The condition of the carpet is not always as a result of improper cleaning techniques, although I do appreciate that there is a cowboy element with the standard of work from some national carpet care contractors.
Having cleaned in this environment we would encounter daily cleaning contractors damp mopping carpets with high alkaline floor cleaning products. They thought they were improving the carpets appearance but were in fact contributing to shrinkage, rapid re-soiling, setting stains, damaging the fibres and causing colour loss and bleeding. Also some would use their floor scrubber dryers on carpets, sometimes at the request of the managers of the venues.
Most carpets in the leisure industry are installed now with the emphasis on speed and sections of carpet are joined together by heat seaming over the traditional and better hand stitching method. This type of join simply isn’t up to the abuse that some carpets encounter. For example where nightclubs have been refurbished and we were called in to clean them after a few months use, the seams would have already split due to the nighttime activities in the clubs, spilt beer, spirits, sweat, food etc. A lot of clubs were into foam parties and we would arrive on site the next day to find the carpet sodden.
Pricing in this national sector is often dictated by the customer, who expects you to clean his carpets or furniture to a high standard but at the lowest price or at the same price as the previous company who are often cowboy operators.
It is quite common within the leisure industry to have maintenance carpet cleaning contracts in place with monthly, 2 or 3 monthly cleans.
Regards
Steve
