Happy customer, but I'm not satisfied

[CFCS7891]

So for the good news, a recent customer wants me to come back and clean monthly, so overall it's a win.

Downside is that I'm not happy with the results. First, the areas around where the floormats normally sit still looked quite dirty... significant contrast between the two.

Second, spent a significant amount of time on spots throughout and while some faded significantly, almost none of them went away. All appeared to be standard drink spills and the like with the exception of one definite permanent marker stain.

Admittedly I wasn't using releasit chemicals, but my process went like this:

- 'Pre-vac" with Brush Encap
- Prespray visible spots
-spray entire carpet and 15 minute dwell
-Spray fiber plus pad
-Lowboy....
-lowboy with microbeast

It was CGD of a light tan color, 3500 sqft, I used 10 gallons of RTU solution mixed at the high ratio for the product (vacaway hot knife extreme), and it took me 4.5 hours.

Any idea where I might have went wrong? Not enough chemical? Wrong chemical? Wrong technique?

[encapman]

The  list you followed seems a little off...

• Admittedly I wasn't using releasit chemicals 
  
• - 'Pre-vac" with Brush Encap
  
• - Prespray visible spots
  
• -spray entire carpet and 15 minute dwell
  
• -Spray fiber plus pad
  
• -Lowboy.... -with microbeast
  

Pre-spraying the visible spots is a recipe for problems. It is never a good idea to spray spill stains or get the  spill stains very wet at all.   And without knowing what chemical you used, I can say with a certainty - there are some significant differences between different encap detergents. I also wonder what benefit came from spraying the Fiberplus pads.   

Normally the best practice is to make a wet ***** followed by a drive. If the carpet is heavily soiled you might want to make multiple dry passes. Avoid over wetting the carpet. Use a strong dilution of  Encap-Punch  as a pre-spray, it also works very well as a bonnet cleaner. 

I think that following this  format should produce more consistent results.

---

And here's a technique for handling recurring spill stains that can solve the problem entirely...

Here's a copy of my little trick for eliminating spill stains...

Make sure you're following these steps TO THE LETTER, and your spots WILL NOT return. How can I be so certain of this? It's because we have cleaned millions upon millions of square feet (miles) of carpet and have treated an unimaginable number of spill stains with this technique --- and it works.

TAKE YOUR TIME. And follow these steps carefully:

1. When approaching a spill stain, isolate the stain and thoroughly scrub the carpet surrounding the stain with the encapsulation detergent, leaving the stain untouched. DON'T SCRUB THE SPOT - LEAVE IT DRY. 

2. Next, aggressively scrub dry passes over the spot. Criss-cross the scrubber back and forth over the stain and continue to scrub continuously for a full minute or two.

We don't want to get the area wet with any additional detergent. This way, the spot is being aggressively cleaned with minimal moisture. 

This is not a totally dry scrub; moisture is captured from the surrounding area and is drawn across the spot as the scrubber criss-crosses back and forth over the stain. However, the moisture is being kept to an absolute minimum. 

By scrubbing for a full minute or two, the spill stain is receiving an extremely thorough scrubbing. 

3. Prepare a spray bottle of a good crystallizing encapsulation detergent and mix the spray bottle 50/50 with water and detergent. This is an exceptionally effective spill stain remedy. 

After scrubbing the spot thoroughly as described above, spray the spot with a few squirts of the encapsulation stain mixture. 

4. The final step is to make one final quick dry pass over the treated spot with the scrubber to work the concentrated encapsulator down into the fiber. Now the spot won't return!

This trick for eliminating recurring spill stains transformed our carpet cleaning business. It enabled us to sell "Spot Free" cleaning to our commercial clients. Our customers LOVE it, since nobody has ever been able to remove them as effectively before. The only time we have a problem is when one of our technicians cuts corners and spends less time than they he should have. If they don't spend at least a full minute or two DRY scrubbing each individual spot first - the process is not gonna work.

These steps WILL work for you, providing that they are followed very carefully. In your case, I'd suggest going back and really take plenty of time on each spot, I'm 100% certain that you can eliminate them, because everybody is successful with this procedure for removing recurring spill stains.

Wishing you success!

[CFCS7891]

This is why I love your business Rick. Thank you for taking the time to steer me in the right direction.

Concerning heavy traffic patterns such as the area I described surrounding the matts, do you recommend a similar treatment method? Scrub the area nearly dry for over a minute then encap?

I've noticed in one of your original lowboy demonstration videos that the machine briefly leaves a white foam path behind it as you clean. I've never seen that with any solution including DS2. Is that because I'm letting it dwell instead of spraying in front of the machine as I go?

[encapman]

If you don't see whitening you're not doing it correctly. Might be part of the reason why your results are not quite what you'd like. With Releasit, you should see an observable light whitening on the surface of the carpet. Dispensing the detergent while you're scrubbing helps with this too. The whitening helps you to see a visual que indicating that you've applied the right amount of solution. Get into the habit of looking for a nice light even whitening on the surface of the carpet. Pre-spraying ahead of time, prior to the cleaning, is never a good way to do good Encap cleaning. The solution simply seeps down the fiber and doesn't respond properly.  Hope this helps.