Rubber backed carpet tiles??

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Sep 21, 2014
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Oklahoma
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John
Commercial client just had rubber backed carpet tiles installed. What's the option for maintaining it... Would low moisture encap with cimex or brush pro be the best option or HWE?? I'm afraid they are going to try and maintain it with their old portables and flood it
Thanks
 

J Scott W

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Oct 16, 2006
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Shelbyville TN
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Jeffrey Scott Warrington
Rubber / vinyl /PVC backed carpet limits airflow severely. HWE will not work as well on this type of carpet as regular tufted carpet. Even vacuum cleaners don't perform as well with the limited air flow through the carpet.

Occasionally HWE can work, but I think you will see the best results with Brush Pro and Encapuclean.
 

Scott S.

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i did a restaurant that had 4000sqft of it and it cleaned up very well with hwe. i was using a glide and air movers to speed dry.
 

Brian H

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Detroit Michigan area
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We installed 2500 sq feet of it in part of our offices this past winter. We plan on only encapsulation just to see what happens.

We have done HWE on others over the years. We had one a few years ago that they claimed started to come unglued and curl after we cleaned. There were several attempts to get it to get it to lay back down again. We decided to just let it be when one of the employees mentioned to our guy that they had been having problems with it for a while, even before we cleaned.
 

Desk Jockey

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A planet far far away
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We plan on only encapsulation just to see what happens.
We have it here in our office and it can fuzz the edges some. OP was worse on it than the Cimex but even it can give you some fuzzy edges.

It will look better than HWE but we usually do both. HWE then several days or a week later encap to brighten it up.
 

J Scott W

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Several manufacturers are having issues with curling, not laying flat. Cleaning, especially with rotary tools, may make the condition worse, but the problem is not a cleaning issue but a manufacturing issue. I have copies of some Lew Migliore articles on this if anyone is getting accused of causing the problem.
 
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Nate W.
Are all carpet tiles rubber backed?

I believe so... Carpet tiles were made to be changed out when looking dull... They use a pressure sensitive glue to hold them down... That allows them to be pulled up and switched out.... The downside of carpet tiles is they're just too damn expensive to rotate... You could actually use a pressure washer to clean them, if you removed the tiles from the floor....
 
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Wing It

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Feb 4, 2012
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Nashville
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John Wingfield
We clean several restaurants with these carpet tiles. Some have issues getting the tiles to stay in place near the kitchen where they get soaked and the most foot traffic. As far as cleaning with hwe, we have only one issue. One of our accounts put the tiles over a flagstone floor that has dips and crevices. The carpet tiles are so thin that these low points become difficult to recover our solution since vacuum is lost going over the uneven surfaces. Also, I had an instructor tell me not to use solvents on carpet tiles as it can release a dye that they use.
 

The Great Oz

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seattle
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bryan
Are all carpet tiles rubber backed?
No. Carpet tiels can be cut out of any carpet, but typically they're vinyl backed. The quality of the vinyl varies widely, from the $1 per foot Home Depot stuff that will be crumbly in three years to the $50 a foot cushion back used in airports.

It has been our experience that there's a limited number of times you can encap before you have to get the dirt out; depends on the traffic, soil type and depth of the nap. The key to HWE of any unitary or glue-down carpet is to GO SLOWER with your wand strokes, get the dirt out/get the water out and the carpet will look great.
 
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ruff

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Ozy. You're back!

Evidently rumors of Old Grumpy Head chasing you away from this board, have been greatly exaggerated :winky:

Nice to have you back.

P.S. Chavez's been out of control.
 

ruff

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Well.
I went leopard hunting in Rhodesia and noticed you were not there.
And the seals in Canada seem safe, though a bit unruly.
And then Chavez has been having his out of control issues.............

So, there.
Do I need to explain any further?
 

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