I just encapped a white olefin residential carpet and it looked great when I left yesterday afternoon. I just got called back and was told there baaack. I cleaned this womans whole house last year HWE and all her carpets came out beautiful. That white Berber form hell. After 3 consecutive days of trying to get this carpet looking half decent. This women came clean with me and told me she had rented a rug doctor about a month before she called me. I couldn't understand why those stains kept wicking back up. I tried everything and finally got it looking ok. So she set up another appt with me for yesterday. I cleaned her whole house Hwe except the Berber from HELL!! I cimexed it with Ds and it really looked good. But I just got the Dreaded call.. Any suggestions. I'm going back..


Ralph

Ralph,
Sorry about the call-backs
When she calls you next year DON'T DO IT.

Best,
Tad

Hey Ralph, I feel you're pain.

Here's a post that I made the other day regarding Berber. I think it may address your question. Especially the part about getting the carpet DRY.
http://www.network54.com/Forum/message?forumid=228309&messageid=1128027780




Rick Gelinas
encapman

get it clean
then get it dry

it you get it dry
it can't wick

then it is a
reoccouring spot problem attracting residue
not wicking problem

sounds like a I tried to clean that spot with a rug doctor problem

Soak and scrub it with releasit and water claw it till you can't pull anymore dirt out of it.
Blot with several towels
Air mover dry it
Cotton pad it if necessary


Steve Frasier
Drew and Steve's Floor Care
www.drewandsteve.net

HWE.. flush that bad boy and all its soap, etc from her cleaning. Throw the water at it.

make extra dry passes.
Post pad that bad boy.. and use an airmover.


If you do that and correctly, I can guarantee you you won't have any wickbacks.

Wickbacks are almost always operator error.

Believe it or not. You control it.

Respectfully,

Dobs

Steve Dobson
ProFloor
Custom Cleaning Services

Thanks for all the input. I did use my air movers. I have flushed this carpet more times than I want to mention and also used a defoamer. I will be back there this afternoon and try to get rid of the stain. She now informs me she has a party tonight at 7. The clock is ticking but I'll get it. Thanks again. I love this board

Ralph

Ralph,

It is so imperative that you KEEP THE MOISTURE TO A MINIMUM.
Clean it as dry as possible. Get it to dry as fast as possible.

On a Berber that you expect you might have troubles with I would recommend:
1. Mix the Releasit Encap-Clean DS 50% stronger then normal at 6 oz per gallon. This will enable you to achieve the desired scrubbing results using less moisture. Make a few extra passes DRY over the carpet.
2. Place blowers on the carpet.
3. Follow up with bonnets to remove more moisture and speed dry the carpet.
4. Turn on the HVAC and ceiling fans, or open doors and windows if possible.
5. At the point where you think you're achieving LOW MOISTURE cleaning, use less moisture still.

Low moisture techniques will work well on most problem Berbers.

Now for RECURRING SPILL STAINS if you will follow these steps to the letter, you'll have good success on the recurring spill... http://www.cmmonline.com/article.asp?IndexID=6635489

Hope these suggestions will help you!




Rick Gelinas
encapman

You might think you are only cleaning the pile of the carpet, and with HWE on olefin Berber specially, the more water you apply, the deeper it goes- through the carpet backing, into the padding, and even to the flooring.

Olefin Berber holds almost NO water, and if you apply much, it goes right through.

I would bet the customer with her weak Rug Doctor soaked it- hard to do anything else with that kind of machine.

The odds of removing all of the dirt from the pad, and from the flooring is nil. so, don't even try.

You only want to remove the soils from the carpet, which is WHY you want to deal with it as dry as possible, and not apply enough moisture to go through the carpet into the padding, etc.

One of the objects of the foam in the shampoos is to minimize the amount of penetration- how deep it goes- and keep the moisture on the top of the carpet.

So... I agree- encap it then bonnet it for best results, and forget even trying to HWE it.

Gary

I went back to this customer and looked at the problem area. There were 3 stains that were definetely wick back. I broke out my encap spot 50/50. Then I used my drill driver and the 3 spots were gone in an instant. I then left my air mover and told her I would be back in a couple of hours. She was thrilled of the results. She was having a party that night and the Berber was completely clean. I had to keep mentioning to her it was the rug Doctor that caused the problems. I put her on a maintenance program of every 6 months and she agreed. I reduced the price just a tad to make sure she does this. The 6 month postcard will be sent.

Ralph

Ralph, that was the professional way to handle that call back.

Take a look at some advice I have on my web site-

http://www.heacocks.com/amateur.htm

Copy it and use it if you want- not copyrighted.

Gary

I like that. Thanks - Gary.
I love it when customers tell me all the things they put on the "spot" and the spot is still there. Then, when I remove the spot they act like I have just done the impossible.
Those people make good references.
Now, if I can keep them from putting draino on the carpet -