the rug on the floor and hose it down and this is wet
enough as it still saturates. Other than that depending on the rug and its needs I use a paddling pool
to make a bath and/or if it is a big rug I use 4 inch plastic pipe, make a square or rectangle and then lay
polythene over it to make a pool. Pretty easy realy and it is very effective. To empty it out just move
the end pipe and then start over again.To clean the rug properly this would be done many times over,
sometimes 4 or 5 and sometimes 10 or 11. This is why you cant clean an Oriental Rug with a hwe
machine or any dry system either. People do and have good results I am sure but it isnt the best way
to do so. Best, Dave.
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dave,
which rugs would you not immerse & what do you use to dry them.
cheers
steve
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Steve. I pretty much immerse all rugs that are wool, silk, cotton. Even bleeders. When you come to man
made rugs with jute etc then I may not flood them but I tend to keep away from those type of rugs as
do my clients.............Some I dry on the floor face up. Some I dry face down. Some I put on a raised
platform to dry both under neath and above at the same time with ambient air movement. Others I
suspend 40 or so feet in the air and move around air that is in your language over 150 degrees. But it
is less than point one of one percent that I wouldnt immerse. Hope this helps, best, Dave.
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Very interesting
I read articles by L Wagner that you somtimes fine in Cleanfax, but always seam short on detail on the immersion method.
Did A Chinese Yesterday using Foam Method and Extraction plus Pre Vac etc, but would have loved to Have taken it out of house and experimented a bit more.
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As a chem dry franchissee I used to immerse rugs all the time in an old bath, this was on the advice of a senior head office person at chemdry. it worked great too, my advice would be to always hang to dry sideways so that the water is not draining through the tassles, also there is a lot more weight in a wet rug than a dry one , so you are limited as to the size you can clean by this method.
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Dave, re even bleeders, how do you make sure they don't bleed then, is it all in the drying. Reason I ask is that I have had a flooded rug that bled even after an extraction a good dry down using turbo fans and dehums....could you elaborate for me.
Regards
Darren
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Darren. I dont, they do bleed. I just make sure they are cleaned by themselves so not to bleed on
another rug. They only bleed so much and as they bleed you just keep rinsing the dies away. If you
stop cleaning while they are still bleeding then you will have a problem on your hands, a colourful one.
This is another reason why you should immerse a rug. If you use a hwe machine you cannot rinse the
fugitive dies away. If you use a dry machine at all then you need your head read..... If you have a rug
that has bled then there isnt too much you can do about it. Anyway Darren, drop me an e-mail and I
will go into it a bit more...... Ian I know Lindsey quite well as we were only a 100 miles apart from each
other and would clean for each other if needs be. Lindsey is extremely good at what she does and has
rugs sent to her from all over the world to work on and restore. Although I am sure that foam works
quite well what happens to the foam that you cant extract out of the textile?.... and how would you
clean the back of the carpet if you cleaned it at the clients house. Best, Dave.
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Dave,
I was going to ask if you new Lyndsey.
Agree cleaning rug the way i did it not best method but the client did not pay £300
So you get what you pay for.n And client was pleased with end result.
But you have inspired me to build my mini rug plant.
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Its not difficult to do and if you want to give me a bell and I will try to help you best I can. The biggest
thing is immersing your first rug with out having a heart attack. Specially the silk ones. Best, Dave.
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anyone cleaned a lambs wool rug before and how ???I was asked but backed off this one as for small knowlage is not enough ???
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Terry. Most wool rugs are lambs wool or do you mean a sheepskin rug? I.E. Is it leather on the back side. Let me know, cheers, Dave.