[CATMAN]

Hi,

I was cleaning an office carpet this weekend, were the staff sit there are black marks from the plastic wheels of  the office chairs, which are difficult to remove.

I tried blitz, and spotting with POG, the blitz lightened the marks, but POG only made the problem worse on the heavy marks as it caused wicking of the  backing. It did work on the lighter marks as only the top of the tile was cleaned.

Does anyone know a product that will remove these marks without causing deteriation of the backing and thus causing the wicking problem.

Regards

Graham

[Ken Wainwright]

Hi Graham

I usually find that platic doesn't leave marks, but rubber type fittings do.  I have heard of good reports on rubbery deposits from the new generation of colloidals.

However, my suspicion is that the marks you talk of are not marks. If the carpet is polypropylene, it is more likely to be "scorch" marks were something has been dragged across, creating enough fricton to heat the tips of the yarn and cause heat related damage.  This is not uncommon with, for example, table legs, chair legs and damaged/locked castors.

Polypropylene can be damaged at<120C.  Nylon is in the region of about 180C

Safe and happy cleaning
Ken

[Andy Foster]

Hi

I had this problem the other day in a car showroom office.
Loads of black streaks where the wheels had been.

I cleaned as normal to see what was left and then used Stainpro and a stiff nail brush, worked the stainpro in circles and then extracted... came up a treat mostly but I had to actually scrape the stubborn bits with a key to break the surface before they would come off, they did in the end though and the custy was chuffed to bits as the last cc said they couldn't be removed.

Hope this helps.

Andy

[Amethyst]

I cleaned a TV room at a local private school last week. Loads of black marks across the carpet where the students had dragged sofas across. Looking closely at these marks revealed that the pile had indeed been burnt and there was a disitinct furrow where the fibre tips had melted. Nothing to be done except advise the burser that moving the furniture gently in future might be a better idea!