BHT yellowing

harryhides

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Why do you think that it is BHT yellowing. It is not unknown but in the last 10 yrs there have been hardly any known cases. I spoke to Shaw about a recent case I was doing an Inspection on. It looked like BHT and it did respond to the other well known "fix" which is Sulphamic acid.

How old is the carpet and did it appear over the winter ?
Any pictures?
 

billyeadon

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I don't think there has been a case of BHT yellowing since Tony W. was a young man and Lord knows that was a long time ago. But if it is either of the above products will work.
 
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harryhides said:
Why do you think that it is BHT yellowing. It is not unknown but in the last 10 yrs there have been hardly any known cases. I spoke to Shaw about a recent case I was doing an Inspection on. It looked like BHT and it did respond to the other well known "fix" which is Sulphamic acid.

How old is the carpet and did it appear over the winter ?
Any pictures?


No pictures yet. It was brand new carpet and the renters put rugs over it when they moved in. That is all that I know at this point. They had someone clean the carpets and the yellow is still there.
 

harryhides

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Mountain View Carpet Care said:
harryhides said:
Why do you think that it is BHT yellowing. It is not unknown but in the last 10 yrs there have been hardly any known cases. I spoke to Shaw about a recent case I was doing an Inspection on. It looked like BHT and it did respond to the other well known "fix" which is Sulphamic acid.

How old is the carpet and did it appear over the winter ?
Any pictures?

No pictures yet. It was brand new carpet and the renters put rugs over it when they moved in. That is all that I know at this point. They had someone clean the carpets and the yellow is still there.

If the rugs had any kind of rubber or latex backing then it is unlikely that it is BHT yellowing - sounds like Plastizer migration something for which there is no known cure.

You sure it wasn't caused by some old wired, caffeine medicated geek who had spilled his Starbucks coffee ?
 
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.[/quote]

If the rugs had any kind of rubber or latex backing then it is unlikely that it is BHT yellowing - sounds like Plastizer migration something for which there is no known cure.

You sure it wasn't caused by some old wired, caffeine medicated geek who had spilled his Starbucks coffee ?[/quote] I have not seen the carpet yet. So if the latex rugs had a rubber backing there is no cure?
 

harryhides

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Butylated Hydroxy Toluene - Shaw Industries finally figured out that it was caused by the off-gassing of the adhesive used in the production of re-bond underpad, combining with combustion gasses which were found in some home heating systems. This is why it usually appeared in northern climates and in the winter on very new carpet. It was often found in front of vents and never found around the edges ( where there was no underpad ) and never where the carpet was exposed to direct sunlight or florescent lighting ( which contains approx 10 % UV light ) For this reason it was never found on office carpet,

BhtB41.jpg


For any skeptics from Indiana, here is a couple of pictures of a carpet that had some dye problems ( not properly "set" or "fixed" ) and where the color was affected by Nitrous oxides in very small quantities coming from the furnace. This is known as "Fume fading". Shaw replaced the carpet - it was a few months old and never cleaned.

FumeUVbest2.jpg



FumeFadebest-1.jpg
 

harryhides

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If the yellow color outline matches that of the rug then it is highly unlikely that it is BHT.

If it is a sort of random shape and appeared over the winter, on a brand new carpet, installed over new re-bond padding and the home was heated by forced air heating system then it is more likely BHT.

It is extremely rare and when I spoke to Shaw's testing folks ( about a possible case I saw last week ), they told me that they had not seen a single case in years. The case that I saw last week was made to disappear with an application of Steamway's Yellow Eliminator that I had saved from my childhood.

Living where I do with our long winters, I saw over 300 cases of BHT over the years that this was a problem. Another Inspector I knew in Alaska saw over 1,000 cases.

The only other possible cause that I can think of, is when the black adhesive ( called cutback ) and used to install tile floor was not properly removed prior to installing a carpet over the remains of the cut-back. In this case the yellow would appear primarily in the traffic lanes.
 

The Great Oz

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bryan
If the problem is due to rugs over the carpet and plasticizer migration, UV will fade the yellow. It will go away over the course of a few months, which may not work for the next rental cycle. Yellow Eliminator may still make a difference. IF the rugs had a colored fabric back and that color transferred, an ammoniated pre-spray followed by a hot deteregent rinse might solve the problem.

Good luck and let us know what you find.

PS: Tony,
It's sometimes odd that mills have their lab techs work to solve a problem they've never heard of. :wink:
 

DevilDog

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Well from what he described to me TODAY on the phone it might not be BHT....apparently it just might be some residue from a previous cleaning.
 

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