pile reversal

[Joel D]

this is something ive been seeing fairly often lately

right along the edge of a traffic area you will see sort of a line i usually notice wear and explain to customer ahead
but some times i miss it

so you get done cleaning and it doesnt look right so you kneel down and check and the napp is laying down one way but the opposite way along the edge of traffic lane in the middle of the room

i remember carpet stores having to replace carpet because of this in years past
but what is the culprit?

the sad part is its usually in better quality dense carpet
i havent seen it in cheap polyester

 

[John Watson]

It is also called pooling, watermarking nap reversal, Most mills do not replace, it is not considered a manufacturing defect. I have seen it in all fibers, nylon,polys wools etc.

You are also correct saying it is usally found on plush carpets, I have seen it on loop pile before also.

The boogy man has been accused of causing it. Years ago back at Carl Williams Inspector gathering in Vegas just before Surfaces there was a gent there who was groundingthe carpets to attempt to reverse, Every one laughed, I think there are more aggreeing to day then not about eletrostactic charges being the culpert.

Seen it go under a bed not in traffic, through a wall no door needed.

 

[Lyman]

Mostly on polyester and poly has many different wieghts of carpet. You can tell poly by how easy the wand slides.

 

[handdi]

get ya a small bottle of formic acid that will tell ya if its nylon
i bet you are seeing a lot of poly in your area
lowes sellin the crap out of it
that make ya look like the pro and educate the customer

 

[Jack May]

I can't remember where I aw this photo, who posted it or what board it was on but is a classic example of it.

Carpets that are prone to it (usually the higher the density and quality seems the more likely it is to happen, will often now have a clause on the rear of the sample warning of the 'naturally occurring phononemen'. I have seen it on the back of a couple of sample here in NZ and they are not usually replaced as faults.

John

 

[Jack May]

Here's a job I was called into. It was a approx 5 year old wool carpet that had been spot cleaned following an accident. Took a while to dry and recleaned but the 'stain' remained. But only visible from one angle.

These homeowners claimed for replacement carpet.

Problem area viewed from the side.

Viewed from the lounge room.

Viewed from the Kicten side of the dining room.

John

 

[harryhides]

According to the Institute of Inspection Cleaning and Restoration Certification (IICRC), IICRC Reference Guide for Inspection of Textile Floorcoverings, Section 16: Shading, Pile Reversal, and Pooling (Watermarking):

Definitions:
Shading: The normal, random apparent variations in shade that are attributable to relatively slight differences in pile lay caused by traffic, vacuuming, and general use. Shading is an inherent characteristic of
Virtually any cut-pile carpet (and to a lesser extent, loop-pile carpet), and is not generally considered a defect.

Pooling: A conspicuous form of pile reversal characterized by sharp changes in pile direction at irregular, well-defined, serpentine lines known as “interfaces.” The interfaces are typically—but not necessarily—located in or near trafficked areas, but may not always follow the direction of traffic flow.

Notes on Pooling:

The terms pooling and watermarking are synonymous, and are descriptive of the typical appearance of an affected carpet, in which areas of the pile may appear wet. Despite the terms used to describe it, this condition is not thought to be related to exposure to moisture.

At the time of printing, the causes of pooling are not fully understood and are the subject of much study and debate; however, the available evidence seems to suggest that it is not related to factors that originate in the manufacturing process. While traffic appears to be the primary contributing factor, several environmental factors also are suspected.

&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&

The study below was produced by a Carpet Inspector I met years ago who had studied this problem more than anyone else and had a lot of very interesting things to say about it.
I also did an Inspection re Pile reversal for a man who it turned out was a Professor and taught about electrical field forces and so when I asked him about the veracity of the theory that this could all be caused by electro-magnetic/static, field forces and polarities caused by electric motors and forced air heating systems, his reply was "absolutely".

The Following study is a Fictional Work for the purpose of Provoking thought.

1988- Pooling became a serious problem for floorcovering contractors in the Central Valley
of California. New construction home building was booming with one home in 10 developing
pooling problems.
Background of Study: Knowing that the problems could not be answered within the
flooring industry, the study went into the Air Conditioning and filter industry.
The findings:
1. homes that had carpet down for 10 years and had no problems suddenly developed pooling
with the installation of new air conditioning units. - the study found the difference to be
increased air flow with the new air conditioner.
2. Filters: the filters are made of synthetic fibers, polypropylene and/or polyester.
- The principle: with air flowing though the filter, fibers rub against each other
producting POSITIVE (+) static charges. 95% (or more) of dust particles are negatively (-)
charged. Dust (-) attached to the (+) and the (+) was adsorbed to the fiber, cleaning the
air of dust particles.

The questions: what happens to the (+) static charges that do not adsorb to the Filter
fibers?
What happens to the (+) charges when the filter reaches its maximum capacity?
The charges are released into the home in the air flow pattern.
positive charges never disappear, they only become neutral with the addition of a negative
charge.

Facts:
1. 95% (or more) of dust particles are negative (-) static charges.
2. Movement of fibers against each other result in the production of
positive (+) static charges.
3. Electrical components produce positive (+) charges.
4. like charges repel each other, unlike charges attract each other.
5. degauzing of old picture tube Type Televisions was necessary to
remove build-up of positive static charges. The picture tube had to be
degauzed. A degauzer was placed on the back of the picture tube to remove
the positive static charges built up in and on the picture tube.
6. static measurements of the interface line of pooling found high
readings of positive charges on one side of the line and negative on the
other side of the line.
7. measurements found high positive charges on the surface of the pile
and negative charges on the bottoms of yarn shafts.
8. under 10X: interior fibers on the yarn tips are bent downward like
an upside down "J". the perimeter of the yarn with fibers standing
straight up like a bad haircut.


Testing by degauzing the carpet:
A lifelong friend is a electronics geek and TV repairman since we were
in high school together. He was a room mate in College at UC San Louis
Obispo. A call to him asking questions resulted in a trip to his
home/workshop. He still had his De-Gauzer used on the old picture tubes.
Setting the unit up on 2" x 4"'s that extended past the carpet we hauled
to him allowed two of us to hold the degauzer over the carpet without
being on the carpet.
- Lowered the unit over the carpet.
- the yarn moved when the unit was 3" off the carpet surface.
- then nothing happened. we shut the machine off to investigate and
found the opening on the machine dirty and plugged up. We cleaned it and
repeated the test.
- 2nd effort over the same spot resulted in the carpet pile again moving
and making noise (static) then stopped again. the dirt had plugged up the
opening again.
- we vacuumed the carpet for about an hour and tried again.
the yarn moved, made noise and the unit plugged up again.
- seven or 8 efforts over the same area finally resulted in removal of
the interphase line and a great improvement in color due to removal of
dirt/dust/detergents.
- de-gauzing the pile surface for three or four hours found we could
completely remove the pooled areas. took many efforts and cleaning of the
machine.
- size of carpet was cut from a 9' x 12' to 6' x 9' so we could shorten
the length of time testing.
- the color improved and brightened and pooled areas removed.
Problem: the bent fibers were still bent on the interior of the yarn
with the exterior fibers relaxed and positioned in various directions.
- pile surface was polyester.
Conclusion: can remove pooling, but cannot change bent fibers as once
plastic is trained and bent; it stays that way. the interphase line was
removed but somehow still slightly visible.
We have been trying to invent a "maintenance-type Vacuum" since 1990
that would use negative static charges to clean and remove the excess
positive charges.
There is a lot more to the story and it is true.

Wool, Polypropylene, polyester: all inherently anti-static.
Nylon: must be treated to be anti-static.
Products inherently anti-static pool faster than nylon.
Wool has always pooled. Rugs and carpet pool. Wool was sold as a "pooling"
product and explained away as a beautiful characteristic of the product.
NYLON:::: in the 50's and 60's nylon did not pool and a selling point was
the fact that it did not pool or watermark. It began to pool after being
treated for anti-static qualities. You old timers may remember that nylon
carpet would knock you down with static shocks on dry and windy days, but
did not pool. WHY?
Theory: those products that are anti-static keep and hold the positive
static charges. Products that shock us release the positive static
charges. Pooling is the result of fibers maintaining the excessive
positive charges rather than releasing them. By removing the excess
positive charges we can remove the pooling appearance.
Problem we have found: When testing, the air was full of electricity, our
hair stood on end and we could feel the static on our legs. The yarns and
fibers visibly moved.
We have not been able to put these charges into a safe place nor do we
truly understand what they are. We can remove a small amount of these
excess charges but not enough at one time to be effective. There is so
much static that they must be removed and stored/placed somewhere and that
is what we were unable to determine.
Maybe one of those who reads this can find a way to remove the positive
charges in a safe and effective manner.

 

[Stevea]

Here is one from the Orlando Convention Center, had just installed 300,000 sf of this and this pile reversal occurred almost immediately. The second photo was where the attempt was made to correct this. While it did a fairly decent job and the management was pleased with the results, we waited 90 days to see if it would hold, it did not. It reverted back to pile reversal. I was called in for the Knoxville Convention Center and it had the same condition. In Disney properties I have had it come up several times with very large runs of carpet, one in a time share that had put down 44,000 yards of carpet and it was pile reversal all over the place.

pile reversal, note the seam in the middle

area that was corrected

sadly the quality of these photos are not very good but hopefully one will get the idea.

SA

 

[Joel D]

so its actually called pooling and has something to do with a static charge and may be helped by keeping the air filters and the carpet clean maybe

i was going to say something about applying some sort of static guard but sounds like that could create a problem rather than correct it

fascinating stuff

 

[Stevea]

Joel,

There is so much more to it than simply stating static caused it. There has been a lot of studies on this subject and no one has been able to prove what has caused it or what causes it. This is not considered a manufacturing related situation, it has no exact rhyme or reason to it.

SA

 

[Ron Werner]

what, no grooming Jim lol

Good photo of pooling. That is very common.
I've been telling clients its due to static/electrical charge built up in the fibres.
I guess that's as close an explanation as anyone has provided, even if it hasn't been proven yet.

 

[dealtimeman]

I Have never had this happen to me. What do you tell the customer? can it be groomed at least so it doesnt look wso bad?

 

[Stevea]

I simply tell them it is an optical illusion. I explain it is just like seeing water on the road as we travel, yet we never get to the water, it is an optical illusion.

Yes, they do see it but it is all a difference in light reflection/refraction. It is also considered a characteristic of a cut pile carpet. Some of it is highlighted and or can be caused or exacerbated by foot traffic and we just explain that.

We can also show them how to check for the lay of the nap and once it is shown, we can show them very distinctly the 'line' that is formed where the reversal of nap is drawn. A magnifying glass will clearly show this but you can see it by looking closely and the tufts will lay at different angles.

Grooming will not change the lay of the nap. It also depends on the fiber we are working with. Sometimes, vapor steam and grooming at the same time will allow some improvement but as shown in the photos earlier, it will often revert back to the way it was.

It is also interesting how the carpet can be changed and the newer carpet, even with a different fiber, can develop the same pattern almost immediately, even when traffic is not on it.

We have to remember this is viewed as a characteristic of cut pile carpet (yes it will occur on loop pile but it is usually not as visible). That puts it in the same category as olefin having furniture indentations that will stay there due to the characteristic of olefin.

If one has been on or cleaned carpet, they have had pile reversal of some sort, it just shows up differently in different circumstances. Walk into any large facility or ballroom or area where they have large areas of cut pile carpet, from oriental rugs to large woven or tufted areas and you will see pile reversal.

If we check the carpet we clean in areas where the carpet looks a little funny in areas, often we will find pile reversal. Of course, small areas and pivot areas like this are often caused by traffic, which is completely different from the general term of pile reversal or pooling in the sense that one can be caused by traffic and the other is a natural phenomenon.

Interesting subject we have here.

SA