What's up with the stains reappearing

[daniel@procarpet]

It never happens except on this one job I do.

If you saw pictures you would say it was from wicking, but is not the case.

Yes people are spilling coffee and other drinks.

We clean the carpet, dry it good, and the stains still come back.

So we hit the carpet with encap and buff it out, but the stains still come back.

My supplier said it was browning or a PH imbalance which makes the most sense.

He said mist a browning remover on the stains or better yet in problem areas mist some over the carpet while it is drying.

All I know is what I am doing is not working because it is frustrating when you bust your ass and go back a week later and big dark stains are all over the carpet. I got them out, but I should not have to make repeated trips.

 

[Goomer]

Sorry, but still sounds like wicking....

How heavy ya putting down the encap juice??

Did you try a LIGHT MIST of juice and a DAMP cotton pad and blow it dry quick??

I was under the impression only natural fibers will brown.

 

[Lars]

anything carpet will brown out if it stays wet long enough...

sounds like a multi layer issue.. there is probably coffee that went down into the pad and then foot traffic walking over these spots allow it to surface again and attract dirt. Probably something still sticky in the carpet grabing dirt, leaving dark stains on the carpet.

 

[GeneMiller]

actually carpets only brown out if they have lignum in them. most carpets are all synthetic and don't have it. back in the day when carpets had jute backing you could brown out a carpet. over wetting a carpet causes it to turn brown because dirt is wicking to the surface. what you are describing is wicking. Is the carpet a poly ?

i have a carpet because of the extreme dirt load would have to be wernered for half the day to get it all out. Frankly i don't have Ron's patience. we vac ,pretreat, scrub then rotary extract the traffic pattern then immediatelty throw fans as we finish an area. we end up with 3 fans inside. each traffic pattern is cleaned twice. when we are done 2 hrs later the traffic pattern is dry and has 2-3 brown areas which have to be touched up. the carpet is off white nylon berber and the dirt coming in is pure black. they never vacuum.

I used to hate the job but have learned that it really shows your skills or lack of.

gene

 

[Doug Cox]

Try hitting it with an alkaline side pre spray, buff it off and see if that doesn't help it. Occasionally i have stains wick on acid side but not on alkaline.

 

[Jeremy]

If you're pulling hoses:
For problem coffee spots that are re-apprearing first extract it out with an upholstery tool (more flow in less area) and give a fe extra dry passes. Mist on some 30 vol peroxide & groom it in, lightly re-mist. Give about 20 minutes dwell time and mist on a "spotter mix" of your favorite encap... Brush that in and re-mist the spot, place fans as needed to force dry.

If you're not pulling hoses:
Mist on a spotter mix of encap and bonnet off, mist on some 30 vol and groom it in. Give it about 20 minutes dwell time and mist on the spotter again, groom it in and lightly re-mist. Place a fan for about 10 minutes & it should be dry.

That should take care of it...

NOTE: A good quality oxygen releasing encapsulation product such as Vacaway BLAST or Peroxcellent or Releasit Encap Hydrox are desirable in this situation. That said, with the use of 30 vol peroxid it is likely you will still get good results with any good crystalizing encapsulation product.

 

[Heathrow]

I think we all have at least one acct that requires a second visit to tidy up one or two imperfections. I agree with Goomer, a quick remedy (even if the original job was hot water extraction) is to spray an encap lightly over the area and buff with a cotton pad - just cleaning the very top of the fibre. Works for me - if you're going back more than once then that sounds unusual to me.

 

[juniorc82]

I feel your pain. I have a super church we clean and in the bible study wing there are coffee and tea stains everywhere. Some spots responded to a tannin or acidic browning treatment , some responded to 40 vol , some to releasit, some didnt respond to anything.

 

[steve frasier]

not every stain is removeable

I have a church carpet that has bonnet burn marks in the carpet. I tell them if another cleaner can get clean the stain out of the crap olefin, I would gladly refund all the money I have ever charged them. I'm still cleaning their carpets. Biggest problem is the sales guy told them the carpet was bullet proof. I say yes it is bullet proof, just isn't stain proof.
Hard to say what someone might have done before you.

Got a cafe carpet that had some hot liquid spilled on it. Stain never comes out. Nylon carpet is only a couple years old and I'm the only one who has cleaned it.

Ever try to get out the red stain from red velvet cake, good luck with that one

 

[daniel@procarpet]

You guys have seen this carpet. It's the carpet from the video I posted a few weeks back. After we steam cleaned the problem areas, we did apply Releasit and buff with cotton pads. Maybe I didn't put enough down. All I know is I rinsed the hell out of the carpet and the pads were black within 30 seconds of buffing. That was kind of a shock. I am convinced they are browning stains so we misted some yellow rx on them and some encap and scrubbed that in with a red pad. I am going to source some new chems next time we clean this place such as encap punch (prespray and rinse).

 

[Doug Cox]

Maybe they are "Blacking" stains?




Ya don't think this sounds more like a wicking issue, Daniel? Why would you get black from padding if its a browning issue?

?????????

 

[Vivers]

Hey Daniel, you said they go away but come back right? Swing back by and stain 1 them and forget it. Try it.

 

[Willy P]

Host or poultice it. Your problem is officially solved.

 

[Lee Stockwell]

"Browning" (cellousic browning) is unlikely. That has to do with organic backing material reaction to pH.

It was wicking. The spots "came back" because they were never completely removed.

 

[ACE]

hit the spots with some cid.

 

[daniel@procarpet]

Like I said next go round I will be using different chems to hopefully get better results and speed production.

 

[Hoody]

I agree it does sound like wicking. And since no one else has mentioned, try flooding the spots and using a spot or water claw to remove them.

 

[Walt]

I've got a manufacturing facility that I do a couple of times a year for 7 years. Tons of fork lift dust, and oil from the shop, coffee spills, cleaner spills - it is the dirtiest place I have ever cleaned hands down.

The only way I have ever had it come out perfect is - Prevac like mad (the dust is like a heavy silt), Use an awesome pre spray (Like S&G) and rinse like crazy with RX-20. [b]After[/b] it dries, follow up with Releasit (boosted with peroxide) or Peroxcellent from vacaway. BTW - If you don't let the carpet dry before you encap, the chemical cannot fully penetrate the fiber and prevent wicking.

And charge accordingly.

 

[daniel@procarpet]

I've got a manufacturing facility that I do a couple of times a year for 7 years. Tons of fork lift dust, and oil from the shop, coffee spills, cleaner spills - it is the dirtiest place I have ever cleaned hands down.

The only way I have ever had it come out perfect is - Prevac like mad (the dust is like a heavy silt), Use an awesome pre spray (Like S&G) and rinse like crazy with RX-20. [b]After[/b] it dries, follow up with Releasit (boosted with peroxide) or Peroxcellent from vacaway. BTW - If you don't let the carpet dry before you encap, the chemical cannot fully penetrate the fiber and prevent wicking.

And charge accordingly.

Ah ha. Yes I have been rinsing like crazy, drying good, and setting fans, but the carpet is damp when I apply the releasit.

A return trip does eliminate the stains and they are wicking on cgd. Just dark stains.

I am going to try some Encap Punch next go round.

 

[Jamesh921]

After it dries, follow up with Releasit (boosted with peroxide) or Peroxcellent from vacaway.

This makes alot of sense. If the carpet is already damp from HWE, that moisture would further dilute your encap mix.

Speed drying and then treating the problem areas with encap sounds like a winner to me.

I have 2800 sf of hallways on Thursday in the local college gymnasium building that I'm going to use this process on. It's trashed with soda spills, garbage bag "mystery juices" and moisture invasion at entry doors.

This should be a good test of whether this process will actually work in a real-world environment.

 

[Mardie]

When i have a commercial job with a lot of spills that have soaked deep onto the carpet ,i will go through the job and soak each spot with something like Pro Chems power burst and then water claw it until the water comes clear. I will then let it go bone dry with no fans for at least 2-3 days or when i am ready to do the job. I then come back and clean the carpet as usual. It should be noted that wicking can easily take up to a month to show it's self if the under matting has been heavily contaminated and not properly extracted. I have found this procedure to produce 100% long term results.