Help with traffic lanes?

[PTMatt]

Just wondering what some of you guys use on heavily soiled traffic lanes? I got my butt kicked today by a traffic lane thathurts . The area was pretty bad, although I've seen alot worse, but I could not get the damn thing out all the way. Here's the process I used: Presprayed it with Ultrapac boosted w/Citrus Solve, pre-scrubbed w/175, dwell 15 mins, than extracted thinking this would be enough. It was'nt, so I than sprayed again this time using Powerburst, raked, let dwell 15 mins and extracted. The area came out about 80% better than when I started but I was a little dissapointed that I couldnt get it all. Any suggestions on what works well for dark traffic lanes would be appreciated.

 

[sweendogg]

Type of carpet? Fiber type?

As fiber's age they scratch..we all know this. Andy while the appearance will never look like new.. these scratched fibers will hold a lot finer soil. Usually an oxidizer will do the best job of removing these finer soils.

Presprays like Powermax, O2 boosted or adding 40 vol/ sodium perc. to your prespray can give you the oxygen boost you need.

 

[Doug Cox]

I'm assuming since you don't specify your equipment type, that you must use a porty, and therein lies the potential culprit.

 

[bob vawter]

Genie Care 1300

 

[sweendogg]

I'm assuming since you don't specify your equipment type, that you must use a porty, and therein lies the potential culprit.

Doug use your resources... his website clearly shows him running a truckmount.. also shows he has a Rotary Drimaster... On tough traffic lanes, its not a bad idea to pull out the drimaster..as you'll be able to make several more passes more efficiently over the same area than you can with just a wand.

so to modify your steps I would have used the ultrapac with citrus boost, possibly an oxy booster as well as I mentioned above. Then use the 175 to agitate, then extract with the drimaster at about 400 psi..running a detergent or soap free type rinse agent with cleaning ability through your solution line. This will really help with heavy traffic lanes.

 

[Jeremy]

Snake oil/ magic bullet? Squirt squirt... Scrub scrub. You can even rinse if ya wanna...

 

[Doug Cox]

Sorry David- I don't peruse everyones websites to see how they do things. I looked on his profile and it wasn't specified, so I made an assumption.

 

[ruff]

You can test with a high intensity light.

If the grungy look is due to abrasion, the carpet will look fine or at least much better with the extra light. (when there is an abundance of light, even though the fiber will not reflect the light as well, there is still enough light to be reflected and look good.) And if it is still looking grungy, there is nothing you can do about it. It is due to less light reflection because of the abrasion.

If it still looks grungy with the high intensity light then it is soil and possibly you can remove more. What to be used specifically depends on the fiber and the nature of the soiling. Not a big fan here of throwing everything in the van at it, in the hope that something works. Though on some desperate occasions I am known to have done just that.

I would think that with all the extra agitation and extracting (assuming you also used extra heat) would be enough.

Personally, I never found the peroxides (vol xx or the powders) to make much of a difference.

And now back to my Baked Jalapeno Cheese Crunchies.
Yum.

 

[sweendogg]

Sorry David- I don't peruse everyones websites to see how they do things. I looked on his profile and it wasn't specified, so I made an assumption.

I was just poking fun! :mrgreen: I only knew cuz I got curious.

 

[ruff]

Doug,
First you don't wear a helmet.
Then you don't check fellow posters web sites.

What's next?! :wink:

 

[daniel@procarpet]

David's advice is good.

I think the real key is to make sure the traffic lanes are vacuumed real good. That alone will make more of a difference than anything you do. Pick your prespray of choice as they all work good.

I want to add that my parents house has berber carpet in the hallway that gets abused from pets and constant traffic and almost never gets vacuumed. When I cleaned it before I would run the vacuum and then just clean it. I have a cheap Kenmore with a dirt sensor. Last night I vacuumed it for at least 45 minutes. It took that long for me to feel confident that the dirt was vacuumed up. Basically I was vacuuming up years of ground in dirt. I am not advocating you spend that much time but go slow. So each time in the past I cleaned the carpet it cleaned up good but the next day it always looked better but not as clean as the previous day (it was wicking). I vacuumed that long because I knew from previous cleanings that the carpet would wick if I didn't do this.

I am going to clean the carpet tomorrow. I feel more confident that the carpet will clean up better simply because all the fine soil that would normally wick back has been removed. When I encounter a berber like this one I will give the customer the option for a full service deep vacuum, steam clean, and post pad for a higher price, or just vacuum and steam clean for a cheaper price explaining the carpet may wick. As long as you are up front then there is no harm. Sometimes they want it cleaned right and other times they just want it a little cleaner than it currently is.

 

[Doug Cox]

Doug,
First you don't wear a helmet.
Then you don't check fellow posters web sites.

What's next?! :wink:

Stay tuned to find out.

 

[ruff]

I can't wait.
As long as you promise not to start drinking too many diet drinks and get Richard Chavez disease!
viewtopic.php?f=2&t=41207

 

[PTMatt]

Type of carpet? Fiber type?

It was cut/loop, nylon.

 

[PTMatt]

I'm assuming since you don't specify your equipment type, that you must use a porty, and therein lies the potential culprit.

Doug use your resources... his website clearly shows him running a truckmount.. also shows he has a Rotary Drimaster

David,

I actually didnt use my Drimaster on this one, I used my glided Butler 5 jet wand. After reading your response i'm thinking maybe I shouldve used the Drimaster.

 

[Desk Jockey]

As long as you promise not to start drinking too many diet drinks and get Richard Chavez disease!

Hey now! :x
Fookers!

I'd try post padding with an encap product, you already have the 175 out. Just throw a pad driver and pad on it, spray a little Snake Oil or Encap product of choice and I bet it looks better than HWE alone.

 

[Ron Werner]

David's advice is good.

I think the real key is to make sure the traffic lanes are vacuumed real good. That alone will make more of a difference than anything you do. Pick your prespray of choice as they all work good.

I want to add that my parents house has berber carpet in the hallway that gets abused from pets and constant traffic and almost never gets vacuumed. When I cleaned it before I would run the vacuum and then just clean it. I have a cheap Kenmore with a dirt sensor. Last night I vacuumed it for at least 45 minutes. It took that long for me to feel confident that the dirt was vacuumed up. Basically I was vacuuming up years of ground in dirt. I am not advocating you spend that much time but go slow. (I advocate it! 8) So each time in the past I cleaned the carpet it cleaned up good but the next day it always looked better but not as clean as the previous day (it was wicking). I vacuumed that long because I knew from previous cleanings that the carpet would wick if I didn't do this.Berber is notorious for this.

I've seen a cut pile turn brown before my eyes just after I guy ran an RX20 over it. He would go over it again and it turned brown again. If you dry vac it enough first, you eliminate that issue.

Rather than the rotary, try a slow pass with the jet on with your wand. Works best if you have a "greenhorn" set up, ie angled jets to prevent flooding the floor. I cleaned a cream coloured carpet yesterday that I hadn't seen in 6yrs, 3 of which were rental occupants. O2 with Hot sauce, plus some H2O2, scrubbed in with CRB, came up very nice, not perfect, but more than acceptable.

 

[Ron Lippold]

hit it with judson juice 3 oz to a gallon 15 min dwell and a little scrub down follow up with 40 volume 3oz to a half gallon pump up spayer mist and go way...... shiteatinggrin

 

[ruff]

Yep.
To sum up the general approach here:
Instead of understanding what is going on with the carpet...better blast it.

Or if I may quote a great American:
Hey now! :x
Nuke the Fookers!

Did I quote you right Richard? :wink:

 

[renegade_cowboy]

High traffic area = high soil area. Spend most of the time vacuuming the high traffic areas. Fels Naptha prespray will work.

 

[PTMatt]

High traffic area = high soil area. Spend most of the time vacuuming the high traffic areas. Fels Naptha prespray will work.

Fels naptha prespray?

 

[sweendogg]

You might ingore that comment Matt, :mrgreen: Fels Naptha is a Laundry spotting bar that many of use on difficult spots as you add a good spotting agents and agitation in one FEL swoop so to speak. But you have to rinse it out more meticulously.

And Ron... while I agree high flow wands matched with the right manifold are a very good cleaning. The drimaster does provide some very high flow extraction of its own and great recovery. and if he has one of those, he might as well use that and keep the wand for lighter cleaning situations. And for people who don't think it penetrates enough.. obviously only had it turned down around 300, get it up to about 4 to 500 and it becomes a very good high flow extractor, and work your way into a room and back out on the dry passes and you still have carpets dry in an hour or so. I really like watching what I'm extracting too. You can see when its clean with a drimaster very easily. One of the advantages.

(But I'll be damned if its not a waterhog!! If you need to preserve water on a job, wand first.