Cleaned a little AX today

Desk Jockey · Sep 20, 2013

It's been a hetic day, two water calls and we are working a couple of fire, one of them big carpet crews were busy so I went and helped on a commercial carpet job.

It was a 100 year old wool Axminster, it was in need of a good cleaning so we cranked up the heat and 16-flow on our wands. Cleaned up up great but now it's pulling off the walls. :eekk:

Seriously we used low moisture, OP with the Orbot, Cyclo with pads on the stairs. Came out great and no problems with shrinkage or busted seams. When this stuff shrinks you're buying it, it can only be stretches back 1-way. Hand sewn seams, no way were we chancing shrinkage.

LOOK at those seams!

Worn in some areas but for 100-year old carpet it's doing better than I am at half the age.

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Steve Lawrence · Sep 20, 2013

LOL, Richard, you had me going there for a minute.

Glad it worked out so well.

Desk Jockey · Sep 20, 2013

It would have shrunk had we done that. :biggrin:

Nate The Great · Sep 20, 2013

Yep, my pops learned the hard way when he first started... The previous owner of the bizz said he wet cleaned the corridors of a condo... So my pops did just that and had to replace every floor...

I think that may have been 1 turning point in him becoming a flooring inspector...

Desk Jockey · Sep 20, 2013

Yea it's not an obvious thing, looks fine until you HWE it. Then the fun begins! I remember back in the day seeing where a previous cleaner had made it pull the tack strip right out of the concrete. :eekk:

The carpet was still attached to the pins. :smile:

Lee Stockwell · Sep 20, 2013

That sight was the end of the line for a couple of my early competitors.

Yes you CAN stretch both ways...with difficulty. Have to reinforce seams, run extra tackstrip.

You can then stretch it more effectively by re-wetting it. Of course that will pucker you up a bit, but it works. Otherwise you can tear the carpet apart.

Desk Jockey · Sep 20, 2013

Lee I'll take your word for it but OP seemed like the safest way other than Host or Capture. And while I'll use that if I have to, the OP looked really good in the end. Even the bull nose on the steps responded well to cotton pads on the Cyclo.

roro · Sep 20, 2013

Doc Holliday said:
Lee I'll take your word for it

You are a much, much braver man than me Gunga Din.

roro

Desk Jockey · Sep 20, 2013

Lee Stockwell · Sep 20, 2013

I only did that to fix other's problem. Bought my first OP machine to clean that carpet later. Law Library at MSU 60 year old wool with fragile seams.

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I337 using Tapatalk 2

Larry Cobb · Sep 22, 2013

You guys are WIMPS.

A real steam cleaner can clean AX effectively,

I've cleaned hundreds of them . . .

and only had one new carpet pull up the tack strip (restreched OK).

Due to double weft, Axminster carpet has no stretch in the width, only in the length.

Those seams look like 27" goods and should be machine sewn.

Hand-sewn seams do require some pre-inspection.

Larry

Lee Stockwell · Sep 22, 2013

Larry after their earlier mishap I was ASKED if I could clean it without steam.

My answer, as always, "We can do it."

As I noted the seams were fragile and I wasn't sure if other corners were cut during its installation.

billyeadon · Sep 22, 2013

I subscribe to the phrase "discretion is the better part of valor"

Willy P · Sep 22, 2013

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yDcEGYvLDmE

roro · Sep 22, 2013

Larry Cobb said:
You guys are WIMPS.
We may well be but I think most of us clean carpet for a living

A real steam cleaner can clean AX effectively,
Yes it can but not quite as effectively as an HWE

I've cleaned hundreds of them . . .
Living in a country where up till recently most domestic carpet was wool I just might have done the odd one or two myself - (up until 2 years ago we had Persian Royal Axminster laid in our own home and think that with SWMBO's prompting it was cleaned a few times in the 20 years it was down).

and only had one new carpet pull up the tack strip (restreched OK).

As the Tui's adverts say " Yeah right"

Due to double weft, Axminster carpet has no stretch in the width, only in the length.

If overwetted could it be that it is the cotton warp shrinks whilst generally the jute weft doesn't. Here's some quotes for you
"It is well known in the art that the regular Axminster carpet, which is also known as the Imperial Axmnster, requires that the needle or shuttle, as the case may be, insert three double weft shots in the back of the carpet and that after the first two double weft shots have been so inserted U-tufts of pile yarn are inserted on the third double weft shot."

"Cotton shrinkage is a result of its structure and the way it is spun, woven and finished. At the fiber level, a study was done to determine the shrinkage of cotton as a result of its structure, specifically looking at the primary and secondary walls. The experiment concluded that with or without the secondary wall, cotton does not swell back to its original length after drying, no matter the swelling agent (Berkley, 422)"
"In terms of elasticity, cotton is poor. It breaks after moderate stretching and does not recover well, only "75 percent from a 2-5 percent stretch (Kadolph, 47)"

So you still think re-stretching is ok ?????

Larry

We have also cleaned the odd Wilton or two in 25+ years and yes I have seen shrinkage in it but only in a property that had been flooded. It had pinged off double strips of smoothedge and shrunk by about 6" on all sides.

roro

Desk Jockey · Sep 23, 2013

Well's thurs them that cleans and then thurrs them that don't......but like to talk big. :icon_rolleyes:

Cleaned a little AX today

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