[Mike Osbourne]

Hi,


I'm at a bit of a loss with a suite I did a survey on last week, thought would be fine but have had a lot of trouble and need to resolve for customer. BrowneyGrease (I think) on arms and back elswhere not bad at all.

It is a light cream three piece flat weave,  with light blue patteren.  Did a test on back of cushion with Ashby's anti grease at right mix (1:50) left for 15 mins then rubbed absolutely fine and confident fabric could take a fair hit.

The plan was try 1:10 microsplit and if not working use anti grease with 40 deg heat, dwell 5-10 min and a mild agitation. MS did very little but tried anti grease and very, very slow progress-one chair with still some marks showing in 2hours!

Turned up heat to 60 and still little progress. Another hr later I felt I should offer my apologies/excuses. I thought it might be self tan but client assures me not, and it is coming out, VERY slowly.

I said I would get back to him on the phone tomorrow with a plan/someone professional (expert) with a view to goig back next week. Left bits I'd done pretty dry with  air mover despite giving it a whalloping.

Any thoughts as to what I'm doing wrong, I am inexperienced but I feel I am doing everything by the book.  My technique's  probably iffy and I was absolutely knackered when I left.



Cheers

Mike

 

[John Kelly]

Hi Mike don't get to disheartened. Sometimes on these flat weaves you do get fibre degradation. This is in the areas mentioned and is caused by the sweat coming off peoples heads and elbows in particular. You need to look out for this and advise the customer that there is this possibility of fibre damage which may not cleanup 100%.
I find Craftex degreaser (neutral ph) is an excellent solution for this. Spray on and agitate agresively using a soft brush, allow to dwell for around 10-15 minutes and then clean normally. I use hot truckmount water but if you are using a porty rack it up to 65-70, don't worry by the time it hits the fabric it is nowhere near that temperature. At 40 you'll be lucky if your're hitting the fabric with 30 degrees.

[john rees]

Hi Mike
           prespray with prochems fabric restorer I have never known it fail on greasy suites aggitate well and then rinse.
                                              all the best
                                                                 John

[craigp]

as mr Kelly says, dont worry get the water real hot!

[Cloverleaf]

I would second John's advice on Prochem Fabric Restorer. It is solvent based and disolves grease.

Use with a scrubing brush and follow instructions.
 
If that don't clean it nothing will! 

[Mike Osbourne]

If feel a trip to Craftex coming on. Will try those two.

Will go back on day next week and not book any other jobs!

Got some pics once i've figured out how to upload.

Anyone use Ashby antigrease with success?

Craig,

Thanks for email, little bird told me you're a poo hot cc, just need to charge more .  

Cheers

 

[David_Annable]

Hi

Upholstery can be very hard to clean to a high standard.

Yet at the same time hard to get a good price for cleaning.

After 15 years I still cant figure it out.

Dave

[Mike Osbourne]

£140 for 5 seats I thought was fair. Now I'm not so sure reckon £10/hr by the time I've finished it 

 

[John Kelly]

Mike just be careful you don't work these areas too hard because if there is fibre degradation the fabric may already be weakened.

[Mike Osbourne]

Just to say thanks for all the suggestions. Went back yesterday and completed the clean and the guy was well chuffed and gave me a ten pound tip on £140 fee. However still worked out about £22/hr

Tried both Prochem Fabric restorer and Advanced formula fabric from Craftex. Both worked equally well. It was still tough going though. Luckily I was able to really put a lot down, leave for 15min and agitate. Then made about 7/8 passes.

Problem was difficult to see results until nearly dry and maybe I need to be more methodical cos had to go over a few bits again.

Mike

[carpetclean]

well done mike

[Dave_Lee]

Mike,
You will get quicker as you become more experienced. £140 for 5 seats and you are inexperienced, an awful lot of vastly experienced guys including TM operators, are not getting any near that!
Dave.

[Matt Lindus]

Nice one, glad to hear you sorted the problem.
Dont bother with micro splitters, they really dont work and make you work harder in order to achive less than standard results.
I tipped all of my batch of tried and failed micro splitters into the gravel at the back of my house.


Matt

[the red carpet]

£140 for a 5seat is good going, i would charge £100.

I find suites take me 1/2 hour per seat, so earn me £40 a hour.
If you do it in the same time thats £56 a hour (not bad)

Another good chem is Alltecs, citrus fabric pre wash.

It cuts through grease and grime with little effort, cant comment on the others as havent tried them.

[the red carpet]

ps, in my experience the Alltec chem needs no dwell time.
So this should speed you up.

I mix it up in a bucket of hot water, then soak a mitten thing in it (sorry dont know what there called) give it a gentle rub over the fabric and you see all the grease instantly dissolve in one hit.

Extract dry, rinse and done.

[Mike Osbourne]

I'm trying all the chems and experimenting. Will try the microfibre mitts but I was hitting this thing with a tampico brush to shift it.

I'm certainly a  better salesman than suite cleaner at the moment  and I've done a few quotes and didn't get the job.

Keeps you fit too. I've lost 6lbs since starting, but it could be that I'm sh*tting myself everytime I do something new, which is nearly everyday.

[the red carpet]

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[the red carpet]

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[the red carpet]

There you go just to show you it works heres one i done earlier, with the above method.

This was a demo clean on one arm, for a customer who's carpets i done today.

Machine was allready set up so this took me literally 3minutes if that.

Needless to say i got the job and go back to do the suite in a couple weeks

[Mike Osbourne]

Nice one, has that stuff got part solvent in it?