[james roffey]

Collected a 10x7 wool rug today it has a red, blue and white pattern on it looks like an oriental style pattern, it was filthy i got more dry soiling out of it than i have ever got out of a rug, the customer got it off ebay for £17 although it looks to be worth a lot more than that.
Anyway i decided to use Prochem prespray gold and extract with an acid rinse, did a test first on an area where the red meets the white pattern and this was ok no bleed whatsoever, by the time i had finished i noticed some colour bleed on a different part of the carpet oddly it was the same repeated pattern that had bled opposite where i performed the bleed test, some areas are unaffected others it has bled, its not awful due to the complex pattern and the darkness of the rug and the fact that its not all over but i cant understand why it bled where it did but did not bleed where i had done the test, sods laws i suppose.
Can this be corrected if so how, i honestly dont think it is very bad but it did give me a scare.

[Jim_77]

There is a way but I'm not going to type it out in a reply on here, it needs teaching in person and practising a lot before anyone could start doing it on a customer's rug.

Could have been an alkaline spillage of something (pet accident?) or more likely a patch of cleaning product already applied to the rug that unstabilised the dye, hence the patch you tested was OK.

Hopefully it's not going to be noticeable but also hopefully you should have terms & conditions covering you for this.

You can stabilise colours pre-cleaning with acetic acid solution

[james roffey]

"Stabilise with acetic acid" excuse my ignorance but is that similar to what i would use as an acid rinse ?

Would it have to be sprayed on then left to dry before cleaning, it seems to me that the prespray must be responsible, i should have acid rinsed it quicker but hindsight is an exact science  

 Yes it does cover this in my terms and conditions "it does not accept responsibility for shrinkage or colour migration arising out or as a result of the cleaning process, unless these arise from a lack or reasonable care and or skill"

 could this be termed as lack of the above care or skill ?

[Jim_77]

Depends what your supplier puts in their acid rinse!

Did you use an alkaline pre-spray or neutral?

[Paul Moss]

It may bleed more still yet before it fully dries out. Have you speed dried it or left it to dry out naturally

[james roffey]

Prochem prespray gold was used it is ph 8 supposed safe on wool !

[Jim_77]

.. and dry it flat, not hanging

[Jim_77]

got nothing to do with wool, higher alkalinity increases chance of loosening unstable dyes.

The ironic thing is if you'd have had this on the floor with a power washer on it, you'd have spotted the bleed and could just keep on washing it out till it stopped.... so say the yanks who blast everything with a pressure washer!!!

[james roffey]

put the snail blower on it straight after