I cleaned a few small floors of carpet that are on the parking lot levels. The door opens from the parking lot, right onto the carpet. No walk-off mats at all. Basically, the carpet in this area has been a walk-off mat for about 1 1/2 years, with no cleaning, other than vacuuming.

I pre-sprayed with Encap Punch @ 12 ounces per gallon, used the Icapsol to agitate, then used the Cimex with fiberplus pads with DS @ 6 ounces per gallon. I even hwe'd after.

The carpet looks a little better, but not very good. The rest of the building looked great, but this area has been subjected to so much abuse, I'm pretty sure it's ruined.

Is there anything else I could try, or do you think at this point it would be a waste of time? Would fibermax pads make a difference? Maybe some nuclear pre-spray?

To answer your question Thomas, consider this illustration...

Go out and purchase a brand spankin new dress shirt. Now take that nice new shirt and wipe down the engine of your car. Then take the shirt and launder it. Will it come clean? Regardless of of how aggressively you wash that shirt, will it ever come totally clean? Now send it out to the best dry cleaner in town who uses the strongest cleaning solvents, will it ever look like a new shirt again? The answer is no! The shirt is trashed.

At the end of the day, a textile is a textile is a textile, regardless of whether it's carpet fiber or a dress shirt. And though the carpet mills build some amazing dirt-hiding, dirt-resistant, and dirt-releasing properties into their carpet construction, it's still a textile. And in some cases that textile may become abraded from wear and stained from neglect. If they've pigged out their carpet, try as you will, it's doubtful that you'll be able to resurrect it.

In situations like this, I like to shrug my shoulders and say to the customer "genuine miracles passed off the earth 2,000 years ago, but we'll do our best". And they'll normally smile and express appreciation for our interest in providing the best service possible under the circumstances.









Rick Gelinas
rick@excellent-supply.com

More than you would believe. I am not sure of to day's numbers, but many years ago over 40% of all carpets where never cleaned, so you are bound to run into some un-cleanable situations.

Thanks for the reality check there.

The customer actually wasn't expecting much from these areas anyway. He even feels that they should be changed to hard floors, but the association hasn't approved it yet.

Just wanted to make it as good as possible. Now I know it is.

Most common Hopless area in my boook is under desks with no chair mats. They clean up mostly but the carpet is so crushed that it always has a shadow.