Cleaning all carpet in a hotel

[Amritgcalgary]

I recently landed a hotel carpet cleaning gig and they are wanting to clean the carpets in the ballrooms, hallways lobby etc. every 3 months(about 40,000 square feet)

for the ballroom(16000 sq ft open area), I have been using a 20 gal karcher walk behind self propelled extractor(BRC 46/76). It did a decent job but i didn’t see a huge difference. I spot cleaned some of the stains afterwards with my portable and wand.

I pre sprayed the areas working one section at a time and then ran my karcher unit with just hot water in the fresh water tank. Should I be adding some sort of solution to the fresh water as well?

I was hoping I would see more of a pop on the carpets after extraction but I didn’t get that.

 

[Papa John]

Maybe the carpets were still damp?
Do you clean the filter often, or touch the carpet with your hand to check performance?
Adding a rinse agent could help.

 

[BIG WOOD]

I recently landed a hotel carpet cleaning gig and they are wanting to clean the carpets in the ballrooms, hallways lobby etc. every 3 months(about 40,000 square feet)

for the ballroom(16000 sq ft open area), I have been using a 20 gal karcher walk behind self propelled extractor(BRC 46/76). It did a decent job but i didn’t see a huge difference. I spot cleaned some of the stains afterwards with my portable and wand.

I pre sprayed the areas working one section at a time and then ran my karcher unit with just hot water in the fresh water tank. Should I be adding some sort of solution to the fresh water as well?

I was hoping I would see more of a pop on the carpets after extraction but I didn’t get that.

Do you have any advice on how to land these cheap hotel owners?

Or did you claw your way above the hotel to the corporate office?

I can’t give any suggestion on the karcher. I’ve never cleaned with one.

Which specific model did you use?

 

[Kenny Hayes]

My advice is buy a Cimex and use Releasit products and go to town. Use fiber or fiber plus pads for the win. Every 3 months it will pay for itself.

 

[sassyotto]

although not a fan, if its every 3 months you could use VLM with Cimex or other whats ever popular now machine.

After thinking about it, if it were me, I would prespray an area, use a wide 20 inch Brush Pro to agitate and then your walk behind. Why? Because VLM, done the right way, doesnt save time.

 

[Kenny Hayes]

A Cimex does! 2 Cimex's even better. The Chavez way!

 

[Axel70]

My advice is buy a Cimex and use Releasit products and go to town. Use fiber or fiber plus pads for the win. Every 3 months it will pay for itself.

This is the answer! You will be amazed at the results. I use my Cimex at a senior living facility and they had always used Chem Dry or Stanley and they were blown away by my results.

 

[Bryce C]

My advice is buy a Cimex and use Releasit products and go to town. Use fiber or fiber plus pads for the win. Every 3 months it will pay for itself.

What is the best Releasit product for heavily soiled areas?

 

[Kenny Hayes]

DS2. If it's real bad, you can use Encap Punch to go over bad areas with a crb, and I either use Hydrox or DS2 in my cimex. Tops in a spray bottle works awesome as well.

 

[encapman]

My advice is buy a Cimex and use Releasit products and go to town. Use fiber or fiber plus pads for the win. Every 3 months it will pay for itself.

*Kenny nailed it! I agree 100%. Not because I sell the Cimex & Releasit – but because it will work.

 

[kingzm]

Thanks everyone for the input — really appreciate all the insights.

Based on your experiences, it sounds like running plain hot water through the Karcher may be a big reason I didn’t see the “pop” I was hoping for. I’ll definitely look into adding a proper rinse agent or switching to an encap/VLM approach for maintenance cleans, especially given the 3-month cycle and large square footage.

The Cimex + Releasit combo you’ve mentioned seems to have strong support here, so I’ll be researching that setup further, particularly for heavily trafficked areas like the ballroom and hallways. In the meantime, I’ll experiment with better pre-spray agitation and a suitable rinse to improve extraction results.

If anyone has recommendations on specific pre-sprays or rinse agents that work well with the Karcher BRC 46/76, I’d be grateful to hear them.

 

[kingzm]

Thanks everyone for the input — really appreciate all the insights.

Based on your experiences, it sounds like running plain hot water through the Karcher may be a big reason I didn’t see the “pop” I was hoping for. I’ll definitely look into adding a proper rinse agent or switching to an encap/VLM approach for maintenance cleans, especially given the 3-month cycle and large square footage.

The Cimex + Releasit combo you’ve mentioned seems to have strong support here, so I’ll be researching that setup further, particularly for heavily trafficked areas like the ballroom and hallways. In the meantime, I’ll experiment with better pre-spray agitation and a suitable rinse to improve extraction results.

If anyone has recommendations on specific pre-sprays or rinse agents that work well with the Karcher BRC 46/76, I’d be grateful to hear them.

 

[Axel70]

Thanks everyone for the input — really appreciate all the insights.

Based on your experiences, it sounds like running plain hot water through the Karcher may be a big reason I didn’t see the “pop” I was hoping for. I’ll definitely look into adding a proper rinse agent or switching to an encap/VLM approach for maintenance cleans, especially given the 3-month cycle and large square footage.

The Cimex + Releasit combo you’ve mentioned seems to have strong support here, so I’ll be researching that setup further, particularly for heavily trafficked areas like the ballroom and hallways. In the meantime, I’ll experiment with better pre-spray agitation and a suitable rinse to improve extraction results.

If anyone has recommendations on specific pre-sprays or rinse agents that work well with the Karcher BRC 46/76, I’d be grateful to hear them.

 

[Axel70]

I have to say I use a Cimex with Releaseit DS2 and any tough traffic lanes I use Encap-Punch. For spots and stains, Stain 1 is great. I had a huge spill in a hall, someone spilled a full mop bucket full of very nasty water and left a 6 foot round dark stain. I used Encap-Punch as a prespray, agitated the stain with a Powr-Flite Multiwash and went over it with my Cimex as I did the hall and the stain was completely gone. I went back 2 days later and it was still gone. I've done commercial carpet everyway you can think of and telling you VLM is the way to get amazing results and save money and time. By the way the Releaseit products really are the best IMO, they will amaze you and your clients. Good luck

 

[Mikey P]

A walk behind machine like that fails to give decent results because it tries to do everything at once.

Great results rely on a well-balanced application of chemistry, temperature, agitation and dwell time

You've taken chemistry and dwell time out of the equation and unless that water is being heated somehow, you're now down to just agitation..

If it were me I would pre-spray a few hundred feet at a time, run just the agitator portion of that machine over it whether it's cylindrical or a circular ,and then go back over it with a acid rinse that has some clean ability to it, and extract.

 

[Axel70]

A walk behind machine like that fails to give decent the great results because it tries to do everything at once.

Great results rely on a well-balanced application of chemistry, temperature, agitation and dwell time

You've taken chemistry and dwell time out of the equation and unless that water is being heated somehow, you're now down to just agitation..

If it were me I would pre-spray a few hundred feet at a time, run just the agitator portion of that machine over it whether it's cylindrical or a circular ,and then go back over it with a acid rinse that has some clean ability to it, and extract.

Very well said, and very true!

 

[encapman]

Walk behinds are also extremely inefficient due to the size of their vacuum orifice. They're typically very wide – perhaps 20" or wider. That wide vac shoe, coupled with a marginal vacuum does not afford adequate suction. As the machine gets pushed across the carpet – the machine squirts water into the carpet, the water gets brushed further down into the fiber, and then it gets extracted poorly. These large commercial "extractors" are a failed design from the word go. It's a recipe for wicking on CGD carpet!

 

[AJR]

I’ll be honest I’ve been doing this for a long time. I’ve used Portables walk behind ride on extraction. I’ve done a little bit of encapsulation cleaning, but to be honest I just don’t see how the soil is removed. I get it it gets on the pad but after a while aren’t you just smearing dirt on top of dirt don’t kill me guys I’m just not seeing it when I’m pouring filthy water out of a portable or any kind of recovery tank. I can’t help but feel like I’m removing the dirt convince me otherwise please cause it seems to me like you guys are killing it with the cimex. These pictures are recovery water out of regular portables not heat dual vac 220 psi pumps . Also the halls are walk behind tenant 1610 dual crb with 220 psi pump and dual vacuum motors. I also run Titan 875 units . Use prochem ultra pack prespray and all fiber deep clean rinse. How does the pads remove the grit that breaks down the carpet fiber

 

[Kenny Hayes]

How long does it stay looking like that? With a good encap product, you can use your pads to do the same as a Cimex. There's no denying that. It's not agitating as well as a Cimex.

 

[AJR]

Does the cimex extract the grit? We extract those areas every 6 months . I’m assuming the extraction part of the cimex comes afterwards correct with a vacuum with a beater bar

 

[Dwain Ray]

How long does it stay looking like that? With a good encap product, you can use your pads to do the same as a Cimex. There's no denying that. It's not agitating as well as a Cimex.

I keep hearing the padder cult preaching less water, more agitation. But i don't think you can get much more agitation than an RX20 or much drier than a weighted drag wand

 

[frank fratto]

I keep hearing the padder cult preaching less water, more agitation. But i don't think you can get much more agitation than an RX20 or much drier than a weighted drag wand

View attachment 134106 View attachment 134107 View attachment 134108 View attachment 134109 View attachment 134110 View attachment 134111 View attachment 134112 View attachment 134113

Go read
100%VLM???

25 reasons....

 

[Dwain Ray]

Go read
100%VLM???

25 reasons....

I have, and I'm still not drinkin the kool-aid Reverend

 

[Kenny Hayes]

I keep hearing the padder cult preaching less water, more agitation. But i don't think you can get much more agitation than an RX20 or much drier than a weighted drag wand

View attachment 134106 View attachment 134107 View attachment 134108 View attachment 134109 View attachment 134110 View attachment 134111 View attachment 134112 View attachment 134113

I have 2 rx20s. My Cimex will scrub better on cgd. Plus, no Dang
drag wand Dwain, if ya gonna drag
something, make it a zipper!

 

[frank fratto]

I have, and I'm still not drinkin the kool-aid Reverend

OK I get IT !

 

[Dwain Ray]

I have 2 rx20s. My Cimex will scrub better on cgd. Plus, no Dang
drag wand Dwain, if ya gonna drag
something, make it a zipper!

I have 2 rx20s. My Cimex will scrub better on cgd. Plus, no Dang
drag wand Dwain, if ya gonna drag
something, make it a zipper!

I've tried 3 other types of wands and go back to my trusted drag wand every time so far. When i went to school(iicrc classes) one of the things they preached was to differentiate yourself from your competitors and highlight that which makes you different . I tell my customers that there isn't much difference between the nylon/ polyester they walk on and the nylon/ polyester they wear . A washing machine uses saturation, agitation to remove dirt and centrifical foce to dry the fabric. And repeats the process to rinse. I do almost exactly the same. When a customer cleans clothes they first prespot i prespray with a hydroforce sprayer, next they put the fabric in the machine and add a detergent. I put the rx20 on the fabric and Frankenstein adds a detergent the washing machine agatates and spins to dry. My rx20 agatates and uses a powerful 47 roots blower to dry. The washing machine then fills again and repeats the process to rinse. I switch to a weighted drag wand and a rinsing agent and repeat the process too. The major difference between what i do and what my customer does is they put the fabric in the machine and i put the machine on the fabric. And that is what makes me different than my competitors. Now ive had competitors say to customers that they do the same as me,but they show up with a scrub wandand tell um they did it twice most don't believe um because of the two separate processes i do. Now if i have to do an estimate for a new customer i have before/during/ and after pictures on my phone to show exactly how much work im going to do. If price isn't there only consideration I almost always win the job. And over the decades of business i have lost a few regular customers to competitors because i couldn't get to um in a timely manner. For them ive adopted an attitude that has proven to be true time and time again that is "you can wait your turn or get someone else, and if you get someone else, next time you're more likely to wait. " the customers that have someone else and come back in most cases turn out to be the most loyal and most referring from that point on. As far as the drag wand goes i have so many and it is so much apar of my identity that it is prominently displayed as a part of my logo