I just finished a nasty carpet in a restaurant in a hotel made of berber. It was full of stains from beer and wine, which at first looked great, but as it was drying, the spots started showing up again.. Has this happened to anyone? Im sure it must be my technique, the cimex/releasit works great on other jobs. I used the fiberplus pads with my 15" mex. I put down the encap with one pass and then 2 passes without solution slowly. It still came back, even with taking my time on the xtra passes. Im sorta bummed!! Im trying to impress this client, first job with them. I think I overwet some areas (got a little foamy) but most of it, I ran it with the right amount of solution.

Problem #2, the GM knew about encap, but he said the problem with it is that you must HWE after every few encap cleanings. I tried to tell him that we probably wont have to do that, but I wasnt too convincing - how do I get around this?

Thanx,

Joe

Hey Joe,

"Nasty" "Restaurant" "Berber" "Full of stains"

- Nasty carpet requires extra effort to get exceptional results.
- Restaurant carpet requires extra effort to get exceptional results.
- Berber carpet requires extra effort to get exceptional results.
- Stained carpet requires extra effort to get exceptional results.

You've wrapped 4 singularly tough challenges into a single account while at the same time attempting to dazzle a new client. You're a brave man indeed.

For a carpet representing any of the four challenges that you mentioned, I would have cleaned it fairly similarly to the manner you did. I would start with a thorough pre-vacuuming. On a trashed carpet I would have also pre-sprayed following the directions on the label for pre-spray. I would mix with hot water. Then I'll typically make a single wet pass followed by 3 dry passes. (On the "dry passes" I'll add just a touch more detergent to keep the pad damp) And then after cleaning the entire carpet with the 1+3 pass approach, I will then make a final quick dry pass over the traffic areas one more time. This final pass finishes off the carpet and leaves it looking as close to perfect as it can. And for the spill stains I will take the time with each individual stain, carefully following the directions for correcting spill stains. These are the tricks that work for us on a really messed up carpet.

Joe keep in mind that you're pushing the envelope with the list of challenges that you listed. The GM makes a valid suggestion about possibly introducing some HWE. Many "experts" in the industry will push for HWE. Fact is, if you know how to coax the most of encap you can take encap pretty far without HWE. However with a stinker like the one you described it may require even a couple of encap cleanings before you'll resurrect the carpet. Speaking of resurrection - keep in mind that true miracles passed off the world scene 2,000 years ago - as carpet cleaners we can do only so much.

Perhaps the info above will give you some ideas of how to approach the really bad ones. I think as you gain familiarity with the system you'll find that you can accomplish some incredible things. You'll see results that would be impossible with other methods. For example, could you picture the wicking mess that you would have had if you tried to HWE this carpet? At any rate, I think you can push the system a bit further with a bit more practice. And try to keep in mind with any undertaking to be reasonable in your expectations. If you'd like to call me tomorrow perhaps we can put our heads together on this one.




Rick Gelinas
encapman

Treat the beer stains as though they were coffee stains. Any tannin stain remover, citric acid, browning agent should help you get better results on these particular stains.

hiyas Joe

dunno which you used, but the Gray FP pads mighta helped break up the spots better than the regular FP pads. also, along with the spotting instructions Rick has outlined somewhere on his site, using either / or the Encap Spot and a 50/50 mix of Encap Clean/Water on stubborn spots helps me out to.

thanx --- Derek.

Please forgive me if I step on any toes here but I will give my 50 cents worth.
This particular setting is tailor for HWE and then Ecaps after words.
I would have presprayed then agitated with your Cimex, flushed out the carpeting with a Demon. After words I would have use a new set of pad and encap it.

You can do the nastiest places like that and achieve great results. One other point
I would let the client know that it may take a few cleanings to bring it back to an acceptable, but they will see dramatic improvement at each cleaning.

Now with problem #2 you have two choices educated the man on why it is not needed or, give him what he wants then as I stated before you may want to encap it after and explain why you are doing it

David