[craigp]

a customer wants me to clean a persian rug, i have cleaned these before HWE.

the way i have done it is to not use prespray, just simply spray with my wand leave few mins, HWE, then a dry pass, ultimate master in solution.

but this rug is stinking of urine, badly, so will need a thorough clean, how can i do that without problems like bleeding?  i feel probaly the backing will need cleaning, is that safe? what chems would be best?

customer said he's happy to risk it not sure i am, should i get him to sign somthing?

how much should i charge? 6x5ft

help appreciated, craig.

[vangaurd]

salt will stop dye running but test first i use lift of extrcta s wool safe seems to b ok

[Liahona]

Craig, I'll clean it for you if its any help. You are only round the corner arent you. As its so small you

should charge £125 as a minimum.  I dont want anything for it but am happy to clean it for you.... The

way you are suggesting to clean it wont work if it smells at all let alone as bad as it sounds it is.......and

yes the back will need cleaning as much as the face yarns as much as all bits inbetween which hwe

wont clean. Best, Dave.

[craigp]

might be an idea Dave, thanks, its in clifton i guess you mean a take away job, im in yate, shire way, the next day (thursday) so could drop it up, i would'nt expect you do it for free though. regarding its size to be honest i cant remember now, he did say but i got a memory like a seive it may be bigger.

[mark_roberts]

Sounds more like a restoration clean than a 'normal' clean.

If it is persian then they are very high quality, tightly woven, usually colour fast and clean well.  But to get rid of the urine smell I would place it flat in a bed of water and some sort of urine odour killer for 24hours after pretesting.  Then clean as normal.

I once used  a Prochem product for this very problem but cant remember the name of it.  Need to qualify beforehand and Id charge £50 for the odour treatment and if its successful then £60 for the clean.

Mark

PS. vacuum the rug thoroughly first before any cleaning.

PPS. the yellow urine stains will not come off but if they do tell me how you did it.

[craigp]

submersed , thanks for the help Mark, i think i'll let Dave do it, sounds bit specalist for me, may be he can show me what he'll do so ill learn for the future.

[HolmansUKLTD]

My nan used to put hers in the bath and walk up and down on it

[Liahona]

Mark, the only way to clean a rug properly is as you would say a restoration clean. But why you would

only charge 60 quid for the clean baffles me. Oh and nothing wrong with putting it in a bath and

walking up and down on it. Best, Dave.

[John Kelly]

Submersion clean is the way to do it but I would be wary of leaving it in water for 24 hours. Treat it with urine neutraliser and then just put a hose pipe on it for 20 minutes, after doing dye stability tests obviously. Once soaked "roll" the water out preferably with a roller or gently using the back of a carpet broom. Repeat this a few times. The high volume of water will flush any contaminants from the fibres. Finish by using a suitable product and rinse. The secret of these cleans is making sure you get the drying right otherwise you can hit problems with mildew etc. Extract and extract as much as possible then hang it over a suitable pole which won't cause creasing. You should really have some dehumidification as well as airmovement to dry it.

[Liahona]

Craig, its all clean now mate. Must admit though it was one of the more difficult ones to do and it stunk. I cleaned it close to 15 times till i was happy it was just water coming out of it when i was rolling it. The fringes at present look fully restored but I am sure they will need a little tweaking before you take it back to the customer. With the hind site of now having seen it and what I had to do to clean it I would have charged 250 quid. You might well have lost the job at that price I understand but thats what it was worth to do. By the way it is a cheepish Turkish rug and not worth much. Best, Dave.

[craigp]

yes i can see now for that extensive a clean picking up dropping off drying etc, it is worth more than the 95 il be charging. it did stink too!

thanks for your help with it.

[mark_roberts]

You cleaned it 15 times??

What method are you using as it dosent seem to effective.

£60 is £2 a sqft which is what I charge for cleaning this type of rug although if it was as bad as you say then it would have been more.

Mark

[Liahona]

I clean all area rugs by full immersion. 15 times isnt unusual you just keep cleaning and rinsing till it is a clear water rinse. It was exceptionally bad. Oh and it is the only way to clean a rug properly. £2 a square foot doesnt pay for the fuel to pick the rug up and drop it back again. And at £2 a square foot you are really only charging £1 a square foot as you have to clean both sides. And with fringes too for 2 quid a foot I would rather stay at home. The rug is fully restored in terms of cleaning and am confident that there isnt a better way to clean them. For almost 10 years I was cleaning (well not just me) just about 90 rugs a day 6 days a week. I must be doing something right. Best, Dave. P.S.  Mark you should consider raising your price a liitle but I suppose it depends on how you clean them. Perhaps you could explain how you clean on here, cheers, Dave.

[mark_roberts]

I hear what your saying but £250 for a rug this size would be worth a high percentage of the rug.  I would expect to spend about 40m to an hour for the average 5x6 handwoven rug.  I deliver rugs when Im in that area so drive time/cost is little.

I have a grate where I dust/vacuum them several times both sides.  Then I will mainly use the HWE process to clean as personally I dont think most rugs I clean need a full emersion clean although some do.  Then dry.

Why did you get out of rug cleaning and how did you build it up to 90 a day?

Mark

[Liahona]

 Mark I moved from the states mainly although I still have a part in the buisness...... Where I cleaned, Southern California, there are thousands of rugs to be cleaned, far more than here in England.......so 90 a day wasnt too difficult. I cleaned for dry cleaners who obviously cant clean area rugs and all sorts of designers and most of my work came from dealers who bought, had cleaned and then sold again. One dealer alone would bring in 30 or 40 a day. Things are a wee bit different in the states. Best, Dave.

[Ian Gourlay]

Dave ,

Did you use the pit method  What other equipment did you have to process  90 a day

[Liahona]

Ian, I will answer but I am off for a while so give me a day or so. Best, Dave.

[Ian Gourlay]

Dave,

Dont fall off a cliff.

 

[Liahona]

Ian, I dont use the pit method as the Auserehlian System although I do do some times. Just here in England I dont have any facilities to do it that way. If I have a realy big or very dirty rug I will make my own pit...... In the states I had quite a few different machines to do different things. I had a dusting machine that would dust rugs any length but limited to 14 feet wide. I also had large compressors to air dust rugs as I would hardly ever vac a rug. I had a washing machine to clean flokati rugs although I would also clean them on the floor. I had a hundred year old press machine but cant remember what it is actually called. This machine was like a giant mangle to press all the moisture out of the rug, well as much as poss. This again could clean any length but limited to 18 feet in width. I had hwe portables to sometimes clean the fringes as total immersion can yellow them sometimes, not all but sometimes. After they were cleaned they would either go on the floor for a while or straight to the drying room. The floor was outside in the good old California sun and about the size of a volley ball court, just a little bit bigger. The drying room could hang over a hundred rugs 30 or so feet in the air. Propane heated air was circulated around the rugs at temperatures above 150 degrees in your measurements. Bloody hot. Once the heaters were fired up you couldnt be in the room for much more than a few minutes. I was asked earlier about where I got that amount of rugs to clean. I forgot to say that I cleaned for many and I mean many carpet cleaners. Most carpet cleaners have no idea how to clean a rug and would just use hwe or a dry system and call it clean. They would drop the rugs to me, I would clean then properly and then they would pick them up again. Brilliant for them and their customers and it kept me in busines too. I only charged c/c 50 cents a sq ft which is about 28 to 30 p. so they still made good money as they would then charge their customer maybe 3 dollars a foot or so. You know what I charge in my normal way of thinking but this was a job that I did very competitively as I had so many rugs to do. If that makes sense. Hope this answers any questions but feel free to ask any more....... Craig, how was your customer with the rug you returned? Oh and how was the lipstick? Best,  Dave.

[Steven Edwards]

Dave,

Why you would want to leave California for England I don't know?