Question for any folks out there who strictly encap residential cut pile, whether with a cimex, CBM, rotary, or OP machine with fiber plus or max pad. Wondering how that is working for you. Last night I cleaned the dirtiest carpet I've ever seen (granted only 8 mo's in this biz) and went through each room with fiber max pad on my Challenger for a LONG time. Just doing that made it look a lot better but not "great".

When you encounter the more challenging type situations do you return to the custy's home to vacuum out your encap product? Are you able even to make totally trashed carpet look restored just with your encap product? Just wondering about your experiences as I'd like to avoid a 5 hour, 50 pad, experience in a 1000 sf home!
Thanks. -Grant

it would look even better if you went over it with a portable extractor and sell a dual process cleaning

I post vac all my vlm jobs.You can vacuum almost imediatly and it helps to set the nap as well as picking up any debri left on the carpet from the pads.

You could have ran some cotton pads over the carpet after the fiber plus pad. They remove much more soil then the fiberplus pads.

Do the fiber plus pad and then go over it with some wet pads. You would have really pulled out a lot more crud.

Good luck.

I am getting great results using Encap/Durapads & then using cotton pads for the worst areas.

Hi Grant,

I only use the Cimex. The majority of my business is commercial, but I do quite a bit of residential - all different kinds. I only use the Fiber Plus pads. As I'm sure you've found, it's always a joy to clean carpet that's very lightly soiled. As far as the carpet that's really hammered... I've done quite a few restoration type jobs on residential carpet, and they turn out excellent. It still kind of freaks me out! You know the one's I'm talking about... really dark traffic areas, and about 400 spots! On really bad carpet like this I generally mix DS at 6oz. per gallon. Although 4oz. still works great on the bad stuff. I haven't seen the need to pre spray first. I like how the product is right there, right now with the Cimex. If you're not having the reults you want you might want to consider - if you already haven't: If you have to spray the carpet first with your method try spraying a smaller area at a time, and you might want to pre spray the whole room first with Encap punch. I've also read on this board that some guys are having great results by mixing the Punch and the DS 50/50. Maybe you could avoid pre spraying if you do that. I do generally have to go over the really bad areas quite a bit more, but I make sure I'm only going over the bad areas more. If you go over the areas that aren't bad too much then you'll be there all day. I always post vac because I feel this is the best way to groom the carpet- it's a nice finishing touch. One last thing to keep in mind is that you don't want to "fall in love" with the carpet. Just do your best and realize that you will run across carpet that doesn't clean as good as you would like. Some of the super cheap carpet can be irritating when it doesn't clean as good as the quality carpet. Don't beat yourself up when that happens, and in cases like that the customer will generally be happy that you even made a difference because they usually know how poor quality their carpet is. I hope this helps.

Wayne Schermerhorn

Man! I'm sorry my last post was so long! I do hope it's helpful.

My favorite peanut butter is all natural and crunchy. Carpet should not be crunchy. My experience has been that most carpets come out fine except 100% Polyester, I always post groom it with a Grandi Groomer and that seems to do the trick.

I think some of you misunderstood me. On the home I'm talking about I started with fiber max pad, then used many many pads. What I'm curious about is that I can't imagine stopping after just the max pad part as one would theoretically do if they were straight encapping. Doesn't the carpet (with cut pile) get hard and crusty, which could cause customers to call back?? Maybe you compensate by explaining what to expect and telling them to vacuum... Just wondering how those of you who do this explain to the custy and your procedure. Yes, I too post vac my jobs...

-Grant

Sorry Grant,

I've been using the Cimex for about 4-5 solid months, and not one negative callback- only possitive. I did my home carpet, and it didn't dry hard and crusty at all. If it did do that though I would think one vacuum cycle would take it back to normal.

thats what im talking about them cut piles when you use releasit it and when the carpets dry they feel stiff iv done some where after you are finished and walking on the carpets afterwards you can hear the carpets crunching lol so i dunno thats what im talking about with maybe the extracion afterwards with the porty if you are in a high rise i love the way releasit cleans fenominaly actually but it makes cut piles crunchy and the caughing in a custys house is a no no with the smell even though it might be a natural sanitizer

Never had that happen to me before, and I do stricktly encap...I do my parents cut pile every few months, and it has never ended up crunchy...are u using to much encap detergent?

I use Releasit to encap clean my cut pile nylon carpets in our home and the carpets never get "crunchy" either.




Rick Gelinas
encapman

I encap about 90% of the carpets I clean. Encap is great for heavily stained carpets. The only time I will HWE is if the carpet is loaded-up with dry soils or pet "issues" and needs to be flushed. I use a 15" rotary (Hild) with a solution tank and FP pads or the Cimex. I never prespray. I think that prespraying diminishes the "friction factor". I like to suprise the dirt with a hot shot of Releasit DS and scrubbing action. I follow Gary Heacock's overlaping circular method with the rotary to make sure all sides are cleaned. I have also found the FP Max pads are good with a rotary on bad traffic lanes. I don't like them much with the Cimex though. CRB is also good for digging stuff out of the carpet. I'm moving towards post vacing as the grooming step. If I have to HWE I use the Rotovac and a portable. It's a pain though because of all the wires and fill/dump (unprofessional looking process but great results). My main thing is that I want to be fast, effective and have fun doing it!

Things I would like to try are: Agitator 20, Dual speed rotary, Powr-flite Perfect Heat...

I forgot...The crunchiness may come from use of too much solution.