What would you have done different?

[joey895]

Todays job was a 6 month old, good quality nylon carpet that I just could not get to look right. The customer bought the carpet from home depot along with their $400 maintenance/warranty program so chem dry was there yesterday attempting to clean it and gave up. I made it look a whole lot better but you can still see darkness all around where the bed and furniture was sitting. I pre-sprayed with Judson O2 mixed at 4 oz's per gallon and sprayed heavy. Extracted with Judson rinse. As soon as I realized it was still a little dark I pre-sprayed the small area I had just cleaned again and rotary scrubbed the entire room with a green stripped bonnet. After cleaning it I got on my knees and spread the fibers and I could find a lick of dirt at all. Also no transfer to a clean towel.

I didn't want to add hot sauce or use another nuclear juice or scrub with a more aggressive pad because of the relative newness of the carpet and I knew this dude was concerned about warranty.

I have two questions. First is there anything else I could have done to fix this? If not how do I explain this problem to the customer.

In the after pic if you look up at the top right corner you can see where the carpet is much lighter/brighter and it's almost a straight line because that's where the bed sits.

 

[Mikey P]

Since it will most likely be turned over to an inspector you dont want to risk ruining it by being a hero but if it comes to a do or die situation I would post pad it with an encap mixed with 30 vol and a cotton pad

 

[Art Kelley]

I don't know what the problem is; it looks's good; you finally nailed it. Between ChemDry and you the carpet is clean enough to eat off of. If you would have hit it the first time with the rotary to penetrate the prespray where it was needed then you would have been done sooner, but sometimes you never know what is needed until you hit it with the rinse wand. Just collect the check and go the next job.

 

[Doug Cox]

A white carpet is going to be darker in the walk areas due to wear. Not to mention it will be darker if the carpet is damp. Lighting could come into play also.

 

[renegade_cowboy]

I would of suggested not buying such a light carpet in a high traffic area. I wonder if it is really 6 months old and if he ever vacuumed. Not alot you could of done, it sounds like the color is wearing out.

 

[Newman]

What caused the problem to begin with? The carpet is too new for traffic wear you could not clean out or sunfade. It looks as if somthing settled from the air in the room. Do they have a fireplace in the area that belched? Heavy smokers?

 

[joey895]

What caused the problem to begin with? The carpet is too new for traffic wear you could not clean out or sunfade. It looks as if somthing settled from the air in the room. Do they have a fireplace in the area that belched? Heavy smokers?

No fireplace and no sign of the guy being a smoker. Single guy in the air force lives there. Now it did have more than usual traffic (contractors) though there because he's remodeling the house and the bathroom that you have to access by walking through there has undergone some pretty major renovations.

I'm planning to call the guy back Monday and see if it looks any better after drying (I don't expect much improvement though) but I'm also curious as to what Home Depot will say about it.

 

[sweendogg]

First off how did you confirm the nylon carpet. That has some pretty high resemblence to traditional traffic lane greying in a polyester. Secondly, it doesn't matter how old a carpet is to begin developing traffic lane problems or sun fading. I'm assuming this is the sun, but the light source in the back of the photo.. guessing a window or door of such, matches up with the area in question. We have seen several times the box stores install a "good" piece of nylon and seen it fade in less than a month. In alot of cases the box stores are purchasing seconds with cheaper yarns nylon or poly or olefin, thus they won't have the same dye stability you would expect from a higher end and properly treated fiber. And worse the salsemen will convince customers that this carpet is the same as any of the other carpet at other stores and its a better price. You also mentioned there was alot of contractor work being done. Is it possible they used the sticky carpet protectors across this area. If they used these traffic protectors and cheap ones to boot, they have a tendency to leave a lot of residue on the carpet. Couple the light source, potential tape residue,potential poor fiber quality, high traffic, and right in a pivot point area nonetheless and you have a recipe for premature traffic lane greying and maybe even wear by industry accepted standards. If homedepot is a problem to work with, i would suggest a third party inspector. However I would keep the scrubbing talk to a minimum as mills do not look to kindly to rotoscrubbing 6 month old carpet unless "they authorize it."

 

[joey895]

First off how did you confirm the nylon carpet. That has some pretty high resemblence to traditional traffic lane greying in a polyester. Secondly, it doesn't matter how old a carpet is to begin developing traffic lane problems or sun fading. I'm assuming this is the sun, but the light source in the back of the photo.. guessing a window or door of such, matches up with the area in question. We have seen several times the box stores install a "good" piece of nylon and seen it fade in less than a month. In alot of cases the box stores are purchasing seconds with cheaper yarns nylon or poly or olefin, thus they won't have the same dye stability you would expect from a higher end and properly treated fiber. And worse the salsemen will convince customers that this carpet is the same as any of the other carpet at other stores and its a better price. You also mentioned there was alot of contractor work being done. Is it possible they used the sticky carpet protectors across this area. If they used these traffic protectors and cheap ones to boot, they have a tendency to leave a lot of residue on the carpet. Couple the light source, potential tape residue,potential poor fiber quality, high traffic, and right in a pivot point area nonetheless and you have a recipe for premature traffic lane greying and maybe even wear by industry accepted standards. If homedepot is a problem to work with, i would suggest a third party inspector. However I would keep the scrubbing talk to a minimum as mills do not look to kindly to rotoscrubbing 6 month old carpet unless "they authorize it."

His warranty paperwork stated that it was nylon and He told me he special ordered nylon specifically. There is a large window in the back of that room but it doesn't match the area with the problem and there is another small area in another part of the house (hall entrance, pivot point) with the same problem and no light source. As far as sticky carpet protectors that is a possibility but I would have thought a delime based pre-spray and roto scrub would take care of that fairly easily, maybe not though. I won't be working with home depot on it, as it's really not my problem other than I was just trying to satisfy a customer. Regarding the roto scrubbing they sent chem-dry out as part of their warranty plan and he attempted bonnet cleaning it before I was ever called out. Otherwise I agree and that's why I didn't use a more aggressive bonnet. The consensus seems to be that you are just going to have darker areas in a lightly colored carpet and I agree I just thought it was a bit premature. It's not like it's been years without cleaning.

I'm just glad chem-dry had attempted it first because had I been the first attempt I probably would have had a hard time getting paid because he would have just thought I did crappy work. As it turns out he saw me work my tail off on his carpet and he saw that I got it cleaner than Chem-dry was able to do.

 

[sweendogg]

As long as you got paid, thats what matters. I'm sure you are still curious about the situation thought as are many of us you have shown the situation to. If you happen to find out anymore on this claim, let us know!

 

[Mountain View Carpet Care]

I think you did the right thing, This will be a warranty issue. The miniute you mess up it will be your problem.

 

[SuperFly]

It could have been damaged by the last cleaner who didnt
rinse out a high alkaline cleaning solution which dries with
the fibers resulting in a dull appearance..

This long exposure causes the dull "ugly" appearance like your CGD's..Olefin's..Poly's
Rinsing the alkaline out will not return the luster..

It is permanently damaged forever..

Mind you.. I might be wrong on this assumption..

 

[sweendogg]

Superfly, your spot on about the high alkalinity, however its 6 months old and only been cleaned by Chemdry so that rules out the high alkalinity.

 

[truckmount girl]

It sure does look like wear in a cheap polyester carpet, is there any possibility he didn't get nylon? Did you do a test?

Take care,
Lisa

 

[Greenie]

Lisa, Sweendog, and Super all have good solid points. I would also like to add, it is my understanding that all Home Depot jobs must use the HCE (hot carbonated extraction) method, so it's odd that the tech used a bonnet system? Also I woudl liek to add, just because Chem-Drys chemistry is on the acid side, doesn't mean the tech didn't pull out some unapproved nuclear juice (lot's of Co.'s have high pH products on the truck, approved or not). I do suspect this is a poly/nylon blend, and the customer was taken advantage of.

It's really odd that the "stop line" is so defined at the edge of the bed placement, "traffic" couldn't possibly deposit that much soil or wear right up against the edge like that, it would feather off, it almost appears like some toner was dropepd against a "skirt" and formed a definite stop line of clean & dirty.

 

[joey895]

I do suspect this is a poly/nylon blend, and the customer was taken advantage of.

It's really odd that the "stop line" is so defined at the edge of the bed placement, "traffic" couldn't possibly deposit that much soil or wear right up against the edge like that, it would feather off, it almost appears like some toner was dropepd against a "skirt" and formed a definite stop line of clean & dirty.

My guess is you guys are right and he got some sort of poly crap also, high end poly crap mind you. lol

I guess I should have done a burn test but it said nylon on his paperwork and he told me he specifically asked for nylon and this was before I mentioned anything about different types of carpet not cleaning up so well.

As far as the soiling up against the edge like that I should clarify. He had a bed and directly in front of the bed a loveseat. He's a single guy with a big plasma sitting on the dresser in front of that area and evidently spent most of his time in that room. I do see straight edge clean lines against sofa's pretty often.

I plan to call him this afternoon and see what HD had to say.

 

[steve r]

No fireplace and no sign of the guy being a smoker. Single guy in the air force lives there.



i bet he wears his army boots where the problem area is even if he denies it.i have a customer that has to wear special shoes with black rubber soles in her home.i usually have to kick up my solution since i usually run about half of whats recommended.

i use an emulsifier mixed in the fresh water tank.this is where umulsifiers shine in my opinion.