gum

[lust1kiddo]

I never run into it at all because I am mostly rugs and upholstery but there is a theater that has it everywhere..what do I do to get it off.

 

[Dolly Llama]

here you go Urban Cowboy

viewtopic.php?f=1&t=51887


.L.T.A.

 

[Goomer]

Discarded New York City gum is amongst the toughest in the nation. A real bitch when it's old and rock hard. Do not underestimate it!!

A lot of gum can be a real nightmare, especially when you have not seen much of it. I can only imagine a theater full of it.
My first thought is, are you charging separately for it, or are you including it in the price of the cleaning??
If you have not given a price yet, you may want to rethink your pricing and offer them 2 options. It may not be worth it to you or them to attempt to remove it all.

Yea, many solvents work at softening it up, but it still involves being on your knees the whole time, working one piece at a time. A real wrist killer and very frustrating. Very tedious work when you have lots of it and don't have the high heat of a truck mount to melt it away. I have been considering a hand steamer like Danny Boy recommended, hell, maybe even one of those steam bullet-shark thingys. Anything to soften it up as heat is your friend, and it will help the solvent penetrate it better.
If you do take it on, make sure to bring a gum lacky so you can focus on the cleaning.

 

[Ross Buettner]

I've used freeze spray in a can. It's helped the process a little faster. You wil still have the minority of it on the fibers.

 

[Steve Manier]

I had a large banquet room with around 100 or more peices of gum. It can take longer to remove the gum than to clean the carpet. We started out using Pro Solv Gel and a gum shark wich works but takes to much time and to much product with that many peices. What we ended up doing is using a vapor steamer with the round nylon brush and melted each peice away in seconds making easy work of it. Now I specialize in major gum removal.

 

[rwcarpet]

I never run into it at all because I am mostly rugs and upholstery but there is a theater that has it everywhere..what do I do to get it off.

Just did one yesterday....some of the gum was older than me. I ran out of spotter, so I used "engine starting fluid" after heating up the gum. Worked well, but man what a buzz we had after the job!

Man, what I'd do for a couple gallons of 1,1,1 Triclor........

 

[Goomer]

. What we ended up doing is using a vapor steamer with the round nylon brush and melted each peice away in seconds making easy work of it. Now I specialize in major gum removal.

What brand/model steamer did you use???

 

[lust1kiddo]

Vapor steamer..is that the wall paper thing some of you terds swear by? I wanna get one.

 

[Steve Manier]

I have the Daimer Kleenjet Pro 300 CS with continuous fill. This is a commercial grade vapor steamer with up to 75 psi. There is several different manufactures but I like this one because of the continuous fill. You can add more water when your out without shutting it down and waiting for it to re heat. I dont think they are really like a wall paper steamer. They have a gun handle and trigger with a 10 foot hose connected to the unit with all sorts of other attachments and you clean with pure steam and psi. Mine was around 700.00 5 years ago and I see they are around 1000.00 now. We orininally bought it to clean commercial ovens but discovered there are many other uses for it. It can be slow on some stuff but it works great on gum, uhpostery and spotting. Some people use them to clean grout but I think they are way to slow for that. They have videos on the website of how they work. http://www.daimer.com

 

[Goomer]

Any fellow porty hacks ever use something like this on gum to soften it up?

 

[lust1kiddo]

Franky,
I wonder if that thing works..for 100 bucks that aint bad at all kid.

 

[Mark Saiger]

Harvard dezolval diluted 3 ounce or so with water and a gum better. Very fast for us. Sometimes we can melt it right out also with our Butler high heats.

Mark Saiger