Water claw caused dark stain

[daniel@procarpet]

I recently cleaned the carpet in my living room. I have a small dog that urinated on the carpet. I poured about 1 gallon of water on the carpet and used a water claw to extract the carpet. I reapeated this procedure 3 times and then left the water-claw on the carpet for about 1 minuted to thoroughly extract the carpet. I then proceded to clean the entire room with prochem truckmount. The carpet is tan nylon. After drying the area where I used the water-claw looks clean but noticably darker. I don't think it is browning. Maybe there was more urine in the carpet than I thought and wicking ocured. Anyways. I am scared to try this technique on one of my customer's carpets. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

 

[John Watson]

When was the last time the carpet was cleaned??

How old of carpet and type of backing??

Hit it wit a damp towel with a little detergent on it.

It does sound like a wicking problem.

 

[Nate The Great]

So you only used water and no deodorizer?

What prespray did you use?

John Watson got some pretty good questions to answer. My guess is that either wicked or it's stained from the urine.

 

[tim]

I would guess you need something more than water to clean. Try an enzyme like Molecular Modifier by CTI or heat an oxygenated one like OSR, pour it, let dwell according to the instructions, then claw. You then can flush with water if you choose or just dry and treat with stain magic if you still have discoloration. I am assuming, not looking at your profile, you are using a truckmount for recovery. Before I did any of that I would put a good cleaner on a white towel and see if I got color transfer like someone suggested. It may just be dirt pulled up from the pad. Dont be hesitant to use the claw in a home. I usually only keep it in one place about 10 seconds but when I flush, I run my solutions hose around the claw until it is completely clear, then I finish extracting and dry quickly. The method works, your own carpet is the best place to learn, just keep trying the suggestions you get here.

 

[tim]

re-read your post. Sorry, I missed some of the details you provided. Try what John says with a good cleaner and a white towel and see if you get transfer. If not, try misting on an acid like fabset to see if it is browning. If it doesnt respond to either of those I would defitely try OSR hot, 30 minutes dwell then extract. Depending on the size of the spot, only use 1/2 to 1 gallon. Water claw and dry. Since you used 3 gallons of water in a small area, it could be browning or just sediment from the pad.. If it still is there use releasit or another encapsulant to take care of the wickback. If none of these work, try the old standby of stain magic or USR. Usually the color is lighter, rust or yellow from urine when I resort to stain magic so try the above first. Let us know how it goes!

 

[sweendogg]

On certain urine issues, we will use water only first to flush out as much of the urine as possible before adding chemicals. Why poor a bunch of chemical down to flush out the majority of the urine and immediatly suck them back up when you could use water and then use the chemicals as needed? When clawing we will water flush with warm water, then our urine preconditioner, and finally add our enzyme to dwell while we clean other areas. If its really old we will do the urine preconditioner first to loosen the old urea salts then warm water or urine preconditioner and then our deoderizer. Followed up by treating any remaining stain. We have had great success with that method.

But for the dark spot.. try what everyone else is saying.. if you haven't cleaned the carpets in a long while or at all or didn't get all the urien or... could be wicking.

 

[NJSTEAMER1]

I would think you minght need to rince it more resadue from your cleaner will make darker.

 

[Larry Cobb]

Daniel;

Use a powder reducing agent (bisulfite type) mixed with very hot water.

Spray the area and allow to dry.

Larry

 

[Mark Imbesi]

I would start with what John Watson suggested, damp towel and little detergent cause it prolly wicking. Steve, why so quick with the peroxide?

 

[rotovacguy]

Hey guys, are those water claws really as good as they say? I've never owned a water claw, but I was under the impression that they should only be used on applications with a tile or cement sub-floor. My house and the majority of my customers have wooden sub-floors, and they say using a water claw with a wooden sub-floor is a no-no. If he used it with a wood sub-floor, would that maybe cause the dark stain?

 

[Walt]

Couple of ideas:

You pulled something up. I had one that I cleaned and suddenly a line appeared at the seam. The more I cleaned the more the line showed up. Some how a ton of soil was in the backing at the seam. Used some Vacaway cyclone to make it "look" perfect. However, it took several cleanings (regular visits) to get all of it out of the backing.

Or you wetted the carpet first with water - your prespray was unable to completely penetrate the fiber. Hence, you didn't actually clean the spot. Try some VacAway cyclone and a towel. If that doesn't do it - peroxide.

 

[J Scott W]

Hey guys, are those water claws really as good as they say? I've never owned a water claw, but I was under the impression that they should only be used on applications with a tile or cement sub-floor. My house and the majority of my customers have wooden sub-floors, and they say using a water claw with a wooden sub-floor is a no-no. If he used it with a wood sub-floor, would that maybe cause the dark stain?

The Water Claw extraction tools and the Water Claw Spot Lifter tool will all work fine on wood subfloors.

Great extraction tool for water damage work.

If you are asking about spot and stain removal, I would resist soaking a large area of a particle board or OSB floor and expecting the Spot Lifter to dry it without damage. But it will work fine on reasonable sized spots on those "was-wood" floors as well as performing on plywood floors.

Scott Warrington