Clean It Up
UK Floor Cleaning Forum => Carpet Cleaning Forum => Topic started by: cleanability on June 29, 2004, 10:25:04 pm
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ok heres the position. Leather suite company here in South Wales trampled oil ( the oil u get after its done 10000 miles in an engine) all over a house they were delivering a suite to. The suite company called me. I cleaned the whole carpet ( a deep plain red carpet not wool) and removed the oil stains with a degreaser and HWE rinse. Fantastic job, carpet looked like new. Then 3weeks later the house called me back. The stains had reappeared over a 2 week period. I went back and used a solvent spotter this time. Brilliant, the stains were gone. That was 3 weeks ago. Call today. The stains are back. Again taking about 2 weeks to re appear. I must say I did not use too hot a temperature because of possible colour loss with this deep red carpet. Any ideas?????????? Do I use a hotter temperature for my water or what. Each time I have left the stains are not visible..........or for the next week or 2 for that matter.
Chris
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Chris
Many solvent spotters are non-volatile ie. they do not evaporate as they have an oil present to slow down evaporation, so that they have more time to do their work. It is therefore essential after solvent spotting to use a volatile solvent to remove the previous solvent's residues. Follow this with your usual spotting/rinse regime.
Safe and happy cleaning:)
Ken
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Chris
Only a few questions did the sofa company ask you to clean the whole carpet? When the customer called you back twice re stains reappearing are they the same position as the previous marks done by the sofa co? I also question stains take two weeks to reappear?
Len
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Ken ! Think you might be right. But I am a little confused. I have never ever used a volatile solvent spotter as you have explained. I have always just used the same blended solvent spotter from Craftex or Alltec for the last 8 years and rinsed and never had a problem. I think the one I need is Chemspecs "wet Solvent" which is actually described as a blended solvent spotter remover.
Thanx Ken
Chris
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It strikes me that there must have been a fair amount of liquid oil involved, and that it has sunk well into the pile, and that much of it is still there, and wicking up.
You may have a long job on your hands, and I would talk to the people and explain the situation, otherwise you may have to do a lot of work for nothing. I don't think that you could reasonably have anticipated this extreme situation.
I guess that with a red carpet it may be difficult to see if there is any oil left after each treatment
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Well thanks for the replies.Going to try the volatile solvent approach.
Chris
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Picking up on a comment made earlier - are you happy they are the same stains?
Where did the oil come from? The drive I guess? Has the owner walked through it??
Just a thought
Steve
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The house owner seems a really genuine guy. Get along great with him. Woudn't doubt his word. But I know what you mean.
thanks Chris
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would it be worth cleaning it as described and then applying Host powder and brush in and then advise customer to vac out later.
Shaun
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In my opinion there are two 'main' possibilities as to what is happening in this situation.
1. You have removed the oil spots but in doing so may have left a soil attracting residue of the solvents used.
2. You have a remaining residue of the original oil contamination that is encouraging soil to bond to this residue.
When inspecting the stains do they appear slightly larger than the original oil spots that you dealt with? If so, this may suggest that it is the residue from the solvent spotter used, as it often will have spread out further than the perimetre of the stain its self.
In either case you will find that the stains are general soil that is being attracted to the remaining oil content, and will seem easily removed, but like you mention the spots gradually return.
If you are dealing with a deep red carpet you have to bear in mind that often these can release their dye more readily, depending on the actual fibre content. Some of the very thick pile plush carpets can be a polyester, and care needs to be taken that the solvent used does not cause any change to the appearance of the fibres.
It is pretty well documented that Polyester/ Polypropylene fibres have a liking or an attraction for oily based stains, which is termed as oliaphilic (oil loving).
Given reasonable dwell time, I have found Citrus Gel to be quite effective on oil residue type stains, and it readily flushes out with hot water.
I hope that serves to be of some use to you.
Regards
Robert Olifent
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Hi Chris
Solution Eco Spotter will remove the oil stains it is not solvent but alcohol based and should be lightly applied to the areas tamped in and rinsed out followed by an application of standard micro splitter and rinsed out with hot water. it would seem that their was a considerable amount of oil walked in in the first place have you looked at the carpet backing to check how much went through originally
Best regards Nick
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Thanks Robert. And yes the "new" stains that reappear are larger than the original. So its probably a residue from my solvent spotter that is the cause. I've got Chemspec's "Wet Solvent" being delivered tomorrow, which going by its description in the catalogue is a "volatile" solvent spotter and can be used to rinse out "blended" solvent spotters which is the spotter that I have used and that is causing my problem.
Will post the outcome of my problem in a few weeks on here.
Thanks for everyones help
Chris
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Just curious.. did the solution work in the end? :)
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Tried everything suggested on here to no avail. The chap was ok about it.
Chris
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Must be a record, nearly 7 years and then another response.
John
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Nick.Solution would have had hair then.... ;D
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Nick.Solution would have had hair then.... ;D
Colin, I like it!!!!! ;D