Clean It Up
UK Floor Cleaning Forum => Carpet Cleaning Forum => Topic started by: wayne zabel on April 23, 2010, 10:48:22 pm
-
Did a quote tonight that transpired to be 2 BW's.I told the customer about the pitfalls of HWE on these and he decided not to take the chance.They were well anchored to the gripper rods ect and could well have been OK to wet clean.The job was worth about £100.
Would you have taken a chance and not mentioned the pitfalls or would you do what I did and lose the job.As a newbie Im a bit niave,did I do the right thing
-
There's nothing wrong with warning the customer of certain pitfalls, but you always counter that with "I know what I'm doing and will get the job done without any problems."
Perhaps you overdid the "This might happen" stuff and if I was in their shoes I'd have said thanks but no thanks.
It seems like you justified to yourself that it would be ok but you then offered them too many reasons to run away.
-
Iv'e not come across the dredded Belgian Wilton yet in my short career.
Is bonnet cleaning with a rotary an option.
-
Thats an option but I only have HWE at thet moment
-
BW's can be wet cleaned.........with care!!!!
Pre-vac really well (not a quick run over) pre-spray (but not to excess) with a M/S, loads of agitation and extract with minimal moisture and lots of dry passes. Also use drier's.
Not shrunk one yet.
-
Wayne,
You are going to lose a fair amount of work if you dont clean a b/w be cautious , but be confident and you should not have any problems.
Keyplus,
I dont know how long you been c/c but to say you havnt come across one yet i find hard to imagine!!
maybe you have cleaned some with out quite realising! their are a fair few out there .
Geoff
-
I have done 2 in the past with no problems but have told the customer about the pitfalls but also said it is only a slight chance if shrinkage and they have been happy to let me do the job.
On this occasion I was more worried as the job was 2 large carpets whereas the others were smallish jobs,so I probably went OTT telling the customer the pitfalls.
Just wondering wether to keep quiet in future
-
BW's can be wet cleaned.........with care!!!!
Pre-vac really well (not a quick run over) pre-spray (but not to excess) with a M/S, loads of agitation and extract with minimal moisture and lots of dry passes. Also use drier's.
Not shrunk one yet.
If you spray with M/S is there less chance of them shrinking?
I would use Ultrapac renovate with it been a Polyprop face fibre.
Wayne you can always tack the carpet to either wood floor or gripper every foot or so leaving the head proud so the customer can remove when fully dry. Only takes 20 mins or so for a medium size room (add £20) to the bill, just gives you that little extra confidence, ive cleaned 100's and never had a complaint.
If your ever out on a quote and your not sure what to say/do just ring me, could have saved you £100 there mate :'( :'(
Mark
-
Mark
As posted, never shrunk one yet. I use M/S due to it's free rinsing properties. Could use DFC 105 to same effect. I'm sure you would agree the main point is not to go mad with the moisture.
-
I've wet cleaned hundreds of BW's with no problems. Cleaned lots when I first started without realising and still had no problems. Cleaned huge BW's in function rooms with no problems (but did ask if they'd been wet cleaned previously to be safe). After about 4years and then knowing about the pitfalls of wet cleaning BW's I shrank my first and last one. And strangely enough it was a very small hall stairs landing. And actually so small I did the whole job with my upholstery tool so this was as dry a wet clean as you could get and IT STILL SHRUNK !!!! Cost me £400. So statistically theres a very very high chance it wont shrink. So if you add up the work you turn away by not cleaning BW's to the cost of replacing a BW then the sums say clean a BW ( unless its a very big BW ). I actually always explain the pitfalls ( ie a tiny tiny risk of shrinkage ) of wet cleaning BW's and more often than not they say go ahead anyway.
Chris
-
Wayne what area was the job in mate..
I do come across some in my client base and always clean with caution and mostly l m clean them if they are in not a too bad condition.
-
I have come across two and i used my Envirodri and sponges to clean, good results too :)
-
Wayne what area was the job in mate..
I do come across some in my client base and always clean with caution and mostly l m clean them if they are in not a too bad condition.
It was in Unsworth Bury for a large asian family,they seem to like BW's
-
gwrightson............. you and your big mouth :-X ...............
............came across my first Belgian Witon today.
3 carpets about 10x15ft all same carpet.
It was an asian couple with a young child,they wanted them cleaned before the fella's dad comes home on monday.Tbh it was the cleanest carpet i have ever seen on survey.I explained the risks and they agreed to leave it as it was not there carpet.Please can any guys who have cleaned belgians with HWE explain how you go about it..ie...do you turn the psi down(mine is 135)..would you just do one quick wet pass at a time,would i need to use air movers ect...ect....cheers.
-
no problem with these
-
Wayne
As you know,we have both been working about the same amount of time.Iv'e cleaned loads of BW with no trouble at all.Don't over wet with Pre Spray and make sure you use plenty of dry passes.Just use your nogging and you will be OK.
Chris
-
gwrightson............. you and your big mouth :-X ...............
............came across my first Belgian Witon today.
3 carpets about 10x15ft all same carpet.
It was an asian couple with a young child,they wanted them cleaned before the fella's dad comes home on monday.Tbh it was the cleanest carpet i have ever seen on survey.I explained the risks and they agreed to leave it as it was not there carpet.Please can any guys who have cleaned belgians with HWE explain how you go about it..ie...do you turn the psi down(mine is 135)..would you just do one quick wet pass at a time,would i need to use air movers ect...ect....cheers.
Ouch, no need to get tetchy,
All i said was i find it hard to imagine, no need to get shirty.
is it the wrong time of the month or something? ;)
geoff
-
think he was joking geoff
-
[quote author=cleanability link=topic=99651.msg853020#msg853020 date= it was a very small hall stairs landing. And actually so small I did the whole job with my upholstery tool so this was as dry a wet clean as you could get and IT STILL SHRUNK !!!! Cost me £400. Chris
a very small HSl and it cost you £400 :o :o you could carpet the length of the M1with a B/W for £400 ;D ;D ;D
-
Sorry geoff,i'll put a big lol in future when i'm joking just for you.
(http://i271.photobucket.com/albums/jj156/keyplus/lol.jpg)
-
Please can any guys who have cleaned belgians with HWE explain how you go about it..ie...do you turn the psi down(mine is 135)..would you just do one quick wet pass at a time,would i need to use air movers ect...ect....cheers.
I find the best wand technique is NOT to do a quick wet pass... if you think about it, you're giving your suction less chance of removing the moisture. Do a slightly faster than normal wet pass, just so you don't over-wet, then dry pass forwards, back and forwards again... then move over for your next wet pass.
Don't wand an area over as normal then go back to do more dry passes, as the water will already be on its way down to the backing.
This is where you really get the benefit from an extraction machine with more performance than your average twin-vac porty, it really takes a lot of the stress out of it knowing you're leaving the carpet without too much moisture in it. Before my TM I always used to use two ninjas in parallel on BW or any other shrinkers - with a 135psi pump, you've got a massive vacuum to water ratio like that, drying times as quick as with my TM too.
I too would normally opt for detergent-free pre-spray (solutions HD) rather than ultrapac, unless of course the carpet was very dirty. As Wayne rightly says, less rinsing required and if you do leave a bit behind so what, it won't cause a problem. Once you've got a detergent sprayed down you're committed to a thorough extraction rinse.... more than once I've left my optionms open, i.e. I've pre-sprayed HD, bonneted over very thoroughly and then made the decision whether to extract or leave it at that. You can't do that with a detergent pre-spray (well you shouldn't do that anyway ;) )
Also, doing it that way you can often just extract the traffic lanes if they still haven't come up as good, and of course doing that you can add something a bit more hardcore like ultrapac to just the traffic lanes and extract a bit heavier because you're not wetting the whole carpet.
Yes, air movers are a big help - again if only to relieve stress knowing you're leaving the carpet dry as you leave so no nasty surprise phone calls the next day