Lyn,
The kind of steamer I'm referring to, is a commercial grade product, which also vacuums and I strongly suggest that you do not use paper towels in this process.
As the steam will break up, almost vapourise the gum, all that's required, is a wipe - I'd suggest an impregnated and ideally, rough towel, which reduces the possibility of delamination.
What product you use, is purely personal choice, there being so many. My personal choice would be Rid-a-Gum, but the gels do an adequate job. On a previous post, someone mentioned a gum remover from Wales which had good reviews.
As far as technique is concerned, what I found to work best and quickest, is to aim the jet, and it must be the small, high pressure jet, at the area where the gum meets the carpet, not on top. This allows the steam to loosen the adhesion at it's weakest point and in many cases it will lift straight off....................do not touch the gum at this point, but allow it to cool and firm up again before removal.
Please note, that I emphasise the wet vac' capability of the vacuum hopefully, for obvious reasons.
You could use a separate steamer and wet/dry, but a dual purpose machine is very useful to have in your ' kit'.
Although this is only my opinion, it's based on many years of trial and error and can, hopefully save someone a lot of frustration and maybe even make them money.
Have a cooperative and successfull 2006
rob m
ps There is always potential danger to fabrics when using steam and this should be borne in mind. Inform the client and let them decide.
