IICRC
Connect with social media!
  • IICRC Cleaning Training
  • Cleanfax
  • Subscribe
  • Blog
  • Online Store
  • Private Training
  • Pittsburgh Carpet and Furniture Cleaning Classes
  • Columbus OH Carpet and Furniture Cleaning Classes

The Cleaning Professor

Keep up-to-date on what it takes to learn the absolute best technical skills with carpet and furniture cleaning, spot and stain removal and color repair.

IICRC Classes and seminars

Are Carpet Spots Coming Back?

5/20/2014

21 Comments

 
There's nothing more frustrating than spending time cleaning a carpet until it looks perfect, and then getting a telephone call a few days later telling you it looks just as bad — or worse — than before you cleaned it.

Although there could be other reasons for the complaint, many times this occurs because of recurring spots.

Recurring spots are spots that seemed to go away during cleaning, but then mysteriously show up after the carpet is dry.

Although some of the following information is common knowledge in the industry, reviewing it and explaining it to your customers or clients will help keep you out of trouble.

Prevention is good medicine

Although not all of your clients will subscribe to the idea of a fabric protector to fight future spots and stains, it’s a tool in your arsenal that will help.

A good fabric protector will repel spots and keep the fibers from absorbing what is spilled, giving you and the customer time to remove the spot before it becomes trouble.

Reality strikes

One of the problems in carpet cleaning is that many of your customers will use anything at hand to attempt “do-it-yourself” cleaning, thus destroying any protection and making the spot tougher to remove.

That means you are going to have to work harder.

Remember that “like attracts like,” and to remove spots means you have to use the correct spotter. But don’t use too much and be sure to rinse out all residues.

Leaving residues behind can be just as bad as not removing the spot in the first place.

An acid-side rinse helps remove more residues.

Remember, too, that when something is spilled, it can go into the backing of the carpet, and even further, and then it spreads out. Then, when you clean that area, the spot that was the size of a silver dollar ends up the size of a Frisbee.

That’s not good for your reputation as a professional cleaner.

Low-moisture cleaning is one tool to keep lurking spots at bay. Cleaning the surface and keeping the backing dry hinders wicking spots.

Air movers are smart, too, and reduce the time a spot has to “wick” back up to the surface.

When you just know, prepare

When your intuition tells you a spot is likely to return, you can treat the area, thinking ahead.

There are several treatments:

Smarter rinses
Use an acid-side rinsing agent to help strip residues and detergents from the carpet. Think about giving encapsulation rinses a try. Even better, precondition with an encapsulant to increase the polymer load on the carpet fiber surface. Cleaners are reporting a tremendous drop in call-backs by using encap preconditioners and rinses. This works by leaving crystallized polymers behind, which then encapsulate material that can create recurring spots.

Anti-soiling treatments
These are products that you apply to the area you think will resoil. These anti-soiling treatments “attract” the soiling residues and are later vacuumed away. Think of these as “liquid poultices.”

Beyond liquid poultices
Another poultice you can use would be of the powdered variety. Apply it to the spot, work it in, allow drying, and then vacuum the area.

A white cotton towel is an effective poultice. Fold it several times, lay it on the cleaned spot and put a weight on the towel and allow the carpet to dry.

The residues will transfer into the towel, which can then be washed. Don’t use anything valuable as the weight; the weight itself may get damp.

Less moisture, faster drying
This is a practice you should use at all times. There’s no reason to use too much water, and no reason not to use an air mover.

By using less moisture and keeping ventilation at a maximum, carpet dries faster and the wicking effect that is part of the cause for recurring spots is reduced.

Jeff Cross is the senior editor of Cleanfax magazine and an IICRC industry trainer offering carpet cleaning classes, furniture/upholstery cleaning classes and all types of marketing systems, including marketing to agents and adjusters and internet marketing for carpet cleaners and restorers.


21 Comments
Fritz Remch
5/20/2014 02:33:18 pm

There's yet another way to prevent wicking:
During Seal of Approval testing in Dalton,
the water soluble soil component in the test soil
kept wicking back to the surface while the test fabric dried.
So they simply removed the water soluble
component from the test soil forever. Voila!

Reply
Godfather link
6/3/2014 11:56:52 pm

What was the procedure used to remove the water soluble component in the soil?

Reply
Fritz rench
6/4/2014 01:17:28 am

The test soil consists of synthetic elements mixed by the
Lab as needed. The CRI decided not to include water soluble
soil elements...or oil-base soil...in the formula for the test soil.
That decision followed the discovery at the beginning that
the wet extraction systems could not remove the WS and O-B
elements satisfactorily during the process of evaluating
those systems.

No protocol exists for properly evaluating dry extraction carpet Cleaning systems.
systems.

in th

Upholstery Cleaning Portland Oregon link
5/21/2014 12:58:54 pm

Great information, thanks for sharing

Reply
Judy DeBevoise link
6/5/2014 11:58:36 pm

Great article. This addresses many of the items I teach with my staff , in a concise article. I will pass this info on to them. Funny how readily empoloyees will respond to someone out side of the company with more finness than when the the training is done internally. Tis is a great back up and reminder. Thanks!

Reply
web site link
2/10/2015 06:44:11 pm

As a customer I found this information very interesting and helpful. Thank you!

Reply
Hannah Grant link
3/5/2015 11:49:27 pm

I love this site. Thanks for sharing <3

Reply
fritz rench
3/6/2015 12:56:36 am

Our experience is that dry extraction (absorbent compound)
systems clean while avoiding "wicking". Their use is particularly
helpful on extra-heavily soiled areas, and for polyester carpet
with pronounced traffic lane soiling.
Curiously, it may be that wicking is becoming even more of
a factor on carpets of newly engineered hydrophobic fiber
that also are effectively treated for soil & stain resistance.
For instance, on those carpets the water soluble soil is becoming
much easier to "loosen" with liquids. Thus, the moment the soil is
hit directly with cleaning liquid on these modern fibers, it is more easily pulled deeper, immediately, by gravity.

Reply
futons for sale link
5/28/2017 02:39:53 am

Making the decision to purchase new furniture, particularly sofas, can be exciting. It can also be a challenge when there are so many choices available. Trying to figure out which style to select, what color would be best, and which fabric will be the most comfortable and durable over the years can paralyze some shopper's into not making a decision at all.

Reply
carpet cleaning link
5/31/2017 11:26:05 am

What many people don't know is that there are various options available to effectively clean your carpets yourself, almost without spending a dime. This article will look at some of the home based carpet cleaning solutions and offer tips on how to save money on your carpet cleaning forever.

Reply
Carpet cleaners link
6/6/2017 11:06:36 am

Carpet Cleaning is not a simple service that has a specific time frame. Unlike other services, carpet cleaning depends on several factors like the carpet cleaner, size of the area to be cleaned, the condition of the carpets, and even the weather. If you're not sure how long it will take, the best thing is to ask the cleaning services about how long it will take to clean your home. They will be able to give you an estimate of time, as well as an estimate of price. Some of them even provide a free onsite estimate - free of charge.

Reply
James Marshall link
8/28/2018 12:37:15 am

Really your idea is very good Thank you so much

Reply
James Marshall link
8/28/2018 12:39:14 am

Thank you very much for sharing the content with us. This is really a very helpful content.
I am a regular visitor to your site Because the content of your blog is very helpful, so I try to read them regularly.
Hope you will publish some more content with cleaning tips.

Reply
Airbnb Cleaning link
12/17/2018 09:47:37 pm

Thanks for the very concise article that I am looking for about carpet. I really appreciate this article. It is very helpful and I like it a lot.

Reply
Carpet services Fayetteville NC link
11/16/2019 05:25:53 am

My partner and i ardor that may nexts further contrivance moreover understanding make money details gain trusted your criminal offenses. My partner and i outcome in the same way overdue which i deal with this. It is a lot of worthwhile believability unable valuable in the same way My partner and i totally reliable almost any a lot of via using it.

Reply
Rug cleaning Fayetteville nc link
11/24/2019 05:01:43 am

Noble writings! Have you encountered kerfuffle in your work? Because I think you have lots of thoughts that maybe so confusing to others. If you have time to check carpet cleaning singapore just try to have it.

Reply
carpet cleaning fayetteville link
5/23/2020 04:30:22 am

My partner and i ardor that may nexts further contrivance moreover understanding make money details gain trusted your criminal offenses. My partner and i outcome in the same way overdue which i deal with this. It is a lot of worthwhile believability unable valuable in the same way My partner and i totally reliable almost any a lot of via using it.

Reply
Carpet Cleaners Bel Air South link
9/26/2020 06:29:10 am

With continuous use of carpets at home, the carpet becomes too dirty and full of stains. The dirt can be removed by washing at home. But it is not possible to remove tough stains by yourself. So, always hire professional cleaners whenever you want to clean carpets.

Reply
Mold Remediation Passaic link
11/9/2020 05:28:07 am

Mold removal is a critical process especially if your house has been water damaged. Mold, sadly is a very common and fast growing fungus that you can find virtually everywhere around the house if it is not properly maintained.

Reply
Carpet Cleaning Fort Washington link
11/16/2020 02:55:14 am

Sometimes stains over carpet doesn't go completely by your old washing method. Every problem of your carpet having its own solution for it and sometime require different products too. But, you are lacking in that knowledge. So, you should need to hire carpet cleaning services as they expert and having alot of experience in that.

Reply
cleaning solutions link
11/18/2020 01:30:57 am

Nice to be hearing about the site and getting the more cleaning training services and developing the effective methods with us. We can follow the site for great cleaning updates and effective carpet cleaning info.

Reply



Leave a Reply.

    Picture

    Jeff Cross...

    ... is the executive editor of Cleanfax.com and an IICRC-approved instructor. His goal is to help cleaning and restoration technicians to become the best in the industry. He can be reached at (740)973-4236 or by email (click here)

    Picture




    Need a Mobile Website? It comes with your MarketingZoo subscription!
    Click here.

    Picture
Proudly powered by Weebly