wickbacks

[prestige cleaner]

what are some steps that you guys do in order to prevent a wickback. doing all necessary steps, pre-vac spending extra time on traffic and heavily soiled areas, does how much ps you put down result in a wickback, even if you rinse and flush thoroughly? giving extra slow dry strokes. reason i ask is how do you really know for sure your cleaning won't result in wickbacks. if so, what procedure will guarantee no wickback and no resoiling if there is a magic formula..

 

[Doug Cox]

The more water you pump into a stain and the wetter you leave the area will determine whether you get a wicback. Polyester and olefin will give you the most grief.

 

[GeneMiller]

i can't remember the last time i got a call for a stain wicking back. we flush all carpets including poly with plenty of h2o at 18 flow. we use scalding hot water and fiber plus from bridgepoint. a good technique when keying the wand on poly is important as are dry strokes.

gene

 

[Brian R]

Post pad using an encap solution like Peroxcellent from www.vacaway.com

The encap juice will encapsulate any remaining soil and help prevent any wickbacks.

Not to mention by using a pad (bonnet etc) as your last step, you are also drying the fibers and getting that last little bit of soil that the vacuum from your wand will leave behind.

 

[handdi]

rinse rinse rinse

 

[joeynbgky]

I saw one of my customers today.. he said......... and i quote.. lol

A big stain we had before you cleaned my carpets came back 7 months after you left!

Now what do you do in the situation? weird huh. I believe him though

 

[encapman]

One word:
ENCAP

OK, I'll throw in a second word too:
RELEASIT


P.S. And you might like to take a look at the Technical Tips article that I wrote for the upcoming June CleanFax magazine entitled "Avoid the Morning After Call". It's geared toward commercial carpet cleaning, so it talks about wicking.



.

 

[Brian R]

Great ad Rick


Click the pic to see it on his site

 

[J Scott W]

Encap will certainly help.

If you vacuum, and flush with HWE, you can get extra but of insurance with a post cleaning spray of Encapuguard Green. Just spray and brush in the potential problems areas, main entry, traffic lanes, elevator lobby, other high traffic lanes.

 

[Brian R]

Dare I say just padcap it to begin with and you won't have these problems. :shock:



Be gentle.

 

[joeynbgky]

Encap is not the perfect solution.............. HWE is the only method that actually get the dirt out. I think someone should write there congressman and make a full encap in a residential setting illegal!!! yes i said it.. Used with hwe yes, but not as a stand alone. give me a break

 

[Mike Draper]

offer them a nicer cleaning package that inculdes vacuum, crb, steam clean and speed dry. Make more money, clean the carpet better and never have wickbacks.

 

[encapman]

Encap is not the perfect solution.............. HWE is the only method that actually get the dirt out. I think someone should write there congressman and make a full encap in a residential setting illegal!!! yes i said it.. Used with hwe yes, but not as a stand alone. give me a break

I agree - encap is appropriate in a commercial setting. As I mentioned above, the article about wicking for the June CleanFax magazine is related to commercial carpet (not residential). In fact I don't recommend encap as a stand alone method for residential (never have).

Why would a person have wicking with residential carpet anyway? Commercial carpet yes. It's a frequent occurrence. But residential carpet is fluffier and it's normally installed over a pad. So plenty of airflow is available so that good water recovery can be achieved - making wicking less of a problem.

 

[prestige cleaner]

Encap is not the perfect solution.............. HWE is the only method that actually get the dirt out. I think someone should write there congressman and make a full encap in a residential setting illegal!!! yes i said it.. Used with hwe yes, but not as a stand alone. give me a break

I agree - encap is appropriate in a commercial setting. As I mentioned above, the article about wicking for the June CleanFax magazine is related to commercial carpet (not residential). In fact I don't recommend encap as a stand alone method for residential (never have).

Why would a person have wicking with residential carpet anyway? Commercial carpet yes. It's a frequent occurrence. But residential carpet is fluffier and it's normally installed over a pad. So plenty of airflow is available so that good water recovery can be achieved - making wicking less of a problem.

sorry, that some of us are not gurus like yourself encapman, and never had a issue like wicking like you...

 

[joeynbgky]

I agree encapman

Sent from my g2 using tapatalk. Whofat

 

[Studebaker]

Good dry pass and throw an airpath on it

 

[Mike Draper]

Yep, I have 4 airpaths a@d will be buying 2 more next month. We clean some really big houses and it will be great to tell the owner their carpet is bone dry everywhere when we finish.

 

[sweendogg]

Good grief people.. we have the technology to do better.. its called sub surface extraction. First pre qualify with customers... if they have spots that re appear, mark them out.. or figure out how big of a spill happended if possible. then soak the area and water claw/flash extrac/ dry pro sub surface tool it to actuelly remove the contamination.

I understand that there will be spots that are difficult to qualify ahead of time for the extent of the contamination. But combine the good wand flushing, good vacuuming, and quick drying with the encap and actuelly removing the source using sub surface flood and extraction methods and be sure to pre qualify with the customer that if there are large spills/ old spills that can't be prequalified as heavy contamination, they may return if un properly treated and tell them ahead of time so if you have to return to correct a wick back they understand its their spot.. not yours. and then charge for it.

 

[encapman]

sorry, that some of us are not gurus like yourself encapman, and never had a issue like wicking like you...

Hey Josh,

I'm sorry. I didn't mean to offend anyone. It is just less of a problem for wicking to occur on a residential carpet with good HWE cleaning.

HWE can crash and burn on CGD (commercial glue down) carpet, because there's essentially no air flow. The carpet is glued to the floor. The pile is densely packed together. You put the wand to the carpet and the flow of air through the vacuum slot is greatly restricted. And underneath the crowded tufts of fiber can be a considerable amount of soil. Spills soak all the way to the floor. And a lot of CGD carpet is olefin which wicks like a pig. Therefore wicking can easily occur on a commercial carpet.

On the other hand, residential carpet generally is fluffier and is normally installed over a pad. Hence airflow is much better in a residential setting. Plus with residential carpet there isn't quite as much olefin, although it has been increasing in recent years. So it is a lot easier to control wicking in a residential environment.

One particular residential carpet that can present more of a challenge are olefin Berber carpets. Their construction more closely resembles commercial loop carpet. And any of these common olefin Berbers can wick very easily. They are popular since they're cheap. In fact that's one of the reasons why olefin has gained traction - it's a lot cheaper to extrude than nylon which is a superior fiber to olefin. With an olefin Berber the need to speed dry the carpet and take measures to control wicking is intensified.

As mentioned above, some air-movers will do the trick for a residential carpet. Making some extra "dry passes" will help too. Some post-bonneting can also help. And using an encap detergent will go a long way toward controlling wicking as well. For example Releasit Encap-Punch is an encapsulating 3-in-1 detergent that can be used as (1) an Encap Pre-Spray, (2) an Encap HWE Rinse Detergent, and (3) an Encap Bonnet/Pad Detergent. http://www.excellent-supply.com/Rel...tion-Carpet-Cleaning-Products-Encap_p_69.html

On the other hand - you can use all the tricks in the book and you may still have problems with wicking when you're cleaning a CGD carpet with traditional HWE. There's such a vast difference in the way that residential and commercial carpet responds. Commercial and residential carpet are different animals... especially when it comes to wicking. That's why I made the comments above about there being less of a chance for wicking with a residential carpet. I apologize if my comment came off the wrong way to you.

 

[Ron Werner]

one of the biggest complaints from residential is that the spots came back the next day, or that it looked worse the next day. Too often, its the fine soil and dust that gets tracked into halls/stairs/traffic areas that wicks to the surface. You'd be amazed at the "stuff" thats in there.

A good vacuuming will remove it from the cleaning equation, usually.
Spills are another matter, those need to be flushed out.