To red pad or not to red pad...that is the question...literally! ;)

[skippythecarpetman]

Hi! I'm an "experienced amateur" at this carpet cleaning stuff, and a "porty hack" to boot (No choice in being same here...). I've been at my facility for 8 1/2 years now, and as such I pick up bits and pieces of knowledge from various sources, especially from this site here, although there a good amount of humor to be found here there's also a huge volume of collected knowledge on same as well...

My question is as follows: On commercial nylon carpet is it OK to use a "175 floor machine" and a red pad to work in pre spray with? I seem to remember several threads on here saying it was an appropriate procedure to use for same...I have a nasty traffic lane area with embedded grunge on same, on Friday I attacked it with boosted Saiger's Sauce 1, worked same in with the red pad/floor machine combo, then extracted the area with my porty (U.S. Products PEX 500) using JonDon's "Confidence" in the extraction water (following Mr. Saiger's advice to use an emulsifying agent in the machine water for grungy areas).

The results were nothing short of spectacular (sadly no pics here...they frown upon photos being taken of their facility for some reason), all the grunge was removed and the carpet looked 1000 times better than it did before...Sadly the night person, whom we refer to as the "Mad Russian", took one look at my work and proceeded to dump all over same, claiming I was ruining the carpet fibers (This from a person who uses a cloth rag to work out spots by rubbing them!)

If I'm wrong here about using a red pad then please inform me of a better way to do this...As I stated before, the results were nothing short of amazing here...Thanks for any info!

 

[Mikey P]

I'll assume it's a level loop, go for it.

If you're unexperienced with a 175 practice on concrete.

New pads need some lube to prevent friction damage for the first few minutes

 

[Lee Stockwell]

If available, use a white or grey buffing pad. Same results, less visual drama.

 

[Nate The Great]

Properly presprayed (Aka lubed) carpet you shouldn't have a problem on, if not you'll fook it up...

 

[Jim Morrison]

Sounds like you did a great job. The 175 is a big help on commercial glue down.

 

[Old Coastie]

The red pad is as aggressive as you’ll ever need. It is the roughest of the “polishing” pads and non-abrasive, so no, it is not damaging fiber. Particularly not fiber that is caked and soiled. If there is damage, it is from the soiling. Get them to put in walk-off mats and that will help.

 

[Kenny Hayes]

Your up against a know it all preconceived idea. Did he show you damage, or just imply that damage would occur? Proofs in the pudding, carry on.

 

[hogjowl]

Use the red pad
I didn’t need to know your life history!
Welcome

 

[Goomer]

Hi! I'm an "experienced amateur" at this carpet cleaning stuff, and a "porty hack" to boot (No choice in being same here...). I've been at my facility for 8 1/2 years now, and as such I pick up bits and pieces of knowledge from various sources, especially from this site here, although there a good amount of humor to be found here there's also a huge volume of collected knowledge on same as well...

My question is as follows: On commercial nylon carpet is it OK to use a "175 floor machine" and a red pad to work in pre spray with? I seem to remember several threads on here saying it was an appropriate procedure to use for same...I have a nasty traffic lane area with embedded grunge on same, on Friday I attacked it with boosted Saiger's Sauce 1, worked same in with the red pad/floor machine combo, then extracted the area with my porty (U.S. Products PEX 500) using JonDon's "Confidence" in the extraction water (following Mr. Saiger's advice to use an emulsifying agent in the machine water for grungy areas).

The results were nothing short of spectacular (sadly no pics here...they frown upon photos being taken of their facility for some reason), all the grunge was removed and the carpet looked 1000 times better than it did before...Sadly the night person, whom we refer to as the "Mad Russian", took one look at my work and proceeded to dump all over same, claiming I was ruining the carpet fibers (This from a person who uses a cloth rag to work out spots by rubbing them!)

If I'm wrong here about using a red pad then please inform me of a better way to do this...As I stated before, the results were nothing short of amazing here...Thanks for any info!

The misperception that fiber damage may occur is due to the ignorance of the fact that properly applied prespray acts as a necessary lubricant.

A 175 is your best friend.

Start playing with some absorbent pads and encap juice for some real fun.

 

[jcooper]

Also, keep in mind your product combo is leaving behind a bunch of soil attracting detergent. Each time try to use less emulsifier in the rinse.

The pads shouldn't hurt anything, if newer carpet maybe use a white pad.

 

[Nomad74]

Use the red pad
I didn’t need to know your life history!
Welcome

Once again, Marty makes it worth reading a DAS thread.

 

[icleancarpetz]

The Putin mad man is jealous. Watch he don’t stteal your work and bump you off or both.

If the results were as you shared, you did well.

 

[Andy]

The misperception that fiber damage may occur is due to the ignorance of the fact that properly applied prespray acts as a necessary lubricant.

I did not misperceive the carpet looking frizzy on that particular job, them post bonneting is the only explanation I could see causing it. But their is a high probability considering his help at the time that the carpet or bonnet was too dry. Like I said in twenty years I have never used a pad for agitating in the prespray and I have cleaned some nasties. So what is the supposed advantage of the padded 175, less water?, less rinsing? less time? What am I having to do extra to supposedly compensate for not using a pad?

 

[steve_64]

Less scrubbing with the wand.

Slow flushing passes are easier than the fast scrubbing passes vawter likes to do.

 

[Nomad74]

Just use code red.

 

[hogjowl]

And a RV with Brush Head

 

[encapman]

Some red pads can transfer color. Be careful. There are safer alternatives. I’d recommend using a pad that has the specs for “carpet” care. Can you get away using red? Yeah, probably. But why not just use an equivalently abrasive pad that’s suited for carpet. For example, the FiberPlus Max pads have similar aggression, but they’re suited for commercial loop carpet.

 

[skippythecarpetman]

The misperception that fiber damage may occur is due to the ignorance of the fact that properly applied prespray acts as a necessary lubricant.

A 175 is your best friend.

Start playing with some absorbent pads and encap juice for some real fun.

We've been taking about doing encap on our hallways, but it never gets past the talking stage...

 

[skippythecarpetman]

Just use code red.

I actually wanted to start using the "Code Red" version of Saiger's Sauce 1, what happened is that I ran out of the regular version just before the introduction of the Code Red, So I ended up getting the "Clear Flame" booster pack to tide me over, and to especially address some nasty problems areas such as the one I just did...

 

[skippythecarpetman]

Your up against a know it all preconceived idea. Did he show you damage, or just imply that damage would occur? Proofs in the pudding, carry on.

He didn't show me any alleged damage, he just carried on about supposed damage to the carpet...This is from a person who doesn't understand the benefits of pre-spraying the carpet before extracting same. Oh, adding insult to injury my direct boss told me she checked with some "sources", and they told her that I should be using a bonnet pad to work in the pre-spray.

 

[hogjowl]

I’ve been hearing that red pads can bleed since the ICS days in the 90’s. (Rick was probably trying to sell pads way back then too), but I’ve never seen it happen.

 

[encapman]

I’ve seen it. Cheap red pads bleed.

 

[steve_64]

I've been with someone else when the red bled. I couldn't see it because of my color vision.

Isn't there a brush driver for the 175 for prescrubbing? If I was to go back to a 175 that's what I'd get.

 

[Cleanworks]

I'll be using a red pad on Wed. Nasty cgd with oily footprints all over. Using volatile solvent as a spotter, code Red prespray boosted with Prochem citrus pro, scrubbed with 175 and red pad, flushed with Procyon plus powder through the TM. I'll see if I can some pics this time.

 

[Old Coastie]

I've been with someone else when the red bled. I couldn't see it because of my color vision.

Isn't there a brush driver for the 175 for prescrubbing? If I was to go back to a 175 that's what I'd get.

Steve, I sometimes use one like this one. The metal disk keeps the bristles from squashing too badly.

http://www.jondon.com/adjust-a-glide-brush-various-sizes.html

 

[Old Coastie]

He didn't show me any alleged damage, he just carried on about supposed damage to the carpet...This is from a person who doesn't understand the benefits of pre-spraying the carpet before extracting same. Oh, adding insult to injury my direct boss told me she checked with some "sources", and they told her that I should be using a bonnet pad to work in the pre-spray.

Kevin, a bonnet absorbs prespray. You need to shower feed through a scrub pad or a carpet brush, unless you are using an encap.

 

[Nomad74]

Clean my IHOP account using a red pad and 106lbs 175. Always does a good job. Stirs that syrup up good.

Tomorrow I got my Italian restaurant to clean. May bust out the red pad for that also.

 

[Willy P]

YES! Red pads can bleed. I know this from personal experience.

 

[BIG WOOD]

Screw all you guys. You talked me into buying a crb for scrubbing my carpet instead of my 175

So I’m sticking to using my crb and my 175 for hardwood only!

 

[hogjowl]

I NEVER told you to do that