Carpeting

After selecting and installing carpeting it MUST be cared for in order to preserve the life and appearance and keep the carpeting from becoming a health hazard. Carpet by its nature is the largest soil and contaminant sponge in the entire facility. No care or improper care can make carpeting a health hazard.

To understand the anatomy of the carpet care process we will break it down into the various different management processes.

The process of cleaning is described by the "Standard Reference Guide for Professional On-Location Cleaning of Installed Textile Floor Covering Materials as

" The traditional activity of removing contaminates, pollutants, and undesirable substances from an environment or surface to reduce damage or harm to human health or valuable materials. Cleaning is the process of locating, identifying, containing, removing and properly disposing of unwanted substances from an environment or material."

To explain the cleaning of carpeting we need to breakdown the cleaning process into

The distinct processes of carpet Care are;

Most loose dry soil can be removed by regular vacuuming. With the addition of a periodic pile lifting the balance of the dry soil can be removed. The pile lifter also helps to open up compacted pile and re-organize the yarns, lifting them up and combing them into alignment. Pile lifting would remove all the soil if it wasn't clinging to the fibers with combinations of static charges and oily and wet sticky soils.

Soil suspension is accomplished in any cleaning by what we call the CATT formula. CATT stands for Chemicals, Agitation, Temperature, and Time. This process can be considered as a pie chart with these four parts. Increase one of the sections and you will decrease the one or more of the others. For example increasing the temperature reduces the needed quantity the tree other components. By precisely managing these four components we can produce efficient cleaning. If we do not precisely manage these components damage can occur. Use too much chemicals or too much temperature, or too much agitation and the process can become damaging. Provide too little of one or more components and the cleaning pie shrinks until the result is not sufficient to produce cleaning. This is the science of cleaning.

To describe the function of chemicals in the cleaning process is a little like describing the sound an orchestra makes. It is a combination of actions. A surfactant, a surface active agent, reduces the surface tension of the water and allows the fibers and soils to become wet. This allows the chemicals to move in to wedge by electrical forces the soil away from the fiber in a process call deflocculating. The soluble soils then become emulsified into the cleaning fluid and the insoluble soils become sequestered or separated from the fibers and held in the solution awaiting removal. Alkaline builders in the surfactants soften the water allowing them to accept more contaminants. The alkalinity aids in emulsification and turns fats and oily soils into water soluble solutions. Dirty solvents additives of alcohol glycol base increase the speed of this emulsification.

Agitation accomplishes a couple of important things. First, agitation homogenizes the chemicals used and improves their contact with all sides of all fibers. Proper agitation also organizes the yarns, helps separate them and improves the chemical's deflocculating of the soil. Agitation is accomplished by manual agitation with a gandy brush, this can be good but it is a lot of work to accomplish.

Some antiquated approaches use the old rotary floor machine fitted with a shampoo brush. This is called rotary shampoo and even dry foam extraction by some companies. This process is way too aggressive on the carpet. The rotary floor machine was designed to scrub hard floors and needed a lot of weight for good scrubbing performance. Unfortunately, this weight when used on carpet, must be supported by a very stiff brush that will not crush. This combination of heavy machine and stiff brush is too aggressive on carpeting, especially cut pile. It can damage the carpet and voids some manufacturer's warranties so beware of this system.

The bonnet system (AKA electrostatic, semi dry, chemdry) is used as an agitation system, and, when used with the proper chemicals it can achieve a good surface agitation and good surface dirt absorption.

The best method for agitating the carpet is the reel type brush found on pile lifters and other carpet maintenance equipment. This equipment allows adjustment of the brush for controlled agitation. It also helps comb yarns back into good organization and opens crushed carpet up for better chemical and extraction penetration.

Temperature increases the speed of the chemical reactions. For every 20 degree rise we have a doubling of the effect of most cleaning processes. It is important however to not use too much temperature as the fibers and yarns can become damaged or altered by high temperatures. The optimum temperature to operate general cleaning is around 140 to 160 degrees.

The last component of soil suspension is Time. Chemicals take time to accomplish their work. This is called dwell time. If the chemical strength and temperature are raised then the time to accomplish the cleaning decreases. If the dwell time is increased then the strength of the chemicals and/or the temperature can be decreased to accomplish the same degree of soil suspension.

After the soil is suspended come soil and chemical extraction. The most effective process for this step is rinse extraction. It not only removes the soil but also rinses the chemicals used in the process completely out of the carpeting, leaving the carpeting film free.

After this step what remains is the nap finishing step. Some procedures use the wand stroke of the extraction equipment as the finishing step. Most good cleaning teams will use a gandy brush to brush the carpet up and leave it standing up.

Carpets need proper cleaning to preserve the appearance and life. Whether you choose to do this in house or by a professional company it is important that they are trained and that they provide good information about what they plan to do and when and how they will accomplish the work. Some professionals alter the terms of their systems to make them sound like other more costly systems. Others state activities will occur in excess of need knowing full well they will not be performed.

Another factor is that carpet can absorb a great amount of abuse without showing the problem. By the time it becomes obvious the carpet can suffer significant damage.

It is important to perform within the specifications of the manufacturer or have the company state that they will back up and guarantee that their services will not cause harm to the carpeting or void the warranty.

Interior Technologies will provide a no charge inspection of your facility. With your assistance we can determine the amount of areas that are involved, the types of carpeting and their cleaning requirements, what initial services are necessary to prepare the carpet for cleaning and what type of initial program we will establish to maintain the carpeting.