Heed The Advice Of Carpet-Cleaning Pros

Most manufacturers of carpet chemicals do a quality job of producing products that keep carpets clean looking and fresh smelling. Theirs is an important job, but cleaning personnel must also do their jobs well to ensure carpets look their best and last a long time. To do that, they need direction and education from their distributors, as well as from product manufacturers. Effective carpet cleaning means using the right products and applying them correctly. Often, this is not as easy as it sounds.

Chemical manufacturers offer such products as carpet extraction cleaners, shampoos, bonnet-cleaning products and pre-spray treatments, as well as grease and oil spotters and bioenzymatic protein products for removing food stains and organic materials.

“We strive to teach our distributors to effectively use these products and encourage them, in turn, to educate their customers,” says Bill Smith, vice president of marketing for National Chemical Laboratories, Philadelphia.

Smith advocates a four-step carpet cleaning process:

“First, clean carpets daily, then follow up with routine cleaning,” Smith explains. “Interim maintenance and restorative maintenance are the last two steps in the process.”

Daily Dose and Routine Upkeep
Smith says that daily cleaning typically involves vacuuming dry soil before it becomes wet and becomes more deeply embedded in the carpet. He also says spotting products work on most types of spots and stains, but emphasizes the importance of treating spots as quickly as possible once materials come into contact with carpet.

Robert Allen, vice president of business development for Pioneer Eclipse Co., Sparta, N.C., also highlights the importance of vacuuming carpets daily, and like Smith, says that spots should be treated as soon as they are discovered. “A clean carpet will last much longer,” he says.

Carl Hitchner, floor care category manager for Betco Corp. in Toledo, Ohio, also says proper carpet-care spotting is key to a long-lasting carpet. “We offer a simple but effective spot- and stain-removal kit with six products covering the basic needs of most facilities,” says Hitchner.

Lee Chen, vice president of the institutional chemical group of Rochester Midland Corp., Rochester, N.Y., suggests pre-spraying with the company’s product, letting it soak in and removing it with carpet-spotting equipment.

Last year, Rochester Midland Corp. came out with a unique technology — a hydrogen peroxide-based product formulated to ensure safety on a majority of carpet fabrics.

“You can spray it on any type of organic soil or stain on a carpet and let it sit. The product will then convert that soil to oxygen and water. It works very well on olefin carpets, too,” he says.

Routine maintenance depends heavily on the severity of soiling, and Smith suggests evaluating the condition of the carpet to determine whether to pre-spray and bonnet clean, or just bonnet clean to keep traffic lanes looking as good as the rest of the carpet. This should be done regularly — once a month or every two months.

Chen says his company carries a product that could make routine cleaning easier for users. In traditional cleaning methods like bonnet cleaning, there can be a wicking effect — where moisture absorbs back into the carpet, he explains.

“Using our hydrogen-peroxide formulation eliminates the wicking problem because the soil turns to oxygen and water and once the water evaporates, the carpet is dry and clean,” says Chen.

Interim Cleaning and Restoration
According to Smith, interim cleaning is done after six months to a year, depending on where the carpet is located and what it is made of. This kind of cleaning involves using a pre-spray or, on occasion, an extraction cleaner to remove the soiling from the bottom of the carpet.

How traffic flows through a space and how heavy that traffic is should determine what interim maintenance is needed, says Curtis Gregg, product manager for Cello Professional Products in Havre De Grace, Md. Monitoring these movement patterns will signal which areas should be shampooed and bonnet cleaned, according to Gregg.

Restorative maintenance usually involves more detailed spotting, pre-spraying in some cases, the use of carpet shampoos to deep-scrub the carpet, and extraction to restore the carpet back to where it looks as new as possible, he adds.

“Extraction cleaners should be used once a year or when the carpet gets so heavily soiled that your interim maintenance doesn’t clean it anymore,” Gregg says.

Proper Use of Chemicals
“We find that cleaning companies that do a good, proactive job of carpet maintenance on a regular basis, rather than reacting to spots or stains, are able to extend a carpet’s life dramatically. They don’t wait for a crisis to happen,” Smith says.

Allen has another suggestion for making sure chemicals do what they’re supposed to. “Simply follow label directions.”

Gerald Mitchell, a chemist with Spartan Chemical Co. in Maumee, Ohio, agrees that following label instructions is important. “Most labels will state the necessary dilution and required temperature of the water,” says Mitchell. “The water temperature shouldn’t be too high. If it’s in the 180-degree range, that’s too hot for some fibers. Even though that temperature might help clean better, it will start stripping off the protectants that are on the carpet.”

Know the type of carpet you’re cleaning and whether or not it can tolerate chemicals with a high pH, advises Mitchell. “Be aware of the best cleaner you could use without going with a higher pH cleaner. If it’s a wool carpet, you need a lower pH cleaner without solvents. Sometimes, however, you need a high pH cleaner for a dirtier carpet.”

It’s important to adequately train cleaning crews on the use of carpet chemicals and provide them with good products that are specifically designed for carpets, according to Allen and Smith. If you don’t, you’re putting down a lot of water but not cleaning very well.

Hitchner also advocates teaching crews about proper procedures and correct cleaners for each job. “We teach that via a series of video-training programs that we produce,” he explains. “Education is critical to the success in maintaining carpets and providing them with an optimal appearance.”

Using the proper dilution of products also helps ensure effective use of carpet-care chemicals, Hitchner adds. “Typically, there has been a great deal of misuse and overuse of carpet-cleaning products. We control that by providing products with accurate chemical-management systems that automatically dispense the correct amount of product for each use. That’s critical in carpet care.”

Being knowledgeable on products currently used in cleaning programs is important, but new products are constantly being introduced. Allen stresses that manufacturers put time and effort toward making sure users will be able to easily learn about the proper use of chemicals. Chemicals typically take about a year to bring onto the market.

“The products aren’t just formulated and marketed,” says Allen. “They’re put through extensive testing in labs and in the field. During their testing phase, they are fine-tuned to get the maximum cleaning effectiveness. At the same time, the correct procedures are developed and listed on the labels. Anyone using these products according to the directions will get their carpets clean.”

Jordan Fox is a Milwaukee-based freelance writer.