Anyone ran into newer carpet squares that are super hard to clean?

MasterCarpet

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Joined
Nov 11, 2025
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27
Name
Trace
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Cleaning Professional
Years of Experience
17
Most times over the past 20 years that I've cleaned commercial carpet squares, theyre extremely easy to clean. I cleaned this golf clubhouse in the fall and it was a piece of cake
IMG_5586.jpeg


But there is a chiropractor office I clean every 4 months or so, and it is just like impossible to clean. Every single time, no matter what I use. The weave is extremely tight, and you can tell that when I'm cleaning, there isn't a ton of dirt that shows through sight glass. Takes me forever to do a small office. Here's an example of what it looks like.
IMG_5585.jpeg


I just cleaned a large office this weekend. It was a similar type of carpet tile. It is just ridiculously hard to clean. I am working my way out of some debt right now before I buy a setup to VLM most commercial from now on. Because I spent literally 17 hours cleaning this office. I assumed it would take me about 8-9 hours. I kept going over and over the main areas, because it just kept looking yellow-brown in the traffic areas. Again, the weave is incredibly dense, and I'm not sure if it's actually olefin or nylon. I just assumed it's nylon because It's a very nice office building and everything there is made of expensive stuff. They don't really cheap out on anything. I brought back a fiber to burn test but I think I misplaced it. I just don't get it. Heres a pic of the carpet in the office I did that seemed impossible to clean. Again, these are carpet tiles.
IMG_5584.png
 

MasterCarpet

Member
Joined
Nov 11, 2025
Messages
27
Name
Trace
Role
Cleaning Professional
Years of Experience
17
Here's a photo of the walk off area that basically looked worse after I cleaned it. I went to check on it before moving hoses to clean the lower level, this was about 5 hours after cleaning. I did go back and try again after taking this photo and got it a little better. It just looks like trash. But when I did the walk through, I just saw some brownish yellow traffic areas and think "oh this doesn't look bad at all. this will be a piece of cake". They have the other style carpet squares in their lower level offices and conference rooms, and it is exremely easy to clean. You just see mud coming through the sight glass, and every single area looks new, and quickly too.

Wondering if it's also because they have asphalt parking lot. And probably 100 employees on this level alone. I think this particular carpet isn't cleaned but once every couple years.
IMG_5589.png
 

The Boot

Member
Joined
May 17, 2018
Messages
93
Name
John
My guess is that it is Olefin. Nylon cleans up well with a minimal amount of chemistry. I remember Jon-Don used to carry a Olefin preconditioner, I think it was made by Prochem. You should consider getting a VLM set up for Olefin cleaning. With VLM the results you are looking for will be easier to achieve.
To test, you can take a small amount of encap cleaner with a rag and see what happens before you buy the VLM set up. On some occasions I've done testing before cleaning and they were actually impressed that I was doing this extra step in the evaluation process to see what will get the best results. Hope this helps.
 

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