[Mike Halliday]

Did a job today for a landlord who was refusing to give a deposit back to a tenant, he said the carpets were badly soiled and abused.

I noticed some strange aspect of the soiling, it did'nt follow the normal pattern you would see. It stopped completely as you went through a door it was like night & day difference.



It even stopped directly where the door closed you can see the exact line of the door when it was closed.


I remembered a similar incident on a carpet I cleaned last year which had an area that was very badly soiled, but I found on that job it was sun damage, I always take photos of any problem I see on all carpets I clean.  luckily I had photographed this carpet. Which I had on my IPad so icould show the landlord another house WITH EXACTLY THE SAME CARPET WITH EXACTLY THE SAME SOILING (see below)



This carpet looked as though it was filthy but cleaning made no difference...... It was damage from the sun, wherever the sun did'nt touch was perfect the rest was effected

[Jonathan Evans]

When I first started out many years ago............... ok 8 but anyway. I was asked by a very nice little old lady to clean her carpet.
The house was really clean and tidy so was amazed to find clearly defined outlines of the furniture with much lighter carpet underneath.
Wow I thought the carpet must be filthy and this will make great before and after pictures.
Sadly it didn't and I have never seen it again until now.
Thanks for posting this, from memory it was exactly that carpet although different colour.
Wish I had taken photos, eventually after talking and asking lots of experienced cc'ers came to the conclusion it was uv damage.
Really spectacular to see, begger to try and clean.......

[wayne zabel]

I did a job a few years ago on a low profile type carpet that appeared to have really bad soiling near a doorway out into the garden - a mat had been taken up and this area was like new underneath so all the surrounding area looked filthy.

I set up,presprayed  and made a wand pass expecting a WOW moment and there was no difference at all.Not a sausage.

I made enquiries on here and it is a common thing on that sort of carpet and is caused by sun damage.

A bit embarrassing as I told the customer we would get great results.

[Jonathan Evans]

Wayne you are not alone so did I........ wont make that mistake twice 

[Darran Pryce]

I too had this experience last summer for the first time.  Looked at it,  and it looked like the carpet was filthy. Extracted, and not one bit of difference.   Householder was in, so I went back to the van and brought out a white terry towel.  Pushed the towel deep into the area of the darkened (UV damage) carpet, and showed the custy that the carpet was clean but had uv damage.  Even the same in areas of the hallway.  She was fine once I explained to her and showed her the towel trick.

[scott johns]

uv damage to carpets and upholstery is a way of life it is down to you to explain to the client
that the damage is already there , and there is nothing in your cleaning products that can perform
these miracles as well as traffic lanes and pile reversal it is what happens over a period of time.