Staining under office mats

Goomer

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What do the bottom of the mats look like?

What are the chances that commercial carpet as late as that appears to be contained cellulose as a component?

Is that an after pic?
 

BIG WOOD

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What do the bottom of the mats look like?

What are the chances that commercial carpet as late as that appears to be contained cellulose as a component?

Is that an after pic?
That is before I'm going to try my best tomorrow. Can you dumb it down "appears to be contained cellulose as a component" ?

This carpet is probably at a minimum 15years old. I've been cleaning for this company for around 12 years
 

Jim Pemberton

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I seriously doubt that it's cellulose browning, even considering the age of the carpet.

I'm with Rick and Scott that you should encapsulate it with a formula that contains peroxide. In the very unlikely chance that it is browning, oxidizers are useful for that as well.

I wouldn't use an acid treatment and reducing in any sequence, by the way. That may cause the release of some fairly irritating fumes.
 

BIG WOOD

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I seriously doubt that it's cellulose browning, even considering the age of the carpet.

I'm with Rick and Scott that you should encapsulate it with a formula that contains peroxide. In the very unlikely chance that it is browning, oxidizers are useful for that as well.

I wouldn't use an acid treatment and reducing in any sequence, by the way. That may cause the release of some fairly irritating fumes.
Thanks for chiming in Jim. I plan on encapping with a grey pad and bonnet with the peroxide formula like you said first, but what should be my second attempt if this doesn't fix it?
 

Jim Pemberton

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Based on my experience with this problem, I don't expect that you will be able to make this as good as new, or even significantly better.

I would expect that your efforts will "lessen the intensity" of the staining. (How is that for a non commital weasel word phrase?)

When synthetic fibers become stained in this fashion under these circumstances , they rarely respond with impressive results.

You can try misting it with a strong peroxide stain remover, but I doubt it will do much more.
 

Jim Pemberton

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Did y'all notice how he refrained from saying my CSR suggestion was stupid?

He's such a classy guy

I deliberately waited to post that so it wouldn't appear like I was correcting you Marty. That combination caused an office to be evacuated and the perpetrator had a sore throat for a couple of days....me.

So I was surely not casting the first stone Marty
 

Larry Cobb

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I wouldn't use an acid treatment and reducing in any sequence, by the way. That may cause the release of some fairly irritating fumes.

I don't agree.
Our ReduceAll (strong reducing agent) has a good chance of restoring the color of this carpet.
It works best @ a pH of 9.5, unlike most other reducing agents. Food color Removal:

DyeRemoval.jpg


http://www.cobbcarpet.com/zen/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=65&products_id=5311
 

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Goomer

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Can you dumb it down "appears to be contained cellulose as a component" ?

My bad, I could have worded it better, but my point was that it is doubtful such commercial carpet contains a cellulose component in it's construction, which would be necessary for cellulosic browning to be the cause, and what would warrant trying an acid product.

That does not mean some other component of the backing or the adhesive has deteriorated due to the moisture and wicked up.

I wouldn't do much until you see how it responds to your basic once over and that shot of OSR.



You might want to get down on your knees, stick your face in it, and get a little more intimate with those areas.

Gently spread the fibers apart and probe a little deeper if you feel the desire.

Is it wet?

How wet is it?

Finish it off with the classic inconspicuous sniff test.

Run as fast as you can if it smells like mildew.
 
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You might want to get down on your knees, stick your face in it, and get a little more intimate with those areas.

Gently spread the fibers apart and probe a little deeper if you feel the desire.

Is it wet?

How wet is it?

Finish it off with the classic inconspicuous sniff test.

Run as fast as you can if it smells like mildew.
:eekk: He's cleaning carpet , not going on a first date
 

Cleanworks

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My bad, I could have worded it better, but my point was that it is doubtful such commercial carpet contains a cellulose component in it's construction, which would be necessary for cellulosic browning to be the cause, and what would warrant trying an acid product.

That does not mean some other component of the backing or the adhesive has deteriorated due to the moisture and wicked up.

I wouldn't do much until you see how it responds to your basic once over and that shot of OSR.



You might want to get down on your knees, stick your face in it, and get a little more intimate with those areas.

Gently spread the fibers apart and probe a little deeper if you feel the desire.

Is it wet?

How wet is it?

Finish it off with the classic inconspicuous sniff test.

Run as fast as you can if it smells like mildew.
Browning doesn't always have to be cellulosic. if you take a piece of polypropylene carpet, dump a bucket of water on it and let it dry, it will have what looks like cellulosic browning on it, even though there is no cellulose in the backing of the carpet. The discoloration can come from a variety of things. The minerals in the water, filler components of the backing and latex, soil present in the carpet and flooring underneath. Whatever the cause, cellulosic browning treatments still work on these stains. Yes they have a nasty odor but the odor evaporates off very quickly. This is always my first line of treatment. I usually pretreat with undiluted browning treatment, rinse as normal, speed dry those areas with a snail or other type fan, lightly retreat those areas before I leave. Seems to work about 95% of the time. The times it doesn't work, I bring a 175 with absorbent pads, mix a little neutral in with my browning treatment for lubrication and lightly buff over those areas. I rarely use peroxide.
 
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Nomad74

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Nice Matt! Looks a ton better. The remaining difference is most likely lack or wear compared to the uncovered carpet.
 

BIG WOOD

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I oxy encapped it with a grey pad, tried usr after, presprayed with an acid rinse at 4:1, and then just prescrubbed with harvard's grime release, then post bonneted with the oxy encap. And no, I didn't do that all in one spot. I experimented in different areas to see what the best result would be. The Grime Release Pro with scrubbing had the best results. I spoke to Hassan yesterday at TCS's customer day, and he thought it might be iron deposits wicking up from the metal rods rusting from the moisture in the foundation. He suggested that, so I took that route.

Either way, it still looks like crap. And whoever thought encapping would help is too lazy to swing a wand and too cheap to buy a truck mount. I'm not convinced that ecapsulation is worth investing in. I don't care how many pics are posted. Every time I try it, I fail miserably. I'm glad I have a truck mount to clean up after it.
 
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Shorty

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Get some on site training by someone who knows what encapsulation is all about.

First job I ever did was shampoo.

I never did one again and still don't like it.

But at least I now know WHY I don't like it.

I'm sure most of us have done some training at some time in their career??

:yoda:
 
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Nomad74

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I oxy encapped it with a grey pad, tried usr after, presprayed with an acid rinse at 4:1, and then just prescrubbed with harvard's grime release, then post bonneted with the oxy encap. And no, I didn't do that all in one spot. I experimented in different areas to see what the best result would be. The Grime Release Pro with scrubbing had the best results. I spoke to Hassan yesterday at TCS's customer day, and he thought it might be iron deposits wicking up from the metal rods rusting from the moisture in the foundation. He suggested that, so I took that route.

Either way, it still looks like crap. And whoever thought encapping would help is too lazy to swing a wand and too cheap to buy a truck mount. I'm not convinced that ecapsulation is worth investing in. I don't care how many pics are posted. Every time I try it, I fail miserably. I'm glad I have a truck mount to clean up after it.
Matt, I know how you feel. When I did that 19 hours VCT job I wanted to kill every person that said it was easy. I still hate them all. Screw VCT!
 

BIG WOOD

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I know you have to maintain carpet to get decent results with encapsulating. I've tried and tried to talk my customers into maintaining their commercial carpet, but they don't listen to me. They wait 2-5 years until it's got heavy traffic and crap like you see in the pics above to clean it. You can't encapsulate what you see above.
 

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