Clean It Up
UK Floor Cleaning Forum => Carpet Cleaning Forum => Topic started by: derek west on July 18, 2008, 12:15:19 pm
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got a job early august, school staffroom.
burmatex tiles, possible bitumen but dont know for sure.
gonna use blitz with fib fab rinse.
lots of chewing gum in the carpet
dont want to risk solvents
if i prick the gum several times will the heat of the truckmount get the gum up with some agitation?
or is there something i can put on the pricked gum to help the trucky get it out
or do i have to get the gum up manually before the cleaning process.
all suggestions of gum removal welcome but no solvents
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ps, are them bazooka's any good??
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Derek,
Try using a long handled blade scraper. Search B&Q for a (Hamilton Heavy Duty Stripper Black/Silver Colour 100mm). Simply slice the gum from the carpet. No solvent required. You will take a small amount of fibre with the gum.
Richie.
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hi ritchie, do you mean like a hoe?
are steamers and good?
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Derek asked
"ps, are them bazooka's any good?? "
Never tried one Derek but most reviews on here and Cleantalk say no good.
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cheers joe, thats saved me £200 quid
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Best way to do it without solvent is as same as above and use a scraper derek :) :)
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Buy yourself a cheap steam gun for £20! I average 2 pieces of gum a minute using this method. The hot steam destroys the structure of the gum. Remove it with kitchen roll. May need to spray a tiny amount of solvent on after removal to remove any stickiness so test an area first if work is on a questionable carpet. Easy.
The removal of the below gum took me well under 5 mins
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so not even a scraper then, just get it hot and then paper towel it off, nice one, thanks for that. i'll test a liquid solvent for colour run and if ok then could i just wipe the area with a mildly wet (with solvent) terry towel or should i citrus gel and then extract with the trucky? again cheers for the info. theres about 40 pieces of gum by the way,
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Derek
When I had a CFR500 Perfect Het I could remove most chewy gum with just its hand tool, so I would imaging the heat produced with a TM would make life easier.
Maybe some residue left to remove.
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i'll buy a heat gun and if tracy cant get it out then i'll use the steamer.
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Derek
Use the chewing gum pricker apply citrus gel wait 3-5 mins then extract
Gerry
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Hi Guys
I have found the very hot water approach the best, recently did a Night Club, loads of gum.
Chewing gum is natural rubber and will flow once it has gone past it's transition temperature, last remains can be removed with a wipe with white spirit.
I used water at 90C.
Cheers
Doug
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so whats the transition temp of gum doug, i'll be running 100 ft so not sure if it'll reach 90 at the wand, anyone know the running temp of a boxxer 421 using 100 ft hose,
think i'll try both ways and see which works best, thanks for all this guys, preciate it.
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Personally id NEVER use a steamer again. To much mess plus you will find that most of the time you will need to use some kind of solvent to get off the residue anyway.
Richie.
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I think it'll be interesting to hear what temperature people THINK they are extracting at :)
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Just use a steam gun. You will find this the fastest and easiest. Citrus gel is ok for the odd bit but not for 40!! I was talking to a friend yesterday and asked me what I used and told him a steam gun. He nearly collapsed when I said I can do 2 pieces a min as oppose to his one piece every 5 mins with citrus gel!!
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Jim.
how hot is it when you can't see the wand head because of the steam coming from the solution? or when the Qc touches your arm and melts the flesh to the bone :o :o
that's how hot I extract at :D :D
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I keep burning myself with my new 427 I can't take the QC off the wand for a while when I've finshed cleaning.
Shaun
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By using the scraper that i mentioned you can expect to remove in the region of 10 - 20 pieces of gum in a minute depending on your ability. No Residue, No Solvent, No hassle.
Richie.
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the Qc is untouchable when at full heat but the steams not that bad if any.
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This is what I did to myself on Wednesday!
Shaun
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Derek what sized jets have you on your wand and which wand have you got?
I have found that going up a jet size will release more heat and by taking the glide off (if you have one) you can use the metal lips to scrub the chewing gum off when it has started to turn to mush.
Shaun
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ive got a glide but never use it, its for sale if anyone wants it, still in its wrapper, not sure about jet size, i'm new, but then i thought the bigger the jet the less heat you can get, bit like turning the tap on with a combi boiler, if you run it slow its piping hot but if you turn it on full blast, less heat, or doesn't the trucky work like that????
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Shaun - how did you manage to blur yourself so badly??!?!
Mick - I may post up a boring factual post somewhere, at some time, about heat :)
Derek - why haven't you tried your glide? Don't sell it, use it!!
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There's a mid point where it won't work but if you look on the jets in small writing it will tell you also what wand have you got, is it a 2 jet?
Shaun
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its a 2 jet hydramaster wand, got it with the trucky,
as for the glide, dont see any reason to put it on, i get better agitation with the wand without and its not that hard work.
ive got a brand new inline sprayer as well that i dont use, all though i haven't done any very large areas yet so i may hang on to that just in case.
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Jim I was man handling the wand trying to get the vac pipe off as it was stuck on with all of the suction and just caught my sking with the QC which I had just put the valve to off and it must have built up the heat.
"Ouch" I quietly said!
Shaun
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Sure you said that Shaun, sure you did :)
(it was actually a dig at your photography prowess :p)
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Hi Guys
Natural rubber will vary in molecular weight and different fillers/processes etc so it's not really possible to give a definitive temperature at which it flows but for porty users I have found 90C in tank, which provided you keep a bucket with you to flush through, probably means about 80C at the nozzle tip.
I use a hand tool for better control.
Anyone whose ever removed gum knows different pieces soften at different rates, one of the reasons polymers don't have melting points is that they are a mixture of molecular weights etc.
Keeping it simple the hotter the water the more the rubber flow, but too hot could cause backing problems and also make the NR too stringy, find out what works best for you.
Cheers
Doug
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This is what I did to myself on Wednesday!
Shaun
You big jessie ::)
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By using the scraper that i mentioned you can expect to remove in the region of 10 - 20 pieces of gum in a minute depending on your ability. No Residue, No Solvent, No hassle.
Richie.
Maybe on a hard floor but not carpet! Ill give you £1,000,000 if you can show proof of this?
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Ritchie,
If that works for you, fine, but for others who don't want to be replacing damaged carpets, there are easier and safer ways of removing gum.
If you have high enough heat at the wand, it will release and be extracted as suggested by Shaun and Doug.
If your machine can't supply enough heat, you can use a heatgun, or better still a steamer, preferably one with built in vacuum.
There is often a residue remaining, which should be wiped with a piece of towel soaked in solvent, wrung out and applied quickly. If this is not done there will often be black, sticky residue, which will increase in size by " collecting " dust, etc.
robert m
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Well said Carlton Care. I have an open mind and am willing to listen to anyones comments but within reason. I did a job last night and managed to get two pieces of gum off with my hand tool very easily. This is not always possible ofcourse. Sometimes I use a little citrus gel for the odd bit but on larger areas will prefer to use the steam gun method. Works for me.
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Richie served his time cleaning disgusting nightclubs where removing gum is a big part, if he says he can remove 10-20 a minute I believe him.
'cutting' gum off the top of a carpet is a useful technique and works well on very dense heavy weaved pile.
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derek, if you really don't want the glide give me a call, i'm interested,
colin 01525 851 811
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far as i know theres 3 types of glides colin, drill holes, long type holes and then a mixture of the 2. mine is a mixture of the 2, ive enclosed a picture of it, £100 from hydra master last time i looked, make me an offer.
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To use a scraper as suggested on hard gum is asking for trouble..............I've done clubs and pubs also, but the worst gum removal job I ever did was a High Street shop.
Hard gum is not unlike adhesive and adhesive will destroy even tough tiles if you try to force it off, but if that's the gamble you want to take...............YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED!
good luck
robert m
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pierce with fork,or perforator then use some freezer spray will harden the gum making it brittle then it will just come away then rinse with your normal extractor
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Common sense will tell you what carpets you can use any choosen gum removal system. Certainly the club & pub, bingo halls and so on will not be a problem using the scrapper i have mentioned provided that you know how to do it right. 10 - 20 pieces is easily achievable especially if you are surrounded by gum like i have been MANY MANY times. Steam could easily do alot of damage to a carpet pile/backing, Solvents can also cause problems so as i have said....use common sense & choose the system that will offer safest results.
Skywalker,
If you are serious of paying me that amount of money to remove at least 10 pieces of gum and maybe upto 20 from a carpet in 1 minute i will take up your challenge. I will choose the venue and you bring the cash. £1,000,000 is alot of cash though so could you please make sure that it is in £50 notes. I would have to insist on cash in UK sterling only.
Richie.
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Nobody's mentioned Ashby's chewing gum wand.
In case people don't know of it it's like a traditional wand but at the business end there is a small box with serrated teeth. You hold it over the gum, apply steam and then agitate it off.
Does take practise I found but sure beats having to get down on your hands and knees.
Like any system it won't work all the time, but it keeps me happy most of the time.
Does anybody else have thoughts on it?
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whats the cost on one of those dr? sounds interesting
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On a carpet clean in a town centre bar the other day I found that simply spraying a bit of spotter on the wads and then scraping it with the lips of my hand tool was breaking it free. Then it was just a case of blasting the remains with really hot water (heated to about 90 in-tank), applying a bit more spotter, agitating with a handi groomer, then a final rinse and it was gone.
Working on about 3 or 4 wads at a time I got through about 25m² of really badly gummed carpet in about 45 mins. I was pleasantly surprised but the bar owner was gobsmacked! He thought he was "stuck" with it (scuse the pun)
He paid on the spot and gave me a tenner tip, two unheard of occurences in one go from a bar owner!
I've never really bothered with gum before, because of some of the reasons already mentioned here recently such as solvent damage, agitation damage and non-effectiveness of certain gum removal systems. But this was a real eye-opener for me.
One thing I noticed was that if I first tried rinsing the wads with hot water, it just made them go into a bigger gooey mess. Spotter, scrape off with hand tool lips, then deal with the residue seemed to be the best way to go.
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Derek
Got to find the invoice in a pile of paper. I'll post it when i find it.
Roger
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I always use citrus gel and its never let me down.Not sure about the wand with teeth ;)
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just bought a steamer from argos, £50, if it don't get the chuddy out its going back, i love argos and there 14 day no quibble guarantee.
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I wouldn't bother getting it out the box!
Steam on its own is just going to make the gum wads more sticky and malleable, so when you try to scrape them they'll just spread over a wider area of carpet.
The heat from your TM combined with a hand tool will be far more useful, and probably just as hot. As soon as you loosen the gum you need to remove it otherwise it'll just spread about.
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must admit jim, gonna try the trucky first, then if i struggle ive another option with the steamer, boy scouts see, always be prepared.
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if i am really honest..............i use a fork and pog!!! then extract.....
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Chris
Pog a bugger to rinse out and expensive.
Len
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ehhh! newbie here, whats a pog???? yes i know what a fork is.
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i know its expensive len ............but worth it imo
and works everytime..............
how are you getting on with that solvall???
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P.O.G. = Paint Oil Grease
Solvent to me and you.
I've heard people do many things but solvent heat and aggitation all put together must be the winner, oh and patience plenty of it.
Shaun
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shaun
what do you reckon to piercing the chud with a fork, a wipe over with oj then full heat from the trucky, i cant put to much solvent down as its bitumen backed carpet tiles.
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Sounds good, could be worth taking the glide off your wand as it's more aggressive then.(unless you haven't go one on)
Shaun
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shaun
glides are for girls. this is mans work, ask carlton, we drink viking lager, and they dont come any manlier than that, got a glide in the van, still in its wrapper if any girls out there are interested, £50
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You won't be saying that after another 12 months and a huge bill from your osteopath ;)
Get the glide working for you, or at least keep it so when you find out the hard way you can come back and tell me I was right ;D
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jim
ya big girls blouse.
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Did I ever tell you that I was the 1st to bring a wand glide into the country?
Shaun
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shaun............
youre starting to sound like some 1 else ;D ;D ;D
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lol