[Carpet Dawg]

 

I've cleaned for this customer lots of times over the last 5 years. The lounge carpet i've cleaned atleast 6-7 times at the top of my head (she has small kids and dog).

Used all sorts of products on the carpet in that time. Always came up brand new, always been able to remove all stains. I've used dye-gone, amonia, citrus gel etc etc all in the past never an issue.

Its a polyprop, very light colour, off white, short twist pile.

I cleaned this lounge again last week. There was a brown stain near the sofa and coffee table, I'm 99% sure it was a coffee or tea stain. Customer has no idea, didn't even mention it!

Cracked open my sod-met (spray and go). Made a weak solution, half the recommended mix with tap hot water (it was hot but not boiling which is what i usually use!)
Applied it to the stain, almost vanished, tampered it with towel, applied a bit more sod met. Stain gone, Rinsed it pretty much instantly. Everhything was great, did the rest of the room. Got the dreaded call back to say it had turned green..... And it did, a light, lime green stain about twice the size of the original stain.

So, what are my options apart from replacement? is there a way of "reversing" the reducing agent? I have thought about hydrogen peroxide as i can get powerful stuff from the hairdressers. Is this an option?

The customer is not overly mad as she said she can put a piece of furniture there or bring her sofa a bit closer to hide the stain, but thats b******s! I need to fix it.

I've used tons of sod-met before over the last 13 odd years! never a problem! I have no idea why this went t1ts up! I can only presume I left it too long? but surely it would have just bleached the area, not turned it green! 
Could it made have reacted to what ever was in the carpet? something the customer tried to clean the stain with?

Any advice would be welcome.
Tony

[Paul Moss]

Polyprop
Weak solution of sod met
carpet gone from white to green

Does not add up.

Did you neautralise it  first or just rinse it out.

[Simon Gerrard]

Sounds like the customer has been tampering with it and your sod met has reacted to it. Very unlucky, I'd say.

Simon

[Carpet Dawg]

Gave it a good rinse Paul. Maybe not quick enough, its  what I usualy do this time bit me on the bum. Its the green colour that I dont understand.

[Shaun_Ashmore]

What did you rinse with?

Shaun

[Carpet Dawg]

powdered f90 in the tank. Tap hot water

[Shaun_Ashmore]

I guessing its a ph change, was it powdered f90 or liquid?

Shaun

[Simon@arenaclean]

You might try an Acidic Rinse, i'd mix some up in a spray bottle as a test, this could pull the alkalinity down and reverse it. I would also rinse with plain water before doing anything else.

I would also recommend giving Chemspec Europe a ring 01274 597333 or Chemspec Direct 0800 0743700 both have offered invaluable advice.

[Carpet Dawg]

powdered mate.

Its very annoying! Used sod-met again today to remove red wine from a very expensive suite! (nothing else waws touching it) I dried the area with a hair dryer and made sure it was fully dry before cleaning the rest of the suite as normal. Not taking anyore chances!!

[Richard Meads]

I don't think it will help here but you can reverse an oxidizing bleach with a reducing one, ........or is it the other way round!?

[Paul Moss]

Did you do a wick back test for residue.

[Carpet Dawg]

Thanks Simon, i'll give thhem a bell tomorrow.

I did try rinsing with water when I went back. I'm sure i've got a bottle of fib n fab kicking about somewhere. Thanks.

Does anyone think that dye-gone would have any effect?

[Jim_77]

You might try an Acidic Rinse

Not sure what's going on, if it's an indicator dye problem or what but I'd be careful... acid on top of a reducing agent will act as an accelerant! 

Before that I'd try the other side of the pH scale.  Sodium bicarbonate is widely quoted as being the fix but if you don't have that maybe dilute some household ammonia 1:10 and brush a bit on, see what happens.

[Carpet Dawg]

Did you do a wick back test for residue.

No Paul, what does that consist of? will be going back.

[lee_gundry]

iv had similar happen ,,,just acid rinse.... it worked for me.


Lee G

[Carpet Dawg]

Jim, would you say the amonia is better than the bicarb in this situation? I'll buy the two tomorrow, might have some bicarb in the house..

Lee, you had a green stain on a polyprop after using spray n go and fixed it with an acid rinse?

[Paul Moss]

I would do the same as Jim has said Tony. Take an acidic chem ( even white vinegar will do) a high ph chem and bicarb of soda. It wont be an indicator dye in polyprop but more likely residue in the base of the carpet that has wicked back and reacted with the sod met.

Just put a small amount of each of the above in three different areas making sure they dont wet out each other, put them on the fibres indirectly and then dry off with a hair drier, dont let it get too hot though,you should get some indication/ change/ reduction with one them.

[Shaun_Ashmore]

I think Jim may have the answer that's what I would do, remember that reducer is a low ph product and so is acid rinse I think you would have to reverse it bicarbonate of soda is approx ph 8 ish but if i remember correctly isn't buffered so the weaker the solution the more towards neutral not sure how high the ph will go if mixed stronger, ph papers at the ready!

Shaun

[Paul Moss]

Also if its poss try and see whats going on under the carpet.

[Carpet Dawg]

Cheers guys, well the mark is diffantly big enough to try several different things on it without them touching each other.

I'll try amonia, bicarb, acid rinse/white vinegar and a high ph chem. (powerburst?)

And before all that i'll check under the carpet.

Not got any blooming ph papers!  3-4 teaspoons mix in hot water in a bog standard trigger bottle?