first forray into encap cleaning

[Captain Morgan]

Hi Everyone,

I picked up a box of Fiber Plus pads, a gal of Releasit DS and Hydrox last year when I thought I was going to clean my Church's carpets. Its been probably 7-8 years since they were cleaned and the carpet is about 40 years old, low cut pile glue down. Things got delayed, delayed again etc.. I cleaned them this week over the last two days and I still have one wing and some small conference rooms left to do.

I used my 175 and electric sprayer (no shower-fed tank/driver yet). I mixed according to directions. I got very little foam, just a little bit of frosted appearance on the carpet when cleaning but I thought I would have got more. Is that normal? I tried to take pictures but with my phone but they didn't come out good at all.

I didn't seem to get nearly the coverage I hoped to get either. The church is roughly 5k sq ft of carpet but I've only done about 1200 sq feet and have nearly used 3/4 of my encap solutions. When I was getting very little foaming I mixed it a little more concentrated hoping to get more foaming. Would that have made more foam? I know if the conditions are heavy it may be necessary to mix stronger. I just didn't get a consistant "look" to the carpet as I was cleaning. Is that normal?

The second day, I hot water extracted because I wasn't satisfied with the results. HWE was much much slower but results were better. I don't understand how some of you guys go into rat nasty apartments, dives, dumps, restaurants, etc and get such great results. Some claim to get better results than HWE.. I'm not convinced of that right now but I still have an open mind.

This was more a learning experience for me with a new cleaning method, I want to get more commercial accounts with encap but I just thought my results would have been better. I hope I'm not sounding too critical. I could definitely see a difference between the section I encapped compared to the un-cleaned section next to it. But the next day when I HWE that section, the encapped side look dirtier. I understand the whole carpet should have been HWE to flush the carpets out real well.

What could I have done differently besides using a cimex.. I can't afford one right now. Should I have used different chems? Would Punch as a pre spray made any difference? The hydrox didn't touch the coffee spills one bit, that was really a bummer. How do you guys work your miracles?! What am I doing wrong? I'm seriously bummed!

Bill Morgan

[lee@deepclean.us.com]

Hi Bill,

I am sure Rick or Shorty will chime in with some great advice. On carpets that are 40 years old and havnt been cleaned in 7 years HWE might be the right choice. Since I do not have HWE as an option let me share what I have done on extra nasty carpets. I spot treat all stains with Hydrox first. I find Hydrox works best when it is allowed to work for 10 to 15 minutes before the next step. I then use a cotton or microfiber pad to extract dirty areas using punch. The final step is DS with a fibre plus pad. It is the extra agressive pad. It is a bit extra work, but the results have been quite good for me on really bad carpets since all I do is low moisture cleaning.

Lee

[encapman]

I think that Lee made some nice recommendations above. He has a nice format with HydrOx, Punch and DS.

Sounds like a tough one! 40 year old carpet that has not been cleaned in 7 years is in a state of serious neglect. In fact, it's quite likely entered the realm of being damaged beyond the level of restoration. Commercial carpet should typically be cleaned yearly, and in many cases more frequently, depending on traffic, soiling conditions, etc. If the carpet has been as neglected as what you're describing here, it realistically should be cleaned with HWE first since the carpet is fully loaded to the saturation point with soil. And then it may still need further remediation with subsequent low moisture cleaning attempts such as with encap shampooing following the initial HWE cleaning.

Now regarding proper encap shampooing... do yourself a favor and get a shampoo tank. Proper encap shampooing can not be accomplished by pre-spraying the carpet with a sprayer. You need to shower feed it to see optimal results. Using Encap-Clean DS2 with a shampoo tank and FiberPlus pads will turn most any challenging commercial carpet into a walk in the park. Spraying the solution is not a good option - there's simply no good way to control the solution properly. Shower feeding gives you the control over the solution that you need in order to regulate your usage, avoid over-usage, and achieve superior cleaning. To do it right you really need a shampoo tank. To illustrate; it'd be like trying to paint a house using an artist's paint brush - technically it can be done, but it would be frustrating as all get out and the appearance would be terrible. Using the right tool will make it possible for you to do the job properly. So don't give up yet, simply make some tweaks to your method - encap can open some pretty awesome doors for you.

Hope this gives you some ideas to work with.

[Cairnswun]

I'd have to go along with what the others have said.

Crikey !! 40 years old, nearly as young as me.

That is well and truly past it's use-by date.

However, I would DEFINITELY scrub with your 175 and a pad equivalent to the Fiber Max pads,then rinse via HWE.

If it's a polypropylene, I would then also Encap; it, money & condition permitting. This will give what I call a "shine" to the fibers.

What do they want, a quick, cheap job, in which case you will probably never hear from them again.

If that's it, going by 7 years, & 40 years old, I wouldn't be too concerned about the appearance of the carpet, it wasn't your fault that it hasn't been maintained.

Even my work van is looked after better than that.


Money permitting (again), I'd also pre-spot with Hydrox for coffee/tannin stains, plus Punch for the water based ones, and I'd also use an encapsulating product to release the oil based ones.

I carry both Punch and the other one in containers on the back of my Mex;

Pre-spraying for encap; (in my opinion), can be wasteful as the product could dry before scrubbing.

It can also put those air-borne globules up where you may ingest them.

Point: Just yesterday I had to use my Orbot which has a solution pump that sprays the solution in front of the machine. Only two rooms, but jeez, I was so glad when they were done, even though the odor wasn't too bad, it was still having an impact on me.

Mind you, I do have some chemical sensitivities. (Delia reckons that's the only part of me that is sensitive).??

The amount of solution put down with a shower feed is minimal and you only release what you need.

You can see this as you walk along.


Two things I always try to do:

Always do the job to the best of my ability.

Even if it a quote & you under quoted, carry on as if you were making a mint.

Under promise and over deliver.

The look on their face when they see the end result compared to the picture you painted, is priceless.



Probably not much help to you, but, the other two beat me to it.

Shorty.

[Captain Morgan]

Thank you Lee, Rick and Shorty for the information and guidance. I clearly need to upgrade at a minimum to a shampoo/solution tank for my 175. I was hoping I could squeak by without it. I've read where some have been able to clean fine without it but this is one of those extreme cases where the proper tools were necessary.

Lee, you said you extract really dirty areas with Punch with a cotton or microfiber pad prior to final encap. What type of machine are you using for that step? OP, Cimex or 175?

Thanks guys for sharing your experience!
Bill Morgan

[jtmellon]

Do like Rick says, get a tank. I use one on my 175 and it works like a charm. Make the investment. I think they are about 50 or so bucks.