[Ian Rochester]

No doubt this has been talked about before, but I just wanted to get an idea of which is the best method for getting rid of chewing gum from carpets.

My current method is:

HWE clean the carpet as normal
Using steam gun, get under the gum to loosen and soften it
Spray with Rid - a - gum
Agitate with wire brush
Extract with hand tool
Gone

Just done a pub carpet and there were over 100 wads to get rid of!  Got another two to do in the coming weeks and expect them to be just as bad.

However, I have now run out of rid-a-gum and although it is very effective I was wondering if there are other, as effective products out there.  Also are there any products I should avoid?

[Ian Gourlay]

Ian.

Do you charge extra to remove gum

[CARPET KNIGHTS]

I have found solutions no whatever to be very very effective no need for steam and very quick!

Goron

[stevegunn]

Hydramaster OJ the best stuff I have found by far

[Ian Rochester]

Ian, I charged this one £50+vat extra for the chewing gum, if there are only a few then I just include it in the price, as a general rule I work on 50p per lump!

Goron/Steve, these are two of the main ones I have been thinking about, is the Solutions one their Chewing Gum Remover?

I tried ecospotter and that wasn't very effective.

I may just order a few different ones and see which is best, they'll never come out of use

[Mark Lane-Matthews]

Hi have been told that some cleaners use an angle grinder on commercial jobs which is very effective(not for the faint hearted) but solutions gum remover as has been said is very good.

                                                              Mark

[CARPET KNIGHTS]

Yes the solution one is their chewing gum remover. Hydramaster OJ is also a very good product but requires a long dwell.

With solutions one just stab squirt and remove using small stainless wire brush in hooking action not scrubbing action.

A little tip for the Oj is to add a little water to the bottle and shake it up this will turn it from clear to white and that makes it easier to see 1 how much is left in the bottle and also where you have squirted it.

Cheers Goron

[Steve Chapman]

bazooka gum spray from prochem is what we use, no need for steam etc just peirce the gum. spay and let dwell for a while and brush it right off!

If you are doing loads then really you need something like the bazooka gun which has the spray and scrubbing head all built in, otherwise it will drive you nuts.

We did a school once with hundreds of peices if gum down just one corridoor and used the gun for removal, charged about £400 , would not like to have done it by hand

clubs are the worst !

regards
steve

[stevegunn]

I saw Nick do a demonstration of solutions stuff at the golf club and it didn't work as well as he had said it would took longer than his claimed time.
At the SDO Glynn demonstrated the oj and his techinque which was certainly quicker than using solutions stuff.

If as Ian states he has lots to do dwell time would not be a problem

[*paul_moss]

Solutions one is not as good as rid a gum.
I find Prochem citrus gel is good, just apply and leave for 10 mins then aggitate with wire brush and its gone,you need 2 applications for big wads.

[AquaMagic]

Paul, how'd you get on with the scumbuster?

Dene

[Eddie Conroy]

I work in a major school where gum or blu/white tack is a major problem on a bonded cord carpet.
I steam to soften and remove dirt from surface, scape of excess and dry off[  then apply citrus gel using a perforator.
I then scrape, use solvent on a cloth, wire brush, swear (a lot), try rid a gum on some hardenened stains, seems to work like magic on some gum patches, doesn't work on others. (watch for running off the gum and into the backing),
finally HWE with a prespray and a solvent booster in the tank.
Blu/white tack where I can recognise it before I start the above I will treat with lighter fluid.
On this particular type of carpet (or should I say flooring) I have found citra clean and the ashbys chewing gum wand to be ineffective
Hope this adds to the input
Regards
Eddie

[will_turton]

   i used that solutions gum remover, on a pub and found it to be useless, if the gum is fresh its fine, if its old its crap, you cant beat the steam gum, with oj, but the rx 20 tends to wipe the tops off gum, making it much easyer, all round
 billy

[*paul_moss]

Dene
It was Mike Halliday ( fingers) who bought one.
Still waiting for his feed back on it .

[Mike Halliday]

do you mean the sudbuster?

I was going to start a whole new thread about it with some pictures, but just to let you know it is THE BARGAIN OF THE CENTURY!!!!

basically its a hydraforce, an inline vac filter, a dust downer rolled into one and you also get 25ft of 3000psi solution hose AND!!  a split 2 into 1 quick connector and  a high pressure lance.

all for £100!!

[CARPET KNIGHTS]

Yes Steve you are right the gum did take longer than he said! Nick said it would take 3-4 seconds per piece of gum when in actual fact it was more like 8-10 seconds. Still that has got to be quite admirable.

I use it and get on very well with it. I think from the answers so far it is obvious that peoples reactions to certain products vary due to a lot of variables. Horses for courses and all that.

Cheers Goron

[Ian Rochester]

I must admit that I have never had a problem with rid-a-gum, it literally takes just a few seconds to do each piece, I don't really like the idea of having to leave it to dwell, mainly because on patterned carpets they are a sod to find again!

[melanie rowe]

craftex chewing gum remover.........quick, easy, cheap, job done.

[Ian Rochester]

I'll speak to JK on Tuesday.

[carpetguy]

There was a gum remover that got a lot of good reports on here a couple of years ago, think it was made in Wales.