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Emil Dinev

  • Posts: 347
Silk carpet
« on: August 06, 2012, 09:36:00 pm »
Hi Guys,

I have been asked to clean carpet that I think got some silk content, tried to attach photos, but something went wrong. What would be your approach i.e. method of cleaning, products etc? Carpet's been recently cleaned by another company.

Any thoughts appreciated.

Cheers

Emil

Kev Loomes

  • Posts: 1353
Re: Silk carpet
« Reply #1 on: August 06, 2012, 09:52:21 pm »
Hi Guys,

I have been asked to clean carpet that I think got some silk content, tried to attach photos, but something went wrong. What would be your approach i.e. method of cleaning, products etc? Carpet's been recently cleaned by another company.

Any thoughts appreciated.

Cheers

Emil

SHOULDN'T YOU BE RUNNING :o If its been recently cleaned by another company - then why does it need doing so soon? And if so why aren't the previous company going back & doing it again?

I would be asking questions.

Craigp

  • Posts: 1272
Re: Silk carpet
« Reply #2 on: August 06, 2012, 10:23:13 pm »
Silk carpets are really expensive, the last one I did (one of only a couple I've done) was worth £40,000 !

Surly they have not used a cheapo company to clean them?  :o

Ime they don't clean to well.

 What's the story?

Emil Dinev

  • Posts: 347
Re: Silk carpet
« Reply #3 on: August 06, 2012, 10:36:51 pm »
I have dry cleaned some blinds/curtains for that family before, but at the time the were using another company for their carpets. Now they aren't happy with them anymore and so called me in today. In places carpet looks a bit dirty and worn, but nothing major.
I have surface cleaned silk/rayon rugs before and was never happy with how the rugs looked and felt following wet cleaning, so was thinking some of the more experienced guys on here could help :)

Cheers

Emil

Jim_77

Re: Silk carpet
« Reply #4 on: August 06, 2012, 11:24:20 pm »
Fitted carpet or a rug?

I think the forum function for attaching photos is broken, try using www.tinypic.com or similar

*Hector*

  • Posts: 9270
Re: Silk carpet
« Reply #5 on: August 07, 2012, 08:09:13 am »



that's your theory shot down Jim

 ;D ;D
Everyday this forum slips further from God.  :'(

Emil Dinev

  • Posts: 347
Re: Silk carpet
« Reply #6 on: August 07, 2012, 12:35:20 pm »
Jim, it's wall to wall carpet that I am to clean now, but I have previous experience with silk/rayon rugs.
I use wonder wand and it locks big time on this type of fibre  causing some light distortion on it.
So any suggestions anyone...?

Cheers

Emil

Jim_77

Re: Silk carpet
« Reply #7 on: August 08, 2012, 12:05:48 am »
A regular wand with a holed glide would probably be a good combination of ease of use and not leaving very distinct wand marks.  But probably a bit excessive to go out and buy a new wand for one carpet clean!

I would just stick to wool safe practices and do a test area.  Maybe get them to agree to you doing a test clean of a couple of square metres in a corner or under a sofa for example.  I would find the best direction in which to wand, and maybe just do backwards strokes to keep the pile all in the same direction.  Make sure you use acid rinse, whack an air mover on it and groom immediately.  Finding the right grooming tool to set the pile correctly will probably be quite important.

But this all depends on how much silk content the carpet has... if it's 5% or something silly you won't really have any noticeable texture problem from the silk element.  Also depends if the silk element is blended into the yarn or used as a separate yarn.

I definitely would not tackle the whole carpet without doing a test area first if it seems likely you could damage it.

Thinking of alternatives to HWE, bonnet cleaning is probably a no-no.  A dry compound clean might be OK in terms of risk but even so it would depend on the machine and brushes uses as to the risk of physical damage.   So HWE is probably the best bet, as long as you can do it safely.

I'd be charging well for this ;)

Emil Dinev

  • Posts: 347
Re: Silk carpet
« Reply #8 on: August 08, 2012, 07:37:38 am »
Thanks Jim, really appreciate your input, will definitely do a test area first.
£5 per m2, does that sound right?
As for grooming, i have a regular prochem carpet brush that I normally use when applying protector.

Cheers

Emil

Simon Gerrard

  • Posts: 4405
Re: Silk carpet
« Reply #9 on: August 08, 2012, 08:39:01 am »
Emil,
Nigel Woodhead's is your man for this kind of thing. He works on very high end homes all the time and will be able to tell you how to go about it.
His company is Designcare.

Simon

Jim_77

Re: Silk carpet
« Reply #10 on: August 09, 2012, 01:00:37 am »
Emily ;D

Nice one Simone :D


£/metre doesn't really mean much without knowing how much area there is.  If there's 100m² of it most people would call that a nice price, if it's a 10m² room you might want to treble it!

Simon Gerrard

  • Posts: 4405

Emil Dinev

  • Posts: 347
Re: Silk carpet
« Reply #12 on: August 09, 2012, 10:01:50 pm »
Hey Simon  ;D

Was just going to say that I still got something hanging between my legs...oooops I think it shouldn't be hanging at this time  ;D

Jim, it's 45 m2 of artificial silk carpet + around 60 m2 of wool carpet, both at £5/m2.
I have actually done the job now. It went well, apart from some worn bits of the silk carpet that I couldn't improve. Owners have had it cleaned monthly for the last year and used a company who didn't even vacuum the carpet before cleaning.


Jim_77

Re: Silk carpet
« Reply #13 on: August 10, 2012, 12:44:36 am »
I love making Gerrard squirm, doesn't happen very often so you gotta revel in it ;D

Emil, nice one, tidy job ticket ;) ;)

Cleaned MONTHLY :o  the mind boggles

Emil Dinev

  • Posts: 347
Re: Silk carpet
« Reply #14 on: August 11, 2012, 08:21:42 am »
Hey Jim, that wasn't my intention really, was just in a bit of mood following a small personal victory :)