Here's acopy of an overview of the system.
Hope it helps clear things up for you...
Pre-Vacuuming: The first step that should be performed before any carpet cleaning process is a good pre-vacuuming. According to a well documented study, dry soil comprises 79% of the total soil in a carpet. Removal of the dry soil is very important. If we were to add a cleaning solution to a carpet filled with dry soil we would, in effect, make mud. Therefore a good vacuuming program should be encouraged for all commercial clients. And if the carpet is in need of vacuuming at the time of cleaning it should be pre-vacuumed before proceeding.
Pre-Treating: If there are more heavily soiled areas, pre-treating can assist the cleaning process. Releasit™ can be mixed at 12 ounces per gallon and applied as a pre-spray (use a coarse tip on your sprayer). Simply spray enough solution to dampen the carpet. Do not allow the pre-spray to dry before you progress with the cleaning. Allowing a few minutes of extra dwell time can help a grubby carpet clean more easily. After allowing a few minutes of dwell time proceed with scrubbing the carpet in the normal manner dispensing the detergent through the solution tank.
Scrubbing Technique: Fill the solution tank of your scrubber with Releasit™ mixed at 8 ounces per gallon of hot water. Scrub the carpet by working the scrubber at a moderate pace. Make a wet pass by holding the solution valve open – then return over the same pass without releasing more detergent. In most cases one wet-pass followed with one dry-pass is all that's needed (if a Cimex is being used). If the carpet needs a little more scrubbing because it’s heavily soiled simply make additional dry passes (just a touch more solution can be applied during the extra passes). Each gallon of diluted (ready to use) solution can clean an average of 300 square feet. So a gallon of concentrate will clean an average of 4,800 square feet at a cost of .004 per square foot. Note: Avoid over-wetting the carpet – only apply enough cleaning solution to lightly whiten the surface – we just want to wet out the fiber.
Scrubbing Equipment: Any scrubber with strong agitation can be used for encapsulation cleaning. The "muscle" of this cleaning method is AGITATION. That's why we recommend Cimex scrubbers for encapsulation. They safely produce the highest degree of agitation of any scrubber on the market. Their effectiveness is unmatched. The Cimex has 3 counter-rotating brushes. The 3 brushes spin clockwise while the drive deck turns counter-clockwise. So it’s actually turning in both directions simultaneously (kind of like the teacup ride at the fair). Therefore it actually scrubs all sides of the fiber with each pass. To put this into context, the Cimex is over 6 times more efficient than a standard rotary machine. Three brushes spinning at 400 rpm as compared to one brush turning at 175 rpm means there's a 600% increase in cleaning aggression. In other words, if we were to clean a very dirty carpet with 3 passes using the Cimex it would require 18 passes with a standard rotary machine to accomplish the same thing. And since the brushes are counter-rotating, there's no tip bloom or damage to the carpet. The Cimex can clean 2,000 - 3,000 square feet per hour on the average. The Cimex can be seen at Excellent-Supply.com.
Pads versus Brushes: We recommend using FiberPlus™ scrubbing pads. These pads are well suited for scrubbing carpets with the correct degree of agitation. Why scrub with pads rather than brushes? Consider this illustration – you have a greasy frying pan to clean. You could get it clean by scrubbing it with a scrub brush, but if you scrub it with one of those green kitchen pads the pan will clean up even easier. Why? It’s because the pads make more surface contact. So when we scrub a carpet with a pad the same principle holds true. We have better agitation and we use less solution to get the job done. FiberPlus pads will clean an average of 15,000 square feet before they wear thin and need to be replaced. FiberPlus pads are available for the 19" Cimex machine, as well as 15" and 17" machines. They can be seen at Excellent-Supply.com.
Recurring Spills: Releasit™ stops wicking and recurring spill stains. The instructions for treating spills is listed on the Releasit™ label. Here's the full description of our "never fail" spill stain remedy. This method works! With this simple 4 step process we can now say good-bye to recurring spills for good.
1. When approaching a spill stain - isolate the stain - thoroughly scrub the carpet surrounding the stain leaving the stain untouched.
2. Next aggressively scrub DRY PASSES on the spot. Criss-cross the scrubber back and forth over the stain. Scrub the stain continuously for a full minute or two. We don't want to get the area wet with additional detergent. In this way, the spot is being aggressively cleaned with minimal moisture. This is not a totally dry scrub. Moisture is captured within the scrub pad from the surrounding area 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 Releasit™ mixed 50/50 with water to use as an effective spill stain treatment. After cleaning the spot thoroughly as described above, spray the spot with a few squirts of Releasit™ mixed at 50/50.
4. The final step is to make one more quick dry pass over the treated spot with the scrubber to work the Releasit™ down into the fiber. Now the spot won't return!
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Wicking: Releasit™ can correct the majority of wicking problems. Wicking is one of the most common problems seen with commercial carpets. How many times have we heard the sad story that goes something like this?... Joe is a professional carpet cleaner all the way. Joe cleans a commercial carpet and does a terrific job! It looks great when he's finished and the building manager tells Joe that the carpet looks beautiful as he is packing up his truck. However the next morning Joe receives the disturbing “morning after” phone call – “Joe something’s wrong, the carpet looks worse than before you cleaned it”. Why the problem? Commercial carpet is most frequently a flat glue-down construction. So there’s essentially no airflow, hence extraction can become a bit more challenging. Commercial carpets are often loop construction. The densely packed loops can trap a tremendous amount of dry soil. A considerable amount of commercial carpeting is olefin and we all know that olefin can be difficult to clean. So clearly commercial carpet presents a set of challenging conditions that can exacerbate wicking problems. We designed Releasit™ to EXCEL at stopping wicking. So the disturbing “morning after” phone calls can now become a thing of the past.
Post-Vacuuming: The crystallizing technology of Releasit™ was designed so that the encapsulated soil can be extracted through routine post-vacuuming. How can the post-vacuuming be accomplished? You could return the following day to provide the post-vacuuming service (it takes about 24 hours for Releasit™ to cure and for the crystallization to occur). Or if the building has a vacuuming program in place, (and most commercial buildings do) the carpet could simply be vacuumed at the next regular vacuuming interval. Some have asked – but what if their vacuuming is not all that great? Not a problem. Instead of recovering the crystallized residue with one vacuuming, perhaps it will take a couple of vacuumings. One great vacuuming, two good vacuumings, three average vacuumings, five fair vacuumings, or ten poor vacuumings – you get the picture, the encapsulated soil should eventually be removed. The carpet will continue to look good even before the micro-encapsulated soil-laden particles are vacuumed. And even if all the crystallized residue doesn't get vacuumed out entirely; the crystals will resolublize during the next encapsulation cleaning and form new crystals as it dries – hence the cycle begins again.
As you can see – this is a simple, effective and profitable method that successfully fixes common commercial carpet problems! Encapsulation is fast becoming the method of choice for maintaining commercial carpets.
Rick Gelinas
