mystery spot

[dgargan]

http://www.flickr.com/photos/knoxclean/6382848483/

My tech cleaned this 12 year light beige nylon carpet. The condition of the carpet is great because it's in a bed room and a household with only one person.He did a regular cleaning and the carpet was lightly soiled. Cleaned with a 9.5 ph cleaner with acid rinse. Looked great until the next day when this blueish green color appeared on the tips of the fibers. My guess is color loss but Im not sure. We did another clean and rinse no change. Any guess?

David

 

[Ron Lippold]

I did one yesterday that was a wine stain and it turned that color when pre sprayed with o2 and modifyer when rinsed it was gone. you might try some40 volume...

 

[Desk Jockey]

Are the fibers damaged, melted or degraded?

Hard to tell from the photo but it looks like a strong acid damage? Toilet bowl cleaner, is there a master bath attached to this room?

 

[Brian R]

Mikey knows


http://www.mysteryspot.com/

 

[dgargan]

no damage to fibers. yes there is a master bath about 4 feet from the spot.
I went to take a look today and I doubt it's an acid cleaner spill. My guess is she put her runner back down before the carpet was dry and it transferred onto the carpet. She says no but i'll bet a weeks salary thats what happened. I tried red relief with a steamer with no luck then hit it with stain magic with no change. Not sure where to go from here.

 

[Terry]

Test with a very high ph on a q tip.

Powdered hair dye that had fallen on carpet and was vacuumed but some remained and surfaced with the moisture?

 

[Royal Man]

Does she have a rug in the bath that same color?

I have seen many that color that will contact bleed onto damp carpet.

 

[dgargan]

Yes Dave I checked her runner and it's the same color but she insists she didn't put it down. No matter what it's falls back on us and we have to fix or replace.

 

[J Scott W]

There is a tool called micro-shear that can be used to trim slight amount of the tips of a cut pile carpet. This may remove the color and save the carpet. Many folks would never notice the slightly shorter pile height.

Check with Bob Carr or Steve Andrews (Franklin NC) to see if they offer this service in your area. Cheaper than replacing.

 

[sam miller]

I would pull the carpet and check the backing! Also I tell every customer we prespray all the carpets with the same solution then rinse with the same solution If we did it it would happen every where!

Not just in a spot! If your guy doesnt carry dye on the truck that eliminates that, also windex can cause staining also.

but maybe try stain magic with the UV activator light from cti that pulls everything it seems! You could also do a ph test of the carpet.

Lastly no pool table possible chalk wicking? probably not.

It is something preexisting that was activated by your cleaning which sucks.

And didnt appear right away something wicked or got sat there period.

Good luck! !dork!

 

[Larry Cobb]

Dave;

I would 1st try both high and low pH spotters thru a template for visual comparison.

Next, I would check for transfer with a good POG.

Since you already tried an oxidizer, the next choice would be a powder reducer (FiberBrite).

Based on the above small area tests, I would proceed if the results look promising.

Larry

 

[The Great Oz]

My guess would be a make-up/toner/plant food type of dry spill that was activated by wet cleaning. Worth asking about, but the customer may not remember or admit to it. It may still be possible to find some of the offending particulate at the base of the pile. Stop by Radio Shack and pick up a pocket microscope.

 

[dgargan]

Re: mystery spot solved

After trying everything with no results we went with the last resort and did a bond and insert. After cutting out the piece with the blue stain we found that the pad and backing of the carpet had a blue substance all over it. Our cleaning must have brought it up. Still not sure what it was but at least we proved it was a pre existing condition.


http://flic.kr/p/aRTFDV

 

[Desk Jockey]

Weird, it looks like something was spilled on the carpet and it dried into the pad, just waiting for a poor unsuspecting cleaner to come along and wick it up. thathurts

Wonder what it was?

 

[Brian R]

Is this a bad time to bring up OP cleaning doesn't bring up anything from under the carpet? Just from the carpet only.

Probably is...But hopefully you got it fixed Dave. I hate to see crap like that happen to an honest guy....or any guy.

What's under the carpet is not our/your fault...And we really never know what's going on under there...But we generally know that it's dirty no matter what.

Again, hope everything turned out well.

 

[sam miller]

Soil conditions can hide a spot and if somene uses to much oxyclean a white residue can form to conceal a spot in some cases its quite possibly it was there the whole time and appeared after or during cleaning!

PS I did say pull it up and look at the pad! did she pay for the patch??? because I did say thats not your stain also!

 

[dgargan]

Sam she was a real bear to deal with. She just knew it was something we did to turn her carpet blue no matter what we told her. I put no blame on her but told her we would do everything possible to fix the problem. It came down to a patch and I did not charge her. I just wanted this done with. This lady wanted to sue us and was ready to go to court. When we showed her the blue stuff on the carpet backing and pad she was speechless because she knew then it was already there. But she did not stay speechless for long. Now she is complaining the the insert is a different shade than the rest of the carpet. AHHHHH!!!! The patch was left over carpet from the install 15 years ago! I tried to explain that there was bound to be a slight difference. It's taking everything I got to stayl cool with this lady.

 

[Royal Man]

Hope you saved the piece you replaced and perhaps took some pics to document the situation. Just in case she wants to get even stinkier about HER spot.

 

[dgargan]

I learned a long time ago, document,document ,document . We took pics through the whole process.

 

[KevinL]

I brought up some plant dirt on a berber 2 days ago. I pulled the corner back today and flushed it all out. I hate bringing up someone else s crap.

 

[sam miller]

Sam she was a real bear to deal with. She just knew it was something we did to turn her carpet blue no matter what we told her. I put no blame on her but told her we would do everything possible to fix the problem. It came down to a patch and I did not charge her. I just wanted this done with. This lady wanted to sue us and was ready to go to court. When we showed her the blue stuff on the carpet backing and pad she was speechless because she knew then it was already there. But she did not stay speechless for long. Now she is complaining the the insert is a different shade than the rest of the carpet. AHHHHH!!!! The patch was left over carpet from the install 15 years ago! I tried to explain that there was bound to be a slight difference. It's taking everything I got to stayl cool with this lady.

Wow what a peice of work hopefully she doesnt go to court ove rit but if she does 15 year old carpet she got her moneys worth already!

If she paid $6000.00 originally hypothetically speaking most judges would depreciate 10 percent a year of the origianal value so she would owe You money to tear it out and throw it away!

 

[sam miller]

Sam she was a real bear to deal with. She just knew it was something we did to turn her carpet blue no matter what we told her. I put no blame on her but told her we would do everything possible to fix the problem. It came down to a patch and I did not charge her. I just wanted this done with. This lady wanted to sue us and was ready to go to court. When we showed her the blue stuff on the carpet backing and pad she was speechless because she knew then it was already there. But she did not stay speechless for long. Now she is complaining the the insert is a different shade than the rest of the carpet. AHHHHH!!!! The patch was left over carpet from the install 15 years ago! I tried to explain that there was bound to be a slight difference. It's taking everything I got to stayl cool with this lady.

Wow what a peice of work hopefully she doesnt go to court ove rit but if she does 15 year old carpet she got her moneys worth already!

If she paid $6000.00 originally hypothetically speaking most judges would depreciate 10 percent a year of the origianal value so she would owe You money to tear it out and throw it away!