[Boxa]

Hi there guys (& girls), been surfing this website for sometime, in admiration of the knowledge out there (what a creep eh!!)  and have decided to put a post on with a bit of a problem I have.

I had to clean some stairs (off white / cream loop pile wool carpet) which were pretty minging & in particular on the front edge of each stair (assumning that's where the dirt is 'ground in' as people walk up the stairs). In a nutshell, there were a total of four flights of stairs (a townhouse) obviously getting cleanier / less dirty the further up the stairs I went. Initailly I tried cleaning with some splitters with agitation & had little joy, then tried the same but flushed through with some formula 90 in the tank (woolsafe dilution) which helped I think but still not that great & finally I tried using some ultimate master as a pre-spray with a formula 90 rinse again. Once again not a great result.

Oh, I was extracting using a CFR 5 inch Combi tool at approx 500 psi. and also gave the carpet a good pre vac prior to HWE. I also like to use woolsafe products where possible ( I know that the ultimate master isn't officially 'woolsafe' but understand this is simply because Alltec didn't want to pay to renew their woolsafe approval as opposed to the formula changing in anyway!!)

Just wondering if anyone out there knows of anything I can do to improve my results with this type of problem, the owners of the house were away on holiday, but I intend going back to have another go, as I do not think it as an acceptable clean.

I did try to download a photo but struggled to master that !! Although to be honest the photo is probably a bit flattering compared to what it looks like on the eye.

Cheers in advance,

Boxa.

[*paul_moss]

Boxa
With any fabric you will get shading and the lighter the colour the more it stands out.With natural fibres such as wool or cotton you will find that muck will stain the yarn/flock.
Example A white cotton shirt collar will get black and will wash out when pretty new, but once the shirt is  over a year old the dirt on the collar starts to stain and it doesnt matter how many times you wash it the shading ( or greying) on the collar is still visable ( it will not go back to pure white unless you bleach it)

This is a similar sinario to carpets and especially the nose on the stairs.The much will come out and the carpet will be clean however you will still get the shading on the nose of the stair and again on the heavily walked areas of the main carpet. You cannot remove this shading.
You must always qualify this to the customer before you start the job.
I always state that your white carpets will clean and the muck will be removed, however there will still be shading on the heavy traffic areas.

The best thing is allways loads of pre vaccing first .

[Boxa]

Cheers for your reply Paul.

I know the customer said that she had had the carpets cleaned about a year (ish) ago. She didn't mention about the stairs but did say that she was a bit disappointed with regards to some of the spot cleaning the previous cc attempted. I was surprised at how dirty the stairs had got in just 1 year & therefore it is possible that the previous cc also had problems with this(obviously something I should have clarified with her ...... another learning point!!) I'll mention this to her when I speak to her this week. I s'pose my point being that if the previous cc did get the stairs clean, then is it likely that this shading you mention would have taken place in 1 year ??
Anyway, cheers again for the reply & I'll post to how I get on when I speak to the customer.

[John Kelly]

What you can also get on stair nosings is the backing showing through where the pile is parted over the nosing edge. This is more evident on cheaper carpets with less pile density.

[Boxa]

Just thought I'd update you re the stairs!! Had the pleasant surprise of speaking to the customer yesterday & her commenting on what a fantastic job I had done  !! I understand that sometimes on light wool carpet, heavily trafficed areas can look greyish in colour but then resolve when dry -  I don't know exactly why but this may well have been the case with this situtaion. Anyway, thought I'd get back to you all just in case another 'newbie' comes across a similar problem so they can bear this in mind!!

Cheers all,

Boxa.