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UK Floor Cleaning Forum => Carpet Cleaning Forum => Topic started by: Steve Barnett (Carpet Care Plus) on June 03, 2008, 05:12:19 pm

Title: Carpet still damp
Post by: Steve Barnett (Carpet Care Plus) on June 03, 2008, 05:12:19 pm
Hi All

Cleaned a 100% wool tight loop pile berber on a stairs and landing yesterday morning and applied flouroseal plus protector straight after. Left the house at 12 noon - all windows open, good ventilation but heating not on.

Customer has just phoned to say that the carpet is still damp at 5pm the following day.

Any ideas - could the protector be increasing the drying time ?

Steve
Title: Re: Carpet still damp
Post by: MICHAEL_GAYTON on June 03, 2008, 05:22:29 pm
what did you clean the carpet with!! did you rince out with a acidic rinse
Title: Re: Carpet still damp
Post by: Steve Barnett (Carpet Care Plus) on June 03, 2008, 05:24:23 pm
Pre-sprayed with multipro and rinsed with pureclean
Title: Re: Carpet still damp
Post by: MICHAEL_GAYTON on June 03, 2008, 05:27:20 pm
maybe worth dropping off air mover
Title: Re: Carpet still damp
Post by: davep on June 03, 2008, 05:32:16 pm
Multi pro is ph 10.5 and pureclean 9, bit high for 100% wool, was it minging Steve?
Title: Re: Carpet still damp
Post by: Steve Barnett (Carpet Care Plus) on June 03, 2008, 05:36:27 pm
It was 3 years old, not cleaned before, but wasn't filthy.

Does the high ph increase the drying that significantly ?
Title: Re: Carpet still damp
Post by: John Gregory on June 03, 2008, 05:39:42 pm
I thought the carpet needed to be ph neutral for the protector to work

john
Title: Re: Carpet still damp
Post by: Doug Holloway on June 03, 2008, 05:40:56 pm
Hi Steve.

pH will not affect drying time unless you manage to set up an exothermic reaction, the Texatherm system is supposed to do this.

Anyway I digress two factors are adding to the drying time, the general high humidity and cool temps and the added protector.

Protectors contain water and a film former, which will slow drying as the film envelopes the carpet fibres.

Tell them to put the heating on and ventaillate well, should be no problem.

Cheers

Doug
Title: Re: Carpet still damp
Post by: MICHAEL_GAYTON on June 03, 2008, 05:43:04 pm
the stain protector is not adhering to  the carpet maybe best to reclean with fabric rinse in the tank and dry it with air mover
Title: Re: Carpet still damp
Post by: mark_roberts on June 03, 2008, 05:55:48 pm
These carpets will take the longest to dry even with a TM due to their makeup ie. 100% wool and its a berber which also hinders drying.

I have started to use a fan on these straight away as they can take 24hours + in the wrong drying situations.

Protector increases dry times regardless of what the carpet is made from. 

With the humid weather its all against you.  Drop a fan off and consider the above for next time.

Mark
Title: Re: Carpet still damp
Post by: Doug Holloway on June 03, 2008, 05:57:41 pm
Hi Guys

Michael, although it is preferable to apply protector after spraying with an acid rinse or cleaning with same, the protector will still adhere although  the bond may not be as good.

This is a case of not pannicking but explaining to custy that the additional water in the protector , combined with the generally poor climatic conditions has incresed the drying time.

Cheers

Doug
Title: Re: Carpet still damp
Post by: Steve Barnett (Carpet Care Plus) on June 03, 2008, 06:00:57 pm
Thanks for the replies guys.

Think I have been unlucky with this one - high humidity, no heating on, thorough clean and adding protection.

Definately remember this scenario next time - typically it couldn't have been a more straightforward job.

Steve
Title: Re: Carpet still damp
Post by: MICHAEL_GAYTON on June 03, 2008, 06:06:12 pm
yes but he needs to keep the customer happy.so i would still drop a blower off. ITs always best to watch your ph.
mick
Title: Re: Carpet still damp
Post by: John Gregory on June 03, 2008, 06:13:16 pm
Is it not dangerous leaving a berber carpet damp for such a long time especially if its hessian backed  I thinking possible shrinkage


John
Title: Re: Carpet still damp
Post by: markpowell on June 03, 2008, 06:19:59 pm
On 100% wool carpets not much of the moisture will hit the backing if any at all, due to the fibres holding onto the water and not giving it up so easy, this is why no matter how many vaccum only passes you make the drying time is still on the long side.
Mark
Title: Re: Carpet still damp
Post by: markpowell on June 03, 2008, 06:26:11 pm
Doug,
I was trained and led to believe that a carpet had to be on the low PH side before you could apply a fluroseal protector. Is it right that you should give a misting of Fabric / fibre rinse even on new carpets. If not i have  been wasting my time and product for the last 8 years. ??? ???
Mark
Title: Re: Carpet still damp
Post by: Doug Holloway on June 03, 2008, 06:34:08 pm
Hi Mark

It is definitely best to spray acid rinse before as the protector will bond better, so you have not been wasting your time :)

The point I was making is that the protector will still bond, although probably not as well if the pH is higher.

Preparation is always key to achieving good bonding.

Cheers

Doug
Title: Re: Carpet still damp
Post by: Steve Barnett (Carpet Care Plus) on June 03, 2008, 06:39:57 pm
It's my own fault - I always used to rinse every carpet with fibre and fabric, so never gave a second thought to applying flouroseal on it.

Now that I am using Pureclean as my day to day product of choice I forgot the fundamentals.

Steve
Title: Re: Carpet still damp
Post by: markpowell on June 03, 2008, 06:41:05 pm
Cheers for that Doug i will carry on as i have been doing got me paniking, whilst on the subject of Stain protecting Olympic cleaning are now selling scotchguard in 4 litre containers dilutes 1-8 so will make upto 32 litres of usable product for £35.00 + VAT can also be used on upholstery. Sure you will agree its a good deal ;)
Mark
Title: Re: Carpet still damp
Post by: markpowell on June 03, 2008, 06:46:07 pm
Steve,
Have you tried using pureclean as a prespray and rinsing with fresh water. I use to use multipro but since trying pureclean havnt looked back, i do use pre-spray gold and fabric + fibre rinse on wool and wool mix.
Mark
Title: Re: Carpet still damp
Post by: Steve Barnett (Carpet Care Plus) on June 03, 2008, 07:04:45 pm
No I haven't Mark, but I will give it a try.

Steve
Title: Re: Carpet still damp
Post by: MICHAEL_GAYTON on June 03, 2008, 07:15:32 pm
just a bad day in the office .steve
,was cleaning a suite today said to the customer check for pens and coins down the side she found  around 16 pounds
 ?? ???
Title: Re: Carpet still damp
Post by: gwrightson on June 03, 2008, 07:20:37 pm
!!!!!!!!!!!!!

why does that make it a bad day at the office? Michael.



geoff
Title: Re: Carpet still damp
Post by: Doug Holloway on June 03, 2008, 07:27:20 pm
Hi Mark

That sounds very good, have you tried it ?

I have never been very convinced with any of the protectors I have applied but the old M carpet protector seemed about the best.

Cheers

Doug
Title: Re: Carpet still damp
Post by: markpowell on June 03, 2008, 07:43:57 pm
Hi Doug,
I use  Prochem fluroseal plus and am happy with it i have used it on my own carpets and find it works well, i will be ordering some scotchguard and hopefully changing over it works out a lot lot cheaper.
When you say M do you mean 93M the name that Scotchguard changed to a couple of years ago?
Mark
Title: Re: Carpet still damp
Post by: Dave_Lee on June 03, 2008, 07:50:36 pm
The protector itself will lower any PH as it on the acidic side. The biggest problem with a long dry out on wool berber is the possibilty of browning upon eventual drying.
Dave./
Title: Re: Carpet still damp
Post by: markpowell on June 03, 2008, 07:53:40 pm
An acidic rinse should eliminate the risk of browning in most cases.
Mark
Title: Re: Carpet still damp
Post by: colin thomas on June 03, 2008, 08:40:32 pm
funnily enough i was going to post on this subject but steve beat me to it! i cleaned a low profile cheap polyprop last friday afternoon, it was an end of tenancy, the letting agent said it was still damp on monday lunchtime! obviously there was no ventilation but i was still surprised, i had to go back there today for something else and it was dry by then but it makes you think. i always tell customers to allow ventillation when they are in but if they go out which they often do rather than walk on clean carpets, our name might be mud!!

colin
Title: Re: Carpet still damp
Post by: markpowell on June 03, 2008, 08:50:12 pm
72 hours for a polyprop to dry, did you have your vacs switched on?
Or did you clean it with a mop and bucket ;D ;D
Title: Re: Carpet still damp
Post by: colin thomas on June 03, 2008, 09:16:11 pm
hydramaster 427! i know it sounds ridiculous doesn't it, i was wondering if the client made dirty footprints and wiped the carpet with a damp towel to clean it up on the sunday, when i left there on friday he said they just had a few things to move out over the weekend so that might be the reason for the damp,

colin   ???
Title: Re: Carpet still damp
Post by: terryyy100 on June 03, 2008, 10:37:30 pm
if you are going to use multi pro on wool you should always us fibre fabric or similar. 8)
Title: Re: Carpet still damp
Post by: Jeff Lydon/Greenie on June 04, 2008, 02:51:55 am
solvent based protector = accelerated drying
water based = prolonged drying

I would think with all the wool, you guys would be running from water protector.

Title: Re: Carpet still damp
Post by: carpet guy on June 04, 2008, 08:58:40 am
I have only encountered a similar situation once, when  the landlord failed to open windows and the heating failed to operate in a flat during winter.

The carpets were re cleaned ...... c/h turned on and two turbos left overnight.

Got paid twice and the landlord learned a lesson.

The landlord lost two Ikea tables, having placed them back on the carpets.

Title: Re: Carpet still damp
Post by: Mike Osbourne on June 04, 2008, 11:21:50 am
Greenie by name but not by nature.

Title: Re: Carpet still damp
Post by: Steve Barnett (Carpet Care Plus) on June 04, 2008, 06:18:53 pm
Thanks for all the replies guys - customer has just phoned to say carpet is dry and is delighted with the job. I guess the increase in temperature today has done the trick.

Will definately remember this one though !

Steve
Title: Re: Carpet still damp
Post by: colin thomas on June 04, 2008, 06:59:52 pm
carpet guy, did they find out who pinched the tables?

colin