There is this crappy carpet at a carpet store that I clean .. Im having a tough time with a path from the warehouse to the front of the store .. it wont stay clean .. in fact I did it last night and they called today at 4pm and said its getting darker ..the warehouse has concrete floor .. they drive forklifts around .. they say they mop the concrete 3 times a day .. my water coming in at the wand had a PH of 4-5 and the pre-spray in my hydroforce was a PH of 8-9 before diluting with water as I spray the carpet .. anyone out there have any ideas ..?? thanks!! Paul
Commercial carpet problem
- Thread starter Spurling
- Start date
renegade_cowboy
Member
Its a high traffic path on "crappy" carpet. Probably wasnt maintain very well and it will probabaly wick until its replaced. Do a Ron type vacuuming on it and post pad it and that might help. Better walk off mats might help too.
hogjowl
Idiot™
Look man, the stuff is probably getting so much traffic on it that nothing you can do will keep it from "getting dirty." Obviously, getting it as clean as you can, followed by getting it dry as you can, is going to be the ticket for this. Prescrubbing your prespray in with a 175 rotary and flushing with good hot water ... using a hole glided wand hooked up to a TM with a decent blower is all you can do.
Unless you own a Cimex, GSL, or some sort of OP machine and can encap. clean it.
Unless you own a Cimex, GSL, or some sort of OP machine and can encap. clean it.
yeah it cleans up easy .. im using a hole glide wand and fans are on it til morning .. theres no detergent residue .. when im done the carpet is squeaky clean feeling .. when you rub your hand on it it actually has a good grip .. meaning no slippery soapy residue .. maybe the dirt and oil from the warehouse is being gripped off the shoes onto the carpet ?? would a carpet with too much acid residue attract oil and dirt ?? maybe I should clean with straight water .. thanks!!
prestige cleaner
Member
- Joined
- Dec 27, 2008
- Messages
- 243
what prespray are you using, had similar experience with one account used powermax beefed up with cobbs fabric brightener for the traffic lanes applied hot prespray aggiatated with my rotary using a red pad ,hwed. followed by post padding with cotton pad applied little encap juice on traffic lanes and suggested to place walk off mats.
hogjowl
Idiot™
Something to think about ... may be the next time you clean it, you might try cleaning the shop floor (if not all, then at least around the door to the showroom) with a spinner tool.
And then make them buy two or three Sam's Club mats as walk off mats before the doorway.
And then make them buy two or three Sam's Club mats as walk off mats before the doorway.
Next time try post padding with a cotton bonnet and your favorite encap juice. It doesn't take very much time at all to do and theoretically it'll help the carpet stay cleaner longer especially if you use one that has a polymer included.
I recently cleaned an office that way that was having a problem with rapid resoiling customer says that with other cleanings it was dirty again within a day or two. It's been a week since I cleaned it and he says it still looks great, although I think his problem was more of a drying issue because he also said with other cleaners it was taking up to 24 hours to dry, which of course meant lots of traffic while it was wet.
I recently cleaned an office that way that was having a problem with rapid resoiling customer says that with other cleanings it was dirty again within a day or two. It's been a week since I cleaned it and he says it still looks great, although I think his problem was more of a drying issue because he also said with other cleaners it was taking up to 24 hours to dry, which of course meant lots of traffic while it was wet.
hogjowl
Idiot™
Years ago, back when acid rinses first started hitting the internet bulletin boards, and were all the rage, I remember Duane Oxley of Acellerated talking about not all acid rinses rinsing well. His product, Ultra Rinse, is a good smelling rinse that is supposed to rinse clean. You may want to talk to him. 1-678-887-1226 (Cheap bastard doesn't have an 800 number!)
roro
Member
From memory the study that was done years ago by 3M found that it takes 15 feet of quality matting to take off 85% of soil. If they don't have matting and they have a dirty environment it is only natural that the carpet will remove the soil.Spurling said:
If they don't want to put down suitable entry matting one other thing for them to consider is white tyres for the forkhoists. That is providing they don't go outside.
roro
Duane Oxley
Moon Unit
admiralclean said:
Mardy:
It was designed years ago to strip detergent residues from carpet... not just "rinse clean".
Thanks for the mention.
Duane
lancehollister
Member
- Joined
- Feb 25, 2009
- Messages
- 193
If it cleans up great like you say " Sqeaky clean" then it should look the same whene dry. If the stains comeback as it drys then your getting a wicking or soil from the bottom resurfacing. The fibers will dry from the bottom up. Over wetting can cause this as with traffic on the carpet to soon or even a rivering effect . River is whene the nap falls in a differant direction leaving a darker traffic area.
What type of transfer mats do they use by the doorways. If the mats are to small or not used i would reccomend this.
What type of transfer mats do they use by the doorways. If the mats are to small or not used i would reccomend this.
GeneMiller
Member
I always use a prespray with oxygen bleach for commercial carpets it really brightens them up. I'm not familiar with the rinse your using but an easy way to test how clean your getting the carpet is to use a white rag and a little spotter right in the middle. When I finish any job I take a paper towel or length of toilet paper and stand on it for 3 seconds. Usually it just has faint dots of moisture on it. If the outline of your shoe is wet we go back and revac. i test ever job this way.
Gene
Gene
susansmith
Member
- Joined
- Mar 10, 2009
- Messages
- 23
I always go back to Argosheen. Apply and rinse with water and never seem to have a problem of carpet attracting dirt.
TimP
Member
- Joined
- May 19, 2007
- Messages
- 4,055
I suggest a stronger prespray. Zone perfect would not be the best choicie for this problem. I'd go for a grease cutting prespray in the ph of 12 arena. Rotoscrub if possible. Extract with extra passes or a high flow wand. Flush the stuff out. Then dry with your fans. It shouldn't take all night to dry a traffic area with fans and it being a cgd carpet. If it's taking that long you may have a problem with suction which is not getting you a complete extraction.
If that doesn't do it I may try an encap if I felt like it deserved the effort. Other than that I would suggest a replacement. Of course I'd do the mats first like Marty says. But if it's coming back and you can't get the backing clean I'd say it's toast, or possibly you don't have a machine capable of flushing and extracting adequately enough for the problem? But like I said the first change I'd make is your TLC'er.
If that doesn't do it I may try an encap if I felt like it deserved the effort. Other than that I would suggest a replacement. Of course I'd do the mats first like Marty says. But if it's coming back and you can't get the backing clean I'd say it's toast, or possibly you don't have a machine capable of flushing and extracting adequately enough for the problem? But like I said the first change I'd make is your TLC'er.
The Great Oz
Member
Carpet store.
Carpet cleans easy.
Carpet is not sticky after cleaning.
Carpet resoils in one day of traffic.
Most likely the problem is residue, but it might not be your choice of cleaning product. There are two fairly common reasons this situtation could occur:
1 - The carpet is a poly loop commercial. The loops flatten out so that they interconnect above a channel between the tufts. Water sits in the channel and can't evaporate due to the interlocked fiber above. Water must be forced out using either snail or AirPath air movers or doing a very slow vacuum stroke with pressure put on the wand head. Moving air around above the carpet or post-padding will not be enough to force the water up and out.
The carpet feels dry on top, but resoils rapidly due to water being squeezed up as people walk on it and it cleans their shoes. This can be aggravated by the carpet being either a direct-glue installation or if it has a barrier that reduces airflow through the backing.
2 - Being a carpet store, some misguided employee tried using Capture to maintain the carpet. It is now loaded with impossible to remove sticky powder, which cleans people's shoes as they walk on it.
Encapsulant won't help the first scenario, might help the second.
Carpet cleans easy.
Carpet is not sticky after cleaning.
Carpet resoils in one day of traffic.
Most likely the problem is residue, but it might not be your choice of cleaning product. There are two fairly common reasons this situtation could occur:
1 - The carpet is a poly loop commercial. The loops flatten out so that they interconnect above a channel between the tufts. Water sits in the channel and can't evaporate due to the interlocked fiber above. Water must be forced out using either snail or AirPath air movers or doing a very slow vacuum stroke with pressure put on the wand head. Moving air around above the carpet or post-padding will not be enough to force the water up and out.
The carpet feels dry on top, but resoils rapidly due to water being squeezed up as people walk on it and it cleans their shoes. This can be aggravated by the carpet being either a direct-glue installation or if it has a barrier that reduces airflow through the backing.
2 - Being a carpet store, some misguided employee tried using Capture to maintain the carpet. It is now loaded with impossible to remove sticky powder, which cleans people's shoes as they walk on it.
Encapsulant won't help the first scenario, might help the second.
G
Guest
Guest
The Great Oz said:
I agree. What's so aggravating about these types of jobs is that they won't admit to you that they are using that stuff!
I would use an aggressive prespray and agitate it with a counter rotating brush machine to dig out the dirt.
Followed by a alkaline rinse.
If they are still not satisfied I suggest move on to better less troublesome accounts.
Followed by a alkaline rinse.
If they are still not satisfied I suggest move on to better less troublesome accounts.
rhino1
Member
Clean it with whatever you want
Apply a good protector in that area
That's bout it.
some things to think about : concrete + warehouse + forklift = dust, dirt, and rubber dust from forklift tires
mopping 3X per day, aside from being a bit unbelievable, can also leave a hell of a residue on the floor, which is easily tracked onto the CLEAN carpet.
I have several nursing homes where the adjacent tile floors are mopped frequently, and the carpet next to them gets black as night from transferral of the cleaning agent res. from the tile to the carpet with foot traffic.
Apply a good protector in that area
That's bout it.
some things to think about : concrete + warehouse + forklift = dust, dirt, and rubber dust from forklift tires
mopping 3X per day, aside from being a bit unbelievable, can also leave a hell of a residue on the floor, which is easily tracked onto the CLEAN carpet.
I have several nursing homes where the adjacent tile floors are mopped frequently, and the carpet next to them gets black as night from transferral of the cleaning agent res. from the tile to the carpet with foot traffic.
I have figured out the problem ... first ill say .. when I walked in to say I was here to reclean the carpet, they looked at me like I was a piece of shit cleaner .. so I go to the warehouse and Im looking hard at the concrete floor .. I get a new terry and wet it .. I rub their clean 3 times a day mopped floor and the towel absorbed a black oily and dusty film .. I said holy shit .. I just figured out the problem ..so I show the towel to the owner and his son .. I explained the carpet was being resoiled by the heavy traffic from the warehouse .. the owner looks at me and says,"Well .. we mop 3 times a day." Im thinking to myself .. uhh hello .. I just showed you a dirty towel .. so the tension is still there .. they still think Im half a piece a shit cleaner .. so I cleaned the shit out of the path .. looked amazing .. I shudda takin pictures .. then Im looking at the concrete where the carpet meets .. I do a 1ft by 4 ft path with my wand .. 400psi .. water temp 200 .. the concrete goes from greyish black to yellowish white .. right there I hit the jackpot .. so I took my piece a shit self and called the owner to the warehouse .. he says ,"Ohhh myyy goooddd!! . is that what the floor is supposed to look like. the next thing I said is ,"THISSS!!! is american idol ..just kiddin .. I said now THISSSS is your resoiling problem .. no matter how many times you mop this floor, you are going to track this mess through the showroom ..this floor needs a good high pressure cleaning." ... the owner was now talking to me like I was his best friend with a smile from ear to ear ..
I came in the next morning and the carpet was bone dry ..and it looked amazing .. so anyone here can tell me a good way to clean concrete floors with out making a mess .. there are rolls of carpet stacked everywhere .. I saw the 16-20in round tool but it looks like its gonna splash everywhere. thank you everyone for your input .. Paul
I came in the next morning and the carpet was bone dry ..and it looked amazing .. so anyone here can tell me a good way to clean concrete floors with out making a mess .. there are rolls of carpet stacked everywhere .. I saw the 16-20in round tool but it looks like its gonna splash everywhere. thank you everyone for your input .. Paul
Nate The Great
Member
Spurling said:
I wouls ASSume a tile tool with a brush ring would work if only 400psi with 200 temp did the job. wouldn't make a mess but be alot more time consuming.
alazo1
Member
Way to go Paul you POS cleaner 
Looks like you'll be maintaining that concrete as well.
I seem to remember a certain matt when I worked at a pharmaceutical. It was kind of sticky and would be placed right before going into some sensitive labs. Anyone heard of this?. Wonder if that would be a good solution outside of teaching these guys to change their mop water.
Albert
Looks like you'll be maintaining that concrete as well.
I seem to remember a certain matt when I worked at a pharmaceutical. It was kind of sticky and would be placed right before going into some sensitive labs. Anyone heard of this?. Wonder if that would be a good solution outside of teaching these guys to change their mop water.
Albert
Be the professional in attitude and in helping the customer solve HIS problem.
Google "Commercial floor mats" and look at some of the sites to see what mats would work .
Carry yourself with pride and dignity at all times.
You are not a janitor but a businessman .
Google "Commercial floor mats" and look at some of the sites to see what mats would work .
Carry yourself with pride and dignity at all times.
You are not a janitor but a businessman .
Ron Werner
Member
I took a piece of plastic, 1/8" UHMW, cost me $20 for a spare chunk I can cut another 5 pieces off of, cut it about 1 1/2" and replaced the ring on my Spinner with it. Cut little "V"'s in it with my knife. Worked great to clean concrete floors. I'll post a pic as soon as I can.
