[Mike Halliday]

did this clean today which had an interesting problem,


this photo is in a shaded area

this photo is in front of the window

the sun has caused the fibre not just to lose colour but also become very brittle, scraping with a knife takes off the end of the fibre showing that the colour loss is only on the tips.


but this has caused a very unusual problem which shows on the following photo

[Mike Halliday]

the red section is so weak in comparison to the other sections it has worn away leaving the other fibres higher

[John Kelly]

Probably due to a softer lighter wool being used which takes the red dye easier. When using darker dyes they can use coarser harder wearing (and cheaper) wools which tend to be darker and need a darker dye to hide the underlying colour.

[Mike Halliday]

this is a 'Belgian Wilton' 100% polypropylene....... which I found quite interesting as the only difference in the worn fibres is the colour

[davep]

What did the custy say when she walked in and seen you lying on the floor taking pictures?

[John Kelly]

Thats scuppered that theory then. Looks like wool in your last photo.

[Len Gribble]

Had similar on a pub carpet years ago but with the green

[Mike Halliday]

Dave i takes lots of photos on jobs the customer never minds. I always take photos on existing damage... this photo is from the previous cleaner who shrank it!

[gwrightson]

So who was previous  cleaner Mike ?

Or will you let me know in private ? 

Geoff

[Shaun_Ashmore]

I've seen that before on that same patterned carpet only conclusion I could muster was that the red dye running through the polypropylene made the fibre weaker somehow.

Shaun

[Paul Moss]

Ha John, wool, you will have to get out of all the flood jobs and get out and clean a few carpets again   
Ive seen this a fews with Belgium Wilton, its defo uv but im not sure why some parts raise and some parts drop. I do know its not colour sensitive as i have seen some reds raised and on other jobs the reds have dropped 

[jon barnes]

hi Mike
I've always put it down to as 'how light is reflected of different colours'
Terry

[John Kelly]

I've seen these patterns in wool wiltons before. A good days carpet cleaning would kill me now

[Jim_77]

Shaun's reply above is spot on!

I had exactly the same problem many years ago when I was still green.  It was a commercial flocked carpet (well it was flocked when I was finished with it! ) made up of little red and blue squares like a chequered pattern.

In the traffic lanes, after extraction they looked filthy... but after a closer look there was simply no red fibre left at all!  The water out of the machine looked crimson, but I realised it was all the little bits of fibres floating in it.  Luckily the building owner accepted it was the carpet not me.

Have seen it on BW's too some times, and occasionally on plain polyprops by a patio door facing south - you just get 'dust' off a plain carpet and maybe don't notice it but if you look carefully you can see the degradation - the pile will be a bit crumbly too.

[Paul Moss]

It really weird on BW , all these years and i have cleaned hundreds of them but never come across one that shrunk, even the cheap poope that some indian restaurants have that are hammered and ive given them major stick withnthe truck, but they still havent shrunk.

Yet I remember Dave Washbrookntelling me a few years ago that he just presprayed one and it shrunk infront of his eyes....... With prespray onlyyyy

[Kinver_Clean]

My only BW disaster was the same- prespray on a minger and it ripped the gripper out of the concrete.
Two days before Christmas- madam was not best pleased as it went 9" on 9 ft.
That was 20 years ago.

[Andrew Briscoe]

wilton in a golf club along the length of large window, like this within 3 feet of window


over 3 feet from window the carpet is fine