HWE on Friday, still wet on Monday

[greentech]

I have a new account that I am going to clean next week. It is a showroom with access to the warehouse as well. So there are some really bad traffic lanes on cgd. The job is about 3400 sqf.

The contact explained to me that the person who was doing the job was using HWE. They do the carpet on a Friday night and still be wet Monday morning!

The first time I do the job I want to do HWE first to get the rest of the residue detergent that I am sure is still in the carpet and then put them on a regular VLM schedule after that. Which they want to do.

I was thinking for the first HWE I would use Flex, boosted with Citrus solv. Rinse with End Zone.

Other then that does anyone have a suggestion?

Thanks, Ross

 

[Nate The Great]

Leave fans to help speed up the drying if possible... !gotcha!

 

[Art Kelley]

Clean your filter box.

 

[greentech]

Leave fans to help speed up the drying if possible... !gotcha!

I didn't have that that dry time, the last cleaner did!

 

[Dolly Llama]

Leave fans to help speed up the drying if possible... !gotcha!

I didn't have that that dry time, the last cleaner did!

you might too
not every place that gets closed up for the weekend has good drying conditions.
matter of fact, some have VERY POOR drying conditions and need help

you'd be wise to bring in airmovers given the fact you KNOW dry times is why the last outfit lost the account


..L.T.A.

 

[Ron Werner]

Leave fans to help speed up the drying if possible... !gotcha!

I didn't have that that dry time, the last cleaner did!

Correct, but this is WHY you are getting the opportunity.
So they don't want wet carpet on Monday morning, so be preventative, leave some fans, check the ventilation, make sure its going to dry.

RUn a vacuum over those heavy traffic lanes to remove the dust and soil out. Coming from the warehouse you will get a lot of concrete dust etc. Its very fine and will ruin a good cleaning job. Take your time cause on cgd its hard to really vacuum and that stuff will wick back. Vac in the direction that pulls the loops up on the back stroke, that will maximize your efforts. 5 extra min vacuuming will save you over wetting from re-rinsing a couple times to remove the "browning".

Your chemistry sounds right, easy on the Citrus as it can over wet.
I've an sheetmetal office I clean, olefin cgd berber, give it a good vac, pretreat with O2 and hotsauce (or S&G worked well too), rinse with an light alkaline, always comes out looking great.

Take some pics if you see enough difference.

 

[Giorgio]

a good solvent fab protector is a must in my opinion.

a good solvent fab protector will also aid in dry times

 

[greentech]

[quote="Nate The Great":epkasyvg]Leave fans to help speed up the drying if possible... !gotcha!

I didn't have that that dry time, the last cleaner did!

you might too
not every place that gets closed up for the weekend has good drying conditions.
matter of fact, some have VERY POOR drying conditions and need help

you'd be wise to bring in airmovers given the fact you KNOW dry times is why the last outfit lost the account


..L.T.A.[/quote:epkasyvg]

OK, good point. I just assumed the last guy was over wetting.

I had already told them that I would leave the air movers over the weekend.

 

[Kernm1229]

All good advice here. One other detail: air movers can help speed most drying jobs but remember that if there are no air exchanges to dry out that saturated air, no more drying occurs.

This is often a problem in commercial structures over the weekend when the AC system is not running. Not often a problem this time of year in the cold areas where I live. Florida, by contrast, can be another issue.

Sometimes you need to boost the air movement with a dehumidifier. (Yes, I know, I work for DriEaz as well as Sapphire but this remains true.)

 

[Bob Foster]

.

 

[Nate The Great]

Leave fans to help speed up the drying if possible... !gotcha!

I didn't have that that dry time, the last cleaner did!

I meant in general... I see you have a Judson... You should be good to go...

 

[daniel@procarpet]

Leave fans to help speed up the drying if possible... !gotcha!

Yes leave fans and plan on running some dry pads after steam cleaning. That will help a lot especially if you mist some encap down after steam cleaning.

But if all you are going to do is steam clean, leave several fans and it will be dry in 2-3 hours.

 

[jcooper]

Yea I agree, If you have a floor machine, bring some encap.

Sometimes commercial carpet just look crappy(not much better) after hwe, no matter what chems/heat/machine you have. Encaping after cleaning has helped many times.

 

[greentech]

[quote="Nate The Great":1zrbzqn5]Leave fans to help speed up the drying if possible... !gotcha!

I didn't have that that dry time, the last cleaner did!

I meant in general... I see you have a Judson... You should be good to go...[/quote:1zrbzqn5]
Yeah, that Judson has some incredible vac!

 

[greentech]

Yea I agree, If you have a floor machine, bring some encap.

Sometimes commercial carpet just look crappy(not much better) after hwe, no matter what chems/heat/machine you have. Encaping after cleaning has helped many times.

That is good advice. I had planed on going over the traffic lanes with a dry bonnet, but I think I will use some Groom Solutions Peroxicap as well.

Man, I am going to be there a while. But I am really hoping to wow this customer with great results.

I have a Chemstractor and the vacuum really picks up a lot of soil.

 

[John Buxton]

I agree with the dry bonnets, or even Cimex after you hwe. As long as you have the 175 there, you might want to use a pad and scrub the prespray in before HWE too. I like Flex but prefer Prochems Olefin preclean on commercial. Just my preference.

 

[richard]

2 words - Post Pad

 

[Ron K]

Post pad, air movers, and de-hu's are good ideas. If you're really concerned see if you can stop by Sat or Sun to make sure all is well.

 

[ruff]

The first time I do the job I want to do HWE first to get the rest of the residue detergent that I am sure is still in the carpet

Not to dispute any of the other advise.
However, if there is so much detergent residue left, as you mentioned, there will be very little use for even more detergent.

I'd start with just a good rinse. If there is that much detergent already in it, hot water + left over detergent will do the work and be flushed. Thus leaving the carpet that much cleaner. Maybe a little extra spray in high traffic areas (mostly to make you and the suppliers on this board feel better.)

Then post padding will be just fine.
My experience is that post padding without encap works just dandy. But then I think that sometimes less is actually more

P.S. And what kind of CGD? Olefin, nylon......??

 

[BradFenstermaker]

Leave fans and MAKE SURE THE CENTRAL AIR SYSTEM STAYS RUNNING ALL WEEKEND.

 

[The Great Oz]

If the carpet is a direct glue to the floor or has a unitary back, airflow through product is non-existant. You MUST take very slow vacuum passes to remove as much water as possible. The most common mistake in commercial cleaning is seeing carpet that looks great with a quick stroke so the tech will move as fast as possible and maybe even skip the dry stroke. Fast, fast is OK on the cleaning stroke but take double or triple the time on the dry stroke. Slow dry strokes take a lot less time than post padding.

Rowed loop products can also flatten at the top of the loop, making a channel under the now knitted tops of the loops. This is particularly common problem with polypropylene carpet. Water can sit there for days until foot pressure squeezes the water back up and the carpet starts cleaning shoes. With this type of carpet airmovers are essential.

Also, the type of airmover is pretty critical. Snail and axial airmovers are very directional so they dry only the carpet in a line with the airmover... and for about 8 to 15 feet. Use many, or get an Airpath or two.

 

[machinejjh]

Agree with most of what's been said already. Try a few passes running just a rinse, see how much detergent is left behind. I second Olefin pre, but only if it's 100% olefin. If it's a mix, it doesn't work as well. Air Path better than Air Mover, more surface coverage.

 

[RGH269]

If ther's no grease out of the warehouse and just concrete dust and or soil in those traffic lanes I think I would leave the Ctrus off and go with one of the oxygen brightners to boost prespray. JMO

 

[greentech]

I wanted to say thanks to everyone for offering their help.

I did this job in Tampa last Friday and went back Monday to pick up air movers (and to show my face again).

Pre-vac (not too much came up with the vacuums).
Pre-spray with Judson Slop and Gobble - 20 min dwell.
Agitate with CRB - Should have used 175, dirt was ground into tight nap.
HWE with slow passes.
Post bonnet with Peroxicide - just light pre-spray on carpet and bonnet. Did not use solution tank.
4 1/2 hours total time on job.
Left air movers and AC on over weekend.

Carpet was completely dry on Monday. Customer was very happy.
Asked us to put them a 2 month VLM schedule - nice!

Thanks again for the suggestions. I think the post encap was key to the whole job.

 

[Royal Man]

Looks good!!

If they stay on every 2 months, just encap it and you might not have to ever HWE it again.

I have been encaping a factory for 2 years with encap only and they have never looked better.

Before me it was always a mess. They make caramel corn products. So you can imagine all the stuff on the carpet.

 

[lance]

Looks really good. The last pic is kind of confusing because it looks very clean on the bottom of the frame but dirty by the file cabinet, and an air-mover is either being put down or being picked up.

The other pics do show how much dirt is ground into the carpet.....how long did they go before they had you clean them? Were your pads dirty after you finished encaping the carpet? That will tell you how much it mattered that you did that last step.

If you can, get them to use more walk on/off mats like the ones in the pic, then you can use your CRB machine and vac to clean them while you are there. That should help keep some of the dirt from getting ground back into the carpet at those locations.

How many man hours did it take to do the job? Congrats on getting it onto a two month schedule.