[wayne zabel]

I did a job over the weekend were client wanted spots and stains cleaning on office carpets.

90% of of marks/spots cleaned up with no problem.There were about 10/15 spots/stains of a brown/yellow colour that improved only slightly and I was not happy with the results.I presumed that they were coffee.

I treated them again and got nothing better.Before I left I gave them a light mist of M Power to see if leaving that on would improve things.I have taken the keys back today and they are no better.I was thinking that it might be something other than coffee but the client insists its only coffee.

I was under the impression that coffee stains would simply extract out of PP tile without much problem.Is this usually so?

I used Power Burst to do the job,and tried coffee stain remover on a few of them too and got no better.I couldnt have trated them all with coffee stain remover as there were too many for what remover I had.

Is coffee a problem on these tiles and does anyone have any ideas on how to improve them.Some of the stains will have been in 6 months.

Thanks

Wayne

[wayne zabel]

Just bringing this back to the top hoping to get some response.

This was my first real commercial job and its knocked my confidence a bit as I was hoping to make a good impression on this job.

Any advice will be welcome.

[mark joyce]

did you take any pics?    did you agitate?  what about dwell time?    do they look like spills or are they at the edges of the tiles

[Len Gribble]

Wayne

I know it’s a bummer but don’t lose any confidence/sleep, I eco one of my posts (Power burst with a dash of Citra-Boost I was not very happy with the results but the customer was) but if yours ant happy I’ve got a disclaimer on my quote, perhaps magic from thebigclean (not on their web site) other than that sorry cant help 

[Simon@arenaclean]

Pre-qualify what you can and can't do. Explaining the nature of tanin and colour stains, that you will do your best to remove them, but due to thier nature they are difficult to remove. Sod met or sod met products may work but you must be careful. No PP is not a wonder carpet it's nature is to repel water which can make cleaning easier as stains are not absorbed like wool, but it can still be damaged.

[Jim_77]

Wayne it sounds like your powerburst pre-spray could have been augmented with an oxidiser, which may well have helped out.  It needs to be nice and hot to work best, and when you get to a stain just splatter it until the stain is drenched.  I always give it a little rub with my foot, to help speed things up before agitation.

That's one thing you didn't mention actually, did you agitate?  If so how?  Carpet tiles in my opinion always need agitation, it is the only way to really loosen up soiling and stains from them.

Got to be honest, since getting my TM I've never before had results as good on carpet tiles.  I think the extra heat, flushing and vacuum all working together helps just tip the balance in your favour with a TM.

I worked for 9.5 hours today on a school carpeted all through with tiles, I am totally burgered!

They needed the works - Pre-spray, agitate with rotary, extract with TM & RX-20 then post-spray with anti-bac and bonnet to finish... not forgetting air movers.  Still stains wicking up after a few hours, damn carpet tiles i hate them!!

[charles911]

would oxibright go with that then? also what sort of temperature we talkin? Same sort of thing happend to me other day with power burst. Everyone says how goos it is so i must be doing somthing wrong. I vacumed, pre-sprayed, agitated and left to dwell for 10 mins + the rinsed with clearwater. customer happy but i was not!

[Jamie Pearson]

I would try Chemspec Helpmate if there aren't hundreds of them.

[clinton]

Wayne sometimes you caint get remove all the stains from carpets so maybe just say you will do your best mate..Least your getting commercial work in..

[wayne zabel]

Thanks for the replies.

I used Power Burst that was really hot and left for 10 minutes before extracting with really hot water - the offices boiling water dispensers in the kitchen.I must admit that I used minimal aggitation,just a stamp/rub with a foot.

I'm thinking now of calling the client and coming to an arrangement regarding payment for the job as I cant see me getting them any better.As I said earlier I was under the impression that these would simply extract out with no problems but these just didnt want to come out.

[Len Gribble]

This is what I add to all quotes

Quote We cannot guarantee 100% removal of all stains; however we will utilize all recognized professional cleaning methods at our disposal, but will not proceed beyond a point that could cause irreparable damage to the carpet. Unquote

This my intellectual property lads so no copping please

[Steve Rothwell]

This my intellectual property lads so no copping please

so is copying it alright then Len ??     

[Len Gribble]

Hector

Plagiarism is not very professional bit like us using vanish/1001 :

[Steve Rothwell]

you mean that you don't use these woolsafe products   

 

[peter maybury]

would really have to agree with all that Jim has said but the importance of aggitation cannot be stressed enough by soaking the stains and aggitating with a heavy robust machine the majority of stains will be dispersed before extraction. The other thing to bear in mind with tile is that you do not get any airflow through the product so stains can wick back from the bottom of the pile. In most cases even after agitating and extracting I will put a bonnet across them. As well as helping with the drying it eliminates a lot of the stains wicking back. I must be honest there are not many stains that you are not going to remove from a polypropylene. A lot of the tiles that are sold in the contract sector are nylon however, as they are the only tiles that meet the tabor requirement for castor resistance, so do not make the mistake of thinking that all synthetic tiles are polyprop.
Peter
www.carpetcleanercardiff.comk

[Doctor Carpet (Ret'd)]

I'm sure Doug will correct me if I'm wrong but doesn't coffee partly get its colour from the caffeine? If so this is a natural dye.

So my question is...

because they take the caffeine out to make (obviously) de-caffeinated coffee, if the caffeine is a dye then presumably to make de-caffeinated coffee, coffee-coloured the manufacturers will have to put artificial dyes back in?

As we all know, artificial dyes are harder to remove than natural dyes (in most cases).

Would this explain why some of the stains came out but not others? The remaining stains being from de-caffeinated coffee whilst the ones removed were caffeinated coffee.

Rog

[wayne zabel]

Wayne it sounds like your powerburst pre-spray could have been augmented with an oxidiser, which may well have helped out.  It needs to be nice and hot to work best, and when you get to a stain just splatter it until the stain is drenched.  I always give it a little rub with my foot, to help speed things up before agitation.

That's one thing you didn't mention actually, did you agitate?  If so how?  Carpet tiles in my opinion always need agitation, it is the only way to really loosen up soiling and stains from them.

Got to be honest, since getting my TM I've never before had results as good on carpet tiles.  I think the extra heat, flushing and vacuum all working together helps just tip the balance in your favour with a TM.

I worked for 9.5 hours today on a school carpeted all through with tiles, I am totally burgered!

They needed the works - Pre-spray, agitate with rotary, extract with TM & RX-20 then post-spray with anti-bac and bonnet to finish... not forgetting air movers.  Still stains wicking up after a few hours, damn carpet tiles i hate them!!

Im glad you have brought this back up Roger.
I hope this doesn't sound daft but what would I augment the prespray with that is an oxidsier.I have decided to give these tiles another go next weekend,mainly for personal experience,I think its worth spending a few hours on them...There will be nobody in the building only me so I can have a play about and see if I can get some improvement without someone standing over me.

[Jamie Pearson]

Yup you are right Decaf contains synthetic dye to make up the colour.

[Jim_77]

Wayne, oxidisers, off the top of my head: soluboost from solution, chemspec energiser, prochem oxibrite... all pretty much the same thing.

Might be worth trying a very strong mix (1:3) of browning prescription on a couple of them as a test, before anything else.

Also if you've got some solution HD microsplitter that is very good.

Another route would be sodium metabisulphite, although if you haven't any experience with it I'd not experiment on a customer's carpets, but you know that already

[tony bish]

I did a load of carpet tiles in a school the other week ,mixed m power with heavy duty and soluboost really hot and they came up a treat after extracting ,the ones that were beyond cleaning and in obvious places I replaced with the tiles from other areas that were hidden.Mind you would depend on if they were stuck down and if yes with what.I must admit I am a carpet fitter also ,but really doesnt take the brains of an archbishop to swop tiles over,may look a bit new to begin with but better than having a stain right in a walkway .