8 hours to dry!!

[Simon]

Gday all,
I did a 3 story town house last week, very little ventilation and I know from experience that these type of places can take a bit longer to dry. So I went straight for the Relesit. Wool loop pile carpet, came up nice, customer happy, got paid.
Got a call the next day with the customer telling me the stairs had taken about 8 hours to dry! and smelled like wet dog, Now Ill admit I was a bit heavier on the spray as the stair were pretty grotty and in hindsight I should have set up the extractor and done a few dry passes over them.
Would I have been better off to use less spray at a stronger dilution?
I didn't use Punch because I was unsure of its suitability on wool?
Also I currently use a car polisher fitted with a fibreplus pad, what are others using for agitation on stairs?

Cheers for your thoughts

Simon

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Oh yeah just for the record, I went back ,The smell had dissipated and wasnt really noticeable so I gave it a vac and put a light mist of Dri-Eze Milgo on it. The customer has since reported that the smell is gone.

[encapman]

Wool normally smells like a wet dog. In fact it's expected. It's animal hair, and when it gets wet it smells like a wet animal.

Sounds like you used too much solution. Yes, you could have mixed the solution about 50% stronger and got by using less solution. I do this in situations where there are poor drying conditions.

Since you mentioned that the ventilation was poor, it might have been good to try to accelerate the drying process. Also wool has the greatest propensity to hold moisture of any type of fiber. Here are techniques for speeding up the drying. Any one of these options will help, or a combination of these options could be used.

1. Crank up the HVAC system.
2. Turn on ceiling fans.
3. Open windows and doors wherever possible.
4. Place air movers on the areas that were cleaned.
5. Mix detergent stronger so you can use less of it.
6. Post-bonnet the carpet to pull off some moisture.
7. Use an extractor or wet-vac to make a few drying passes.

It sounds like it turned out OK in the end though. So that's good news. However if you'll remember to use any of the suggestions above, it should help you the next time you clean a carpet that has poor ventilation or high humidity.

[Simon]

Thanks Rick, Im interested to hear what others use for agitation on stairs?

[JuddBowers]

I use 13" microbeast pads on stairs with an Oreck orbital. Works like a dream. Straight encapping stairs presents a problem at times because, from my experience, people rarely vacuum stairs. I use a stronger solution, less moisture, and the microbeasts have so far provided adequate agitation and extraction.