Here's a new EncapBlog video. It talks about the importance of doing a Carpet Inspection during the sales interview with your prospect. Just like a good doctor asks questions, professional carpet cleaners ask questions too. Using good questions opens up a dialogue with the prospect and helps you to convey the fact that you're a "professional" who is prepared to solve their problems for them. Take a look at the video - I hope you like it.










Rick Gelinas

Nice video! I've been hesitant to use the form because I don't know how to tell the difference between olefin, nylon, polyester, wool, etc..

Is there a fool proof way of knowing?



Thanks,


Rich McDonald
BMS Cleaning

For commercial carpet fiber identification I will start out doing a "float" test. Snip a small tuft of fiber. Make sure you don't get any latex, just carpet fiber.

1. Drop the tuft of fiber into a cup of water. If it floats it's olefin. If it sinks, it's not olefin.

2. Now we need to determine if it's wool. Light a lighter, burn the fiber, and smell it. If it smells like burnt hair, it's wool.

3. If it's not olefin and it's not wool - then it's either nylon or polyester. And those two fibers clean pretty similarly with encapsulation so there's no worry there. BTW Nylon is far more common than polyester in commercial applications.


So there you have it!

1. If it's olefin I know it's going to want to tend to wick, and it will likely have attracted oils form the environment. So I will address that with the prospect, and then clean it accordingly.

2. If it's wool I will commend them for having a great carpet. I know it's going to absorb more water during the cleaning but it should clean up well. And I know that the Releasit detergents will be safe on the wool too. If there are bright colors I will also want to test for colorfastness by applying my cleaning solution with a white terrycloth towel and rubbing to see if I get any color transfer.

3. If it's nylon or polyester I know that it will be easy to clean and there should be little bother on my part to get great results using Releasit.


Well that rounds out the "common" fiber types that you're likely to run into with commercial carpets. It is easy to sift through them using the float test to see if it's olefin or not. And if you think it may be wool, a simple burn test can sort that out. So don't let the fiber ID scare you. It's really pretty simple.









Rick Gelinas

Great video Rick,

This might've been answered already, but which video software do you use that can show your company name/logo on the top right of the screen. Looks real nice like that.

Thanks,

Bill

I use the "Green Screen" option that's in Apple iMovie.
it's very simple. Simple's about all I can handle.





Rick Gelinas