Clean It Up

UK Floor Cleaning Forum => Carpet Cleaning Forum => Topic started by: kilo on April 01, 2010, 11:46:28 am

Title: Carpets not coming up clean!
Post by: kilo on April 01, 2010, 11:46:28 am
I've recently started my own carpet cleaning business and I'm finding it difficult to get good results on carpets. I'm mainly cleaning buy to let properties with heavily stained areas. I have a prochem powerplus 500 portable machine, use pre spray gold and fibre fabric and rinse in the extraction machine. I'm also treating stains with prochem products. Any advise on what to change or check?
Title: Re: Carpets not coming up clean!
Post by: JandS on April 01, 2010, 12:04:15 pm
Change your pre spray to Powerburst by Prochem and you'll find
you don't always need anything in the tank but hot water.
I discovered this the other day when I forgot to put anything in
the tank for the first half hour of a job on Monday.
Was only alerted when customer made coffee and asked what I
used in the tank, and was it that stuff on the doorstep she'd been
reading the label of.
Get it down early, let it dwell for 5 mins while unloading, agitate and
dwell again and bingo.

John
Title: Re: Carpets not coming up clean!
Post by: wayne zabel on April 01, 2010, 12:22:18 pm
Im only a novice myself but have taken advivise from many on here and use Ultrapac Renovate on Polyprop carpets,works a treat.
Title: Re: Carpets not coming up clean!
Post by: Claire Kent on April 01, 2010, 12:23:58 pm
Hi

You may want to try Prochems Trafficlean as a pre-spray its great for heavy soils and grease removal.  I would consider your contact time (this may be increased) and if you arent already using one get a Prochem "Carpet Pile Brush"  they are great for working the chemical into the pile and dirt and will allow the chemical to contact well.  They also last for years!

Fibre and Fabric is a really good product but maybe try Extraction Pro...its better on heavy soils and proteins.   Hopefully you will  find that if you get your pre-spray working well you only need to use hot water (maybe a little deodoriser) to extract.

Hope this helps!!

Claire
Title: Re: Carpets not coming up clean!
Post by: markpowell on April 01, 2010, 12:34:30 pm
Get some Craftex Champion from Restoremate for nylon and synthetics in the eot jobs.
Its the bees nees on trashed synthetic carpets, rinse with Plain hot water
Mark
Title: Re: Carpets not coming up clean!
Post by: JandS on April 01, 2010, 01:02:35 pm
Got some of that Mark but not tried it yet.
Can't be ars*d cleaning out a sprayer for it,will
just wait till PB runs out.
Carpet pile brushes are great, haven't used a
mechanical agitator for ages.
Your right about lasting for ages too best £20
I've spent.

John
Title: Re: Carpets not coming up clean!
Post by: Ken Wainwright on April 01, 2010, 01:03:39 pm
Kilo

All of the recommendations above are sound.

On the law of averages, rentals tend to be more synthetic than natural fibres and if so in your cases, your safe on wool approach wont always "cut the mustard".

Do you vac the carpets first? A thorough pre-vaccing will remove a lot of the dry particulate. If you don't do this first, once you apply water it will turn into mud and be more difficult to remove with your porty.

Apply your pre-spray then agitate immediately, then dwell. The better the agitation, the better and easier the rinse. Even the light weight Sebo Duo is a significant step up from brushing by hand. More substantial machinery is another step up again.

As you are a Prochem user, a couple of boosters for your pre-spray that you may find useful are Oxybrite and Citra Boost. The later is only really used on very greasy soiling. The former is an oxydising bleach which will almost certainly be safe on polypropylene and with caution on topically dyed fibres. Always test first.

Safe and happy cleaning :)
The Ken

Title: Re: Carpets not coming up clean!
Post by: james roffey on April 01, 2010, 02:09:19 pm
I use Powerburst or Ultrapac renovate on Polyprop and woolsafe products on wool never had a problem i always vacuum well, and always agitate using envirodri gen 4 machine this i think is the key and makes extraction easier using my Ninja, i spoke to a customer recently and likened it to washing your hair without massaging the shampoo into your scalp you would not just pour the shampoo on then rinse off. although using shampoo is a distant memory for me now :'(
I am relatively new to carpet cleaning, the results often surprise me, just be careful using something like the envirodri on loop pile carpets as it can damage them if you are not careful, but i believe agitation is the key to getting the best results, but i have seen guys with truckmount who do not agitate, and they have far more experience than i, but without a truckmount definately agitation all the way.
Title: Re: Carpets not coming up clean!
Post by: Joe H on April 01, 2010, 02:37:49 pm
Jim
I got a truckmount and I aggitate. Used to be with the Gen4 but now with the Carpetgard (Flexi5). Certainly adds to the result.
Title: Re: Carpets not coming up clean!
Post by: Dave_Lee on April 01, 2010, 05:14:23 pm
kilo,
confusing isn't it! Basically, rental properties are generally grubby as the tenants don't usually respect the carpets or anything else. They are badly stained etc, you need to hit them hard with a good alkaline prespray and rinse. The chems you are using are too gentle, they are fine for clean well looked after carpets but not the usual rental types. The carpets are going to trashed again anyway, so go in strong to get the best results.
Dave.
Title: Re: Carpets not coming up clean!
Post by: derek west on April 01, 2010, 05:39:06 pm
newbie or not, your not on your own.

absolute minger today, polyprop, rubbing my hands i was, as i know how well these come up and its a customer for life when they see the results.

powerburst down hot, good agitation with my enviro, erm erm i mean sebo duo ;), extracted with the trucky. fantastic result all over apart from the kitchen to conservatory walk through, in fact it was a huge dissapointment, tried some neat citra boost in a small area and got some transfer onto a TT. so topped up the powewr burst with a good old generous glug of citra boost, sprayed all over the bad bits then changed to hard brushes on my enviro, erm erm i mean sebo. and give it a damn good agitation. extracted again and got another 50% out of it but still not totally happy, out comes the RX with bonnet attachment and some split-x. give it a good old bonnetting and yes! we got some transfer onto bonnet. kept going till no more transfer. and result. still wouldn't say it was perfect but i left knowing no one else would get a better result. customer over the moon.

to be honest i could of walked after the powerburst and the custy would of still been happy, but the fact is, i wouldn't of.


so my advise is, you need more ammo, more WMD's. the more youve got at your disposal the more chance youve got of getting the lot out. oh and just in case, no you don't need a truckmount. just lots of varying weapons.
Title: Re: Carpets not coming up clean!
Post by: derek west on April 01, 2010, 07:38:32 pm
ps....
i quoted for 90 minutes and it took us 3 hours :o

say lavvy

"LAVVY"
Title: Re: Carpets not coming up clean!
Post by: james roffey on April 01, 2010, 07:52:44 pm
Jim
I got a truckmount and I aggitate. Used to be with the Gen4 but now with the Carpetgard (Flexi5). Certainly adds to the result.

I know Joe you are a true perfectionist no cutting corners with you 
Title: Re: Carpets not coming up clean!
Post by: Carpet Dawg on April 01, 2010, 07:56:45 pm
Hi

You may want to try Prochems Trafficlean as a pre-spray its great for heavy soils and grease removal.  I would consider your contact time (this may be increased) and if you arent already using one get a Prochem "Carpet Pile Brush"  they are great for working the chemical into the pile and dirt and will allow the chemical to contact well.  They also last for years!

Fibre and Fabric is a really good product but maybe try Extraction Pro...its better on heavy soils and proteins.   Hopefully you will  find that if you get your pre-spray working well you only need to use hot water (maybe a little deodoriser) to extract.

Hope this helps!!

Claire

Do you work for Prochem? oh you sell thier products.....

Title: Re: Carpets not coming up clean!
Post by: yorky on April 01, 2010, 08:02:03 pm
This thread is a perfect example of how it can be confusing for someone new given the huge amount of products on the Market.
Go on another forum and the products would be M Power and the likes which has not even been mentioned.
Title: Re: Carpets not coming up clean!
Post by: derek west on April 01, 2010, 08:06:39 pm
This thread is a perfect example of how it can be confusing for someone new given the huge amount of products on the Market.
Go on another forum and the products would be M Power and the likes which has not even been mentioned.

write down every chem mentioned in the thread, then a tick for every time its mentioned again and there ya go. simples ;D
Title: Re: Carpets not coming up clean!
Post by: JandS on April 01, 2010, 08:12:03 pm
She sells Trafficlean but not Powerburst!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Hot PB makes Trafficlean look crap and never rated PSG.
How does the Craftex face up??
Must mix some up sometime.

John

Title: Re: Carpets not coming up clean!
Post by: markpowell on April 01, 2010, 10:44:55 pm
John on trashed synthetics nothing comes close.
Mark
Title: Re: Carpets not coming up clean!
Post by: Joe H on April 02, 2010, 08:48:46 am
Yorky
I frequent the forum (I think) you are talking about and yes M-Power and Nemesis are very good in their place.
but
for the type of carpet referred to in this thread I would be reaching for the Powerburst at the outset.

Prespray, good agitation, take a breather, then a good wash with Hydramaster Clear Water Rinse added.
Title: Re: Carpets not coming up clean!
Post by: Paul W Jones on April 02, 2010, 04:22:45 pm
When you've tried a few different products you'll come up with your own favourites.  It's always best to have a good choice in the back of the van though!
Title: Re: Carpets not coming up clean!
Post by: Adam Fearnley on April 02, 2010, 04:37:42 pm
Is it Mark that used Craftex Champion?  I've heard him say its very good but is there any risk of damaging synthetics with it?  I presume it shouldn't be used on wool.
Title: Re: Carpets not coming up clean!
Post by: richy27 on April 02, 2010, 04:43:34 pm
i carry 4 pre sprays in the van for carpets.

power burst
ultrapac
pre spray gold
one step MS

tell a lie  have some blitz as well just to try.

never seem to want anything else
Title: Re: Carpets not coming up clean!
Post by: Colin Day on April 02, 2010, 06:35:08 pm
i carry 4 pre sprays in the van for carpets.

power burst
ultrapac
pre spray gold
one step MS

Have you tried M-Power? I have and my one step's in the attick now:-X

Joking aside, pop down and you can have it for free mate!
Cheers, Colin!!!!!
Title: Re: Carpets not coming up clean!
Post by: richy27 on April 02, 2010, 06:59:08 pm
colin going hm on the 13 th will give you a buzz see if your about
Title: Re: Carpets not coming up clean!
Post by: Colin Day on April 02, 2010, 07:02:19 pm
colin going hm on the 13 th will give you a buzz see if your about

Definately mate!!!! I might even get a coffee, for the first time :D
Title: Re: Carpets not coming up clean!
Post by: richy27 on April 02, 2010, 07:11:10 pm
ok mate they should of fitted the titan by lunch time
Title: Re: Carpets not coming up clean!
Post by: richy27 on April 02, 2010, 07:13:02 pm
oops should of posted that yesterday
Title: Re: Carpets not coming up clean!
Post by: Colin Day on April 02, 2010, 07:38:49 pm
Oh, yeah! Heard about the new Titan! You farmer's will spend your cash anywhere won't you to stop the tax man stealing from you ;D ;D ;D

My Dad's a 'Master Builder" and builds dry stone walls around trees in fields quite a lot for farmers up in the lakes! A farmer told my Dad that he does it  for no other reason, but to avoid the tax man getting his grubby mitts on the cash..... Quite bloody right ;) ;) ;)

So you'll be Titan owner numer 7?
Title: Re: Carpets not coming up clean!
Post by: richy27 on April 02, 2010, 08:21:05 pm
Oh, yeah! Heard about the new Titan! You farmer's will spend your cash anywhere won't you to stop the tax man stealing from you ;D ;D ;D

My Dad's a 'Master Builder" and builds dry stone walls around trees in fields quite a lot for farmers up in the lakes! A farmer told my Dad that he does it  for no other reason, but to avoid the tax man getting his grubby mitts on the cash..... Quite bloody right ;) ;) ;)

So you'll be Titan owner numer 7?

perhaps when i wake up from my dream world.

tax man whos he ?
Title: Re: Carpets not coming up clean!
Post by: Colin Day on April 02, 2010, 08:22:37 pm
 ;D ;D ;D He owes me £500........
Title: Re: Carpets not coming up clean!
Post by: kilo on April 07, 2010, 10:28:36 am
Thanks for all the advise, I have just purchased some powerburst so hopefully that should do the job!
Title: Re: Carpets not coming up clean!
Post by: Buckland on April 07, 2010, 02:24:20 pm
Kilo - short answer is use more heat!

If your leccy sucker wont do it save up for a entry level tm like a prowler - its heat that cleans carpets...

(puts head back below parapet and waits for storm of insults from coldwater leccy brigade)
Title: Re: Carpets not coming up clean!
Post by: Jim_77 on April 07, 2010, 08:34:45 pm
They wouldn't dare, we'd track them down and spray 230ºF water at them until their skin peeled off!

:) :) :)
Title: Re: Carpets not coming up clean!
Post by: thebestcleaner on April 20, 2010, 07:02:28 pm
dry fusion constant heat  8)
Title: Re: Carpets not coming up clean!
Post by: Terry_Burrows on April 22, 2010, 08:56:27 am
what do you guys think of the micro splitters from amtech :-\ just started to use this method then just use hot water to clean..