Clean It Up
UK Floor Cleaning Forum => Carpet Cleaning Forum => Topic started by: Mike Osbourne on September 07, 2006, 02:33:46 pm
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Hi,
I'm at a bit of a loss with a suite I did a survey on last week, thought would be fine but have had a lot of trouble and need to resolve for customer. BrowneyGrease (I think) on arms and back elswhere not bad at all.
It is a light cream three piece flat weave, with light blue patteren. Did a test on back of cushion with Ashby's anti grease at right mix (1:50) left for 15 mins then rubbed absolutely fine and confident fabric could take a fair hit.
The plan was try 1:10 microsplit and if not working use anti grease with 40 deg heat, dwell 5-10 min and a mild agitation. MS did very little but tried anti grease and very, very slow progress-one chair with still some marks showing in 2hours!
Turned up heat to 60 and still little progress. Another hr later I felt I should offer my apologies/excuses. I thought it might be self tan but client assures me not, and it is coming out, VERY slowly.
I said I would get back to him on the phone tomorrow with a plan/someone professional (expert) with a view to goig back next week. Left bits I'd done pretty dry with air mover despite giving it a whalloping.
Any thoughts as to what I'm doing wrong, I am inexperienced but I feel I am doing everything by the book. My technique's probably iffy and I was absolutely knackered when I left.
Cheers
Mike
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Hi Mike don't get to disheartened. Sometimes on these flat weaves you do get fibre degradation. This is in the areas mentioned and is caused by the sweat coming off peoples heads and elbows in particular. You need to look out for this and advise the customer that there is this possibility of fibre damage which may not cleanup 100%.
I find Craftex degreaser (neutral ph) is an excellent solution for this. Spray on and agitate agresively using a soft brush, allow to dwell for around 10-15 minutes and then clean normally. I use hot truckmount water but if you are using a porty rack it up to 65-70, don't worry by the time it hits the fabric it is nowhere near that temperature. At 40 you'll be lucky if your're hitting the fabric with 30 degrees.
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Hi Mike
prespray with prochems fabric restorer I have never known it fail on greasy suites aggitate well and then rinse. :)
all the best
John
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as mr Kelly says, dont worry get the water real hot!
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I would second John's advice on Prochem Fabric Restorer. It is solvent based and disolves grease.
Use with a scrubing brush and follow instructions.
If that don't clean it nothing will! ;D
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If feel a trip to Craftex coming on. Will try those two.
Will go back on day next week and not book any other jobs!
Got some pics once i've figured out how to upload.
Anyone use Ashby antigrease with success?
Craig,
Thanks for email, little bird told me you're a poo hot cc, just need to charge more ;).
Cheers
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Hi
Upholstery can be very hard to clean to a high standard.
Yet at the same time hard to get a good price for cleaning.
After 15 years I still cant figure it out.
Dave
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£140 for 5 seats I thought was fair. Now I'm not so sure reckon £10/hr by the time I've finished it ;D
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Mike just be careful you don't work these areas too hard because if there is fibre degradation the fabric may already be weakened.
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Just to say thanks for all the suggestions. Went back yesterday and completed the clean and the guy was well chuffed and gave me a ten pound tip on £140 fee. However still worked out about £22/hr :'(
Tried both Prochem Fabric restorer and Advanced formula fabric from Craftex. Both worked equally well. It was still tough going though. Luckily I was able to really put a lot down, leave for 15min and agitate. Then made about 7/8 passes.
Problem was difficult to see results until nearly dry and maybe I need to be more methodical cos had to go over a few bits again.
Mike
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well done mike
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Mike,
You will get quicker as you become more experienced. £140 for 5 seats and you are inexperienced, an awful lot of vastly experienced guys including TM operators, are not getting any near that!
Dave.
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Nice one, glad to hear you sorted the problem.
Dont bother with micro splitters, they really dont work and make you work harder in order to achive less than standard results.
I tipped all of my batch of tried and failed micro splitters into the gravel at the back of my house.
Matt
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£140 for a 5seat is good going, i would charge £100.
I find suites take me 1/2 hour per seat, so earn me £40 a hour.
If you do it in the same time thats £56 a hour (not bad)
Another good chem is Alltecs, citrus fabric pre wash.
It cuts through grease and grime with little effort, cant comment on the others as havent tried them.
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ps, in my experience the Alltec chem needs no dwell time.
So this should speed you up.
I mix it up in a bucket of hot water, then soak a mitten thing in it (sorry dont know what there called) give it a gentle rub over the fabric and you see all the grease instantly dissolve in one hit.
Extract dry, rinse and done.
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I'm trying all the chems and experimenting. Will try the microfibre mitts but I was hitting this thing with a tampico brush to shift it.
I'm certainly a better salesman than suite cleaner at the moment ;) and I've done a few quotes and didn't get the job.
Keeps you fit too. I've lost 6lbs since starting, but it could be that I'm sh*tting myself everytime I do something new, which is nearly everyday.
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There you go just to show you it works heres one i done earlier, with the above method.
This was a demo clean on one arm, for a customer who's carpets i done today.
Machine was allready set up so this took me literally 3minutes if that.
Needless to say i got the job and go back to do the suite in a couple weeks :D
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Nice one, has that stuff got part solvent in it?
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I dont think so, but dont know dont care, its all i use on every suite and i allways gets results.
Iv been using it for a year, its allways worked, and never caused a problem.
Thats good enough for me, if it aint broke dont fix it.
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Thats a fair do in three mins red-mind my solutions would have pulled the lot out in five no probs! ;D
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Hi Guys,
To remove grease it is best to use reasonably high temperatures.
This will have two effects, firstly the chemicals will work better at higher temps, more energy and secondly the higher temerature will soften/melt the grease thus allowing its removal.
One of the problems with a lot of this microspitter hype is that some of the fundamentals of cleaning have been lost in all the bull.
I would use 65- 70C and flush the water though the tool before starting so that the exit temp is near to this .
Cheers
Doug
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Agree with Doug about temps, thats why its good to use the fabric wash, mixed in a bucket with hot water.
As most portables lose the heat in the hose, with all the stopping and starting with suites.
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Sorry im just showing of now, but hears my first ever flotex clean, i done today on same job (aint this stuff easy) iv allways been scared of it.
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Wouldnt waste my time with M/S,s!! There is no substitute for a good cleaning chemical that is pre-sprayed to loosen it all then extract with................Hang on im not giving my game away!! :o Needless to say microsplitters are a good thing in that they create jobs for blokes(or ladies, who drink fruit juice and the odd glass of wine!) in creating plastic containers for them to be filled!! Nowt else ;D
Regards
Damian.
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Flotex is easy but you have to be aware of wicking problems on dirty ones. If you aren't thorough enough it can dry patchy. Good thing is you can go over and over it without fear.
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Flotex is easy but you have to be aware of wicking problems on dirty ones. If you aren't thorough enough it can dry patchy. Good thing is you can go over and over it without fear.
How can it brown or wick on flotex John?
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Yes your right Micro Splitters are probably the biggest fads this industry has ever seen.
I dont understand it I really dont, are people blind and unable see the differance between them and proper chems. If people do insist in this type of cleaning why dont they just use water to pre spray. The results are the same!!