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Hi Guys,
New poster here!
I have been cleaning for about a year and a half now exclusively VLM. So far, so good. Our commercial work has become more and more frequent to the point where I think it's time to get a Cimex.
My question is this:
How many of you are taking on the greasy spoons using VLM tools? Has it been a successful endeavor or can some of the tougher places prove to be too much of a challenge for low moisture?
What's your process and what tools, pads and Releasit products are you using?
Thanks!
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Good Morning Cleaning Dude,
It's been done. But a "greasy spoon" is pushing the envelope. Keep in mind that with encapsulation, we're basically playing Pacman with the the polymer. We're expecting the polymer to swallow soil. And it does that quite well. Yet there's a limit to how much crud the polymer can consume. And if the carpet is over-loaded (as in the case of a "greasy spoon" that's neglected, we may be trying to tackle more than is reasonable.
If it's possible for you to do some HWE, it would be better to first clean the carpet using HWE. Then once you've gotten the heavy build-up of lard under control it could then be maintained with a good encap program.
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Thanks for the reply.
Would you consider 'lard' to be a class unto itself or would you apply the same process to heavily trafficked office carpet as well?
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It can be done, but I would recommend against greasy spoon business. I find they do not want to pay much and there is usually a low ball HWE guy who will do it for half your price. Why not focus on those who care, have the money and understand the benefits of low moisture cleaning? Just my opinion!
Lee
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Grease can be a challenge if the carpet is fully saturated with a heavy oil load. But the same rule applies whenever there's a total saturation of the fiber with any type of soil. In cases where the carpet has become fully loaded with soil due to neglect, it may first require a good pre-flushing prior to setting a up a maintenance program with encapsulation.
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for the 3 restaurants i clean, in the greasiest areas i pre-scrub with the Cimex running a very strong ratio of encap solution through the machine...single passing (wet pass only) a large area and putting more solution down than normal. then i let it dwell 13-15 minutes. then i run over it with the Challenger or Orbot with your fav cotton blend / microfiber pad to extract that emulsified soil/grease. use as many pads as necessary.
for the areas not so greasy, i use the Cimex solo (no OP.)
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In addition to cleaning a little bit of carpet, my wife and I also own a restaurant. We do not do any frying, and keep the place clean. My process is to maintain with Encap, and HWE every third or fourth cleaning. Has worked well for us.
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While not needing the HWE tools can work, you need to KNOW its going to take ALOT of padding to absorb ALOT of soild...some times the hwe tool makes things go a bit faster!
That being said, I will NOT clean any resturaunts, they do NOT pay well. If we have a current client that has an area that is a resturaunt we will...but ive since passed those to others to deal with!
Oh and with grease...you need HEAT! Keep your solutions & dampened pads HOT!!
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not paying is not acceptable for sure.
we're fortunate that ours pay well and pay 1-2 weeks after job completion...then again, they're not chains. i think that must help to a degree.
heat helps. but if you don't have much of it, adding in other pieces of the cleaning pie will suffice.
