Olefin Streaking?!?!HELP!

[carpetcleaninfarmer]

I cleaned a doctor's clinic used flex and white lightning. Offices look great. Hallways look streaky and almost kind of gray. It is a blueish purpleish carpet. HELP!!!!

 

[Chris A]

how many times have you cleaned the halls, if only once, I would just spray 'em down and try again, s l o w l y.

 

[hogjowl]

Make sure it's not something simple like the lighting.

 

[bob vawter]

You DID turn it on....RIGHT?

 

[vincent]

Do it again, this time use less water pressure, plenty of dry strokes and put a fan on it.

 

[DRScrivner]

1) Are sure it is Olefin? If so how did you dertermine that?
2) Flex has a pH of 12.5 and White Lightning has a ph of 10.5 - 11.0, if you did not get a thorough rinse AND a decent dry time you may have some soil wicking.
3) Did you pre-vac?
4) When was the last time it was cleaned?

 

[carpetcleaninfarmer]

Not the lighting. Vaccumed it. Rubbed it back and forth to see if it was just fibers or light making it look wierd. This is the first time in probably 3 or 4 years it has been cleaned. going to try traffic slam and an acid rinse to neutralize it. end zone has a ph of 7 so im going to use that. should I use the rx20 or just the wand. I do think it is probably wicking. does the rx20 give a more uniform clean? Thanks guys! This site is now my new crutch!!!!! :wink:

 

[Jim Martin]

stop using that toxic waste chemicals to clean with..you are doing yourself and favors....

Try some First step..I have always had great luck with it on all the olefin I have cleaned..no matter how dirty or bad it was..use your RX and do nice even passes...when you get to the end take your wand and dry stroke it..( the carpet ) then screw the pad driver on the RX and post pad it and set up a fan....this should get it back in shape so that next time you go and clean it it will be 10 times easier...

 

[carpetcleaninfarmer]

Jim what brand of chems do you use? Why do you call them toxic?? I dont have a pad for my rx20 yet. But i am going to use my fans.

 

[Jim Martin]

Jim what brand of chems do you use? Why do you call them toxic?? I dont have a pad for my rx20 yet. But i am going to use my fans.

steam ways traffic lane cleaner...
First step
and cobbs powermax...

It just depends on what I am cleaning at the time...

I call them toxic because they are just high PH lousy pre-sprays...

 

[Johnny]

Post-pad.

 

[carpetcleaninfarmer]

what effect does using a high ph have. good or bad? is it just bad on olefin??

 

[Jim Martin]

why do you feel the need to use such high PH cleaners.........

I guess I should of said......get some quality pre-spray

 

[Mikey P]

Are you pre vacuuming real well?


Are you using a Glide on your wand?


Are you boosting your pre spray?


Are you cutting way back on your rinse?


Are you pre scrubbing with a 175?


Are you dry stroking like mad?


Are you post padding with a 175/cotton?




If not, you should be,

 

[Chris A]

are you sure its totally dry? I've had some commercial olefins look really gnarly until they were completely dry, then looked great afterwards.

 

[hogjowl]

Don't pay too much attention to Paytoilet. He'll have you spending two hours on a one hour job before you know it.

 

[Dolly Llama]

are you sure its totally dry? I've had some commercial olefins look really gnarly until they were completely dry, then looked great afterwards.

you beat me to it, Chris


..L.T.A.

 

[hogjowl]

Thank God.

He said it in one sentence.

 

[carpetcleaninfarmer]

Went back tonight. You guys are right, looking better as it gets drier. Had me freakin out. First commercial job. Hopefully it will look good by monday. Small town talk should be good advertising if it looks good!

 

[Larry Cobb]

Kyle;

Commercial glue-down olefin carpet is very likely to wick back with any pH.

It is the surfactants that cause the wick-back; not the pH.

The streaks are probably due to wand jets or water escaping from the edges.

The best prespray for that type of carpet is an "encap" type product.

They should eliminate most of the streaking.

Larry

 

[B&BGaryC]

Went back tonight. You guys are right, looking better as it gets drier. Had me freakin out. First commercial job. Hopefully it will look good by monday. Small town talk should be good advertising if it looks good!

Small town talk will murder you if you are leaving carpets wet for two and three days. These days 24 hours isn't even acceptable. Do yourself a favor and call jeff @ greenglides. His number is on his website

http://www.greenglides.com

He'll help you learn how to set up and tweak your equip. so you can get better cleaning results and faster dry times. Once you have the quality down, remember that you are only 20% there. You need to do a good job consistently, but the other 80% is how you make the customer feel. I got a referral. I was told the lady who referred me said to call either me or another company. The other company is a complete hack. I couldn't figure out why this lady was told we did about the same job, considering he left the carpets wet for 3 days, used way too high of a pH and let some of the base dye out of the carpet so it had red spots etc. etc. Then I looked up the customer and remembered the job. My truck broke down in her driveway and I had to replace some high pressure hose and a belt and come back later. I left a bad impression, and even though the carpet dried in an hour and looked cleaner than it ever had before, because the other guy left a good impression and had his customer service skills down when she went to refer she told the lady we both did an equally acceptable job.

Just my 2 cents, and no, I won't even try to grammar check that post.

 

[Guest]

I agree with all the above Kyle; These guys are jerky and a little a@@holish with their demenor; but they know their stuff. A green Glide is a must, any CGD or flat surface type carpet a hole glide will do great. High traffic areas are gonna require extra cleaning; so extra wet swipes and at least 2 times more slow dry swipes. A snail fan will help drying; but if nothing else use a couple of box fans to get good air flow over the carpet. Always make sure to leave on any ceiling fans in office or houses that you clean.

 

[juniorc82]

I would say on the streaking go back over it with a quick acid rinse to flush out any residue and give it an immediate post bonnet cleaning and you should be gooood

 

[davegillfishing]

Are you pre vacuuming real well?


Are you using a Glide on your wand?


Are you boosting your pre spray?


Are you cutting way back on your rinse?


Are you pre scrubbing with a 175?


Are you dry stroking like mad?


Are you post padding with a 175/cotton?




If not, you should be,

all of the above?? are you nuts. i can see if needs all of that but you are making it out like you do that to all you cgd jobs..if you are you need to ditch all that crap and get a cimex..
come on miley you have a big empty head but it cant be that bad.
you will have this guy doing 6 hrs worth of work that should take him 2 hrs to do.