[seanj]

any thoughts?

[woodman]

Hi Sean,
I believe there is no such thing as a stupid question when it come to cleaning carpets ,I am always querying and asking people in the know all manner of questions to obtain further knowledge.

Cigarette burns and other small scale burns can be easily dealt with if the burn has not gone all the way to the backing and burnt through by re-tufting  either by using tufts from a spare piece of carpet or from around the edges.
I carry this out on a regular basis and it is very effective.
Practice first on scrap carpets until such time that you feel confident enough to be let loose on a customers carpet.
More serious burns are probably are not worth the trouble and expence unless its a hotel,pub night club etc. In this situation patching in will probably be accepted.
A piece of equipment called Micro Shears can be hired and these will gently remove the top surface of the carpet if  a minor burn to the surface only is to be removed, but this is expensive.

[Robert_Olifent]

Hi

Retufting can be very successful, and save the client or insurer alot of money on replacement. If retufting then I agree that the primary backing needs to be intact for you to anchor the tufts in to, but there are other ways to skin a cat if the primary backing has been damaged.

I have found the use of a hot melt glue gun an essential part of my carpet repair kit. The hot melt glue can be very useful in dealing with deeper burn damaged carpet and secures the tufts probably stronger than the original tufts.

Many of the impliments within a manacure set can be extremely useful to in manipulating fibres.

You are absolutely right though Woodman it takes practice, and it is not advisable to let yourself loose on a customers carpet until you are confident.

I went on a carpet repair course put on by the National Carpet Cleaners Association many years ago, which was tutored by Barry Pierce of Leicester, which was excellent. Might be worthwhile enquiring whether they plan to do any more courses.

Kind regards

Robert

[seanj]

sorry its taken so long to reply but thanks for the info guys - i do a couple of small office ccleaning contracts and out of goodwill i do their carpets occasionally. i wouldnt of thought about 'retufting' i will try to get to the carpet cleaners exhibiton and look into doing carpets 'properly'. 10 out of 10 for the website by the way. makes a nice change to get good information without being harrased to buy something. thanks again