[Aquakleen Restoration Services]

Ice cubes can also cause browning problems as melted water can wet the backing.

So how about some ice cubes mixed with some debrowning solution?

[Hilton]

Warning!

If the customer has told you they are indentations and they have appeared where you placed the dining room chairs elsewhere in the room, I would immediately be concerned that they were not indents but either rust marks or colour transfer.

Sometimes when we put foil under the legs the customer will remove them when we have gone thinking the carpet is dry, hence the problem.

Simple tip for the ice cube problem, just place them in a sandwich bag, tie end in a knot and tell the customer to remove them once thawed out.

[John Kelly]

Simple tip for the ice cube problem, just place them in a sandwich bag, tie end in a knot and tell the customer to remove them once thawed out.

  As has previously been said, it's the water that rebulks the fibres.  If you put the ice cubes into a sandwich bag the water isn't going to touch the fibres therefore there will be no effect whatsoever.

In any case the ice doesn't actually do anything.  This ice cube lark is a Kim and Aggie type solution and designed as a DIY tip for householders.  As a professional you have the equipment to sort out this problem in the proper way.

[Steve Barnett (Carpet Care Plus)]

OK lets put this ice cube business to bed once and for all.

John you are quite right it is a DIY tip for householders and I have suggested it to non-clients in the distant past as a possible solution to a problem that I haven't created and am unlikely to be asked to solve.

It can be successful but as John and Jim have correctly pointed out we have more professional means to rectify our own clients problems.

As I consider myself a professional I shouldn't have suggested it to a fellow cleaner on an open forum.

Steve

[Doctor Carpet (Ret'd)]

Yep I'm in agreement with Steve, John and Jim. There is nothing magical about an ice cube. It is simply a defined amount of water. (You could just as easily say, for example, half an egg-cup full amount.) If you were to advise a customer to simply wet the fibres and tease them out I would have visions of them pouring a 10l bucket of water over the indent. Now that would cause some problems.
The way I describe it is to say that when fibres have been wetted they loose their memory of how they should lie. Why else do we set the pile on a carpet or fabric after cleaning?
Yes we can do a "call-back" but a client who uses a small amount of water (an ice-cube amount) could then just reset the pile/tease the indent out.

Apologies to all for me adding my own rambling explanation.

[Hilton]

Used ice cubes in the bag for years, the cold and warm meeting will create moisture enough to raise the pile, does not always work of course but it won't flood the area so no problems with browning etc.

Try it.

[John Kelly]

Good point Hilton. Admit I'd never thought of that. Still think its easier just to wet the fibres.

[Mark Lane-Matthews]

Sounds like indents from air movers,just add moisture and brush.
                                          Mark

[colin thomas]

i'm afraid i would have told the customer to sling his hook in the nicest way possible, you should have just told him that they would come out in time by themselves and left it at that, some customers are waaay too fussy and often they are the same customers who have the dirtiest carpets to start with,

colin

[Steve Chapman]

Surley they are taking the mick :, carpet+furniture = indents, its just going to happen, unless they

want an empty room to live in!

Did they also ask you to clean the carpet without walking on it? 

Think I would have explained that it happens and not spent too much time trying to rectify otherwise

they might continue being time wasting !


steve

[Tony Gill Carpet Smart]

Spot on Steve tell em to SOD off

[Joe H]

Hand held steamer should help to lift the indents.

[Shaun_Ashmore]

it's not just the fibres that are crushed it's the backing also, in an ideal world you need to push the backing out from the other side.

Shaun

[rs_cleancare]

Update on the indents!

I went round the customers house last night and could not belive what i saw.
Every piece of furinture that had foil protectors underneath had left indents.
From where the foil protectors had been under the dinninig chairs there were perfect squares quite deep. Even on heavy furniture where the foil had curled up the indent were the size of the foil.

Method i used for removing the indents was just a quick fresh water rinse they came out without too much problem.
This is something i have never seen happen before and the customer had every right to call me back. They wouldn't come out using a little water and teasing the fibres up with hand.

I had cleaned the carpet with microsplit and a fresh water rince. The customer said the carpet took about 6 hours to dry. Can't think of anyway to avoid this happening again.

I will try to upload some pics later when i work out how.

So just be aware if you get a call back for this problem they may not be taking the mick!

Rob.

[Joe H]

Quote  "Even on heavy furniture where the foil had curled up the indent were the size of the foil."

General comment. Sounds like you used the very thin foil protector.
There is a thicker one with a card backing.  Costs a little more.
You may still get some indentation but probably more shallow and definately not in a square shape.
The sticky tabs from John Kellyalso would resist the "squaring" but too expensive for chair legs, I use them on tables and lounge seating.

[rs_cleancare]

Hi Joe,
I use the thick type. I belive that this was a very strange accurance and no matter what i had done this problem would of accured.

In one of the bedrooms the customer had moved a chair very light (you could pick up with one finger) and the feet had left deep impressions.

The whole situation has been very odd and i don't expect i will come accross this again hopefully.

Rob.

[Phillip Mold]

6 Hours to dry?

what were you extracting with, a vax?

[daysdeepclean]

Phillip, It was a "Thick Woolen Carpet" which, as you will know, takes a good bit more water into its natural fibres! 6 hours is a fairly reasonable amount of time to expect a carpet like that to dry if you haven't got the sahara snail kicking out the air. I dare say a good vacuuming by the custy once the carpet was fully dried would have sufficed at plumping the fibres back up.... Some  customers want the moon on a stick!

[Phillip Mold]

Hi Colin, was being a bit flippant I must admit. I agree with you about the vacuuming though.

[rs_cleancare]

Six hours is a good time for a wool carpet to dry. I bet there's plenty of people out there that don't do dry passes with the wand and take 24 hours to dry.

With the indents there would have been no chance of them coming out with a vac...

Rob.