Avoiding Upholstery Cleaning Problems

A call that I received just yesterday reminded me of how simple it is to avoid costly upholstery cleaning claims, and yet easily we can get into trouble by being careless.

The owner of a cleaning company called to ask how to remove browning from a white cotton sofa that his men cleaned incorrectly. It was his contention that the problem was caused because his technician used a carpet cleaning detergent instead of a more appropriate upholstery cleaning rinse agent.

I contend that what happened was a result of a deeper problem:

The cleaning technician failed to test the fabric.

Readers may object that testing fibers is a difficult and time consuming process with results that are challenging to interpret. Nothing could be further from the truth. The fact is that a simple burn test that determines whether or not a textile is made of absorbent, easily damaged natural fibers, or easy to clean synthetic fibers that have low absorbency only takes a few moments, and can easily be interpreted by any cleaning technician.

Such a test only asks the technician to observe if the test sample melts (synthetic) or burns and crumbles (natural or blend of natural and synthetic).

If the technician had that information, which he could have gained in just a minute or so, he would have rightly decided to use a neutral detergent, an acidic rinsing agent, a low wetting tool, and fans to speed dry the fabric (all which were present on the truck.)

The tools and products available to safely clean delicate natural fiber furniture are surprisingly effective and not much more costly than carpet cleaning products. There is no reason not to test to determine which ones are the safest to use on any given fabric.

One last thought: Although browning is usually correctable, this cleaning company will likely pay an expensive claim for this problem, as the customer has become impatient with the repeated visits needed to completely correct a problem that should never have occured in the first place.

Rug Cleaning Class

Last week I attended a Rug Cleaning Technician certification class with eighteen other company owners and employees. Readers of this blog know that I have been enthusiastic about the subject of diversification for some time now, but after having attended the class, I am even more convinced that this is a service more cleaners should consider offering.

Many of your customers own handmade, true oriental area rugs worth thousands of dollars and that, frankly, they feel uncomfortable having just anyone clean. Conversely, there are machine made rugs that are only a fraction of the cost, but that the customer places a high value on. While it may take years of experience to learn the wide variety of imported, hand made rugs, the attendees at this class learned simple and reliable ways to identify high value rugs, as well as "problem rugs" of varying value.

For me, the highlight of the course was the "hands on" training section. We were able to obtain a hand knotted, chinese oriental rug that was made of a blend of wool and silk, and was also saturated in urine. We also had two small, machine tufted Chinese area rugs and a Wilton rug. The students were able to properly identify each rug, qualify the limitations and risks in cleaning the rugs, and then successfully clean the rugs, including complete urine odor removal from the Chinese wool/silk blend rug that was valued at over 5000.00.

Pictures of this class and the procedures used to clean these rugs follow.

Mold Remediation Standards

I was excited to be present when the latest edition of the IICRC S520 Mold Remediation Standards were introduced in Vancouver Washington on October 11th, 2008. Having had the privilege of contributing to the S100 Carpet Cleaning Standards, I had some small understanding of the work that was involved in compiling this vast amount of information from such a wide variety of brilliant and hard working experts in both the research and field work arenas.

The need to continue to update such standards was revealed to me just 45 minutes ago:

I was called by a representative of a restoration company who needed assistance with a job that did not pass final exit testing protocols. When I questioned the procedures that were followed, I found that the company violated very obvious rules as spelled out in the S520 Standards. The representative objected that they had been trained in mold remediation in 2004, but also confessed that they had not updated their training since.

This situation spoke to the need to keep ourselves updated in the fields in which we work, especially in such a high liability field such as mold and microbial remediation.

With guidance based on the current S520 Standards, the contractor is now confident that they will be able to correct the problems, and I don't doubt that the job will pass all needed clearances.

For the full story about the latest edition of the S520 Mold Remediation Standards, go to: http://www.iicrc.org/newsflash.shtml

Severe Animal Odors - When Salvage is No Longer an Option

When is it not worth saving carpet that has been extensively contaminated by urine or other animal discharges?

There are a few rules of thumb, including:

When over 20% of the carpet is contaminated

When contamination has caused severe color loss

When contamination has caused extensive delamination

When the floor underneath of the carpet is hardwood, and could be refinished to a good appearance and improve the room without carpet

When the cost of the products and labor involved begins to near the value of new carpet, pad, tack strip, and installation

That said, do not think carpet replacement will solve the problem! In cases where carpet has been contaminated so badly that it needs to be replaced, you must assume that the subfloor is also badly contaminated. Sanding and sealing will need to be done at a minimum, and in cases of extensive penetration of urine throughout the subfloor, entire sections of the floor may need to be replaced.

Sub Surface Urine Odor Treatment

With the understanding that the majority of urine residues penetrate through carpet into padding (at least) and through to subfloor (at worst), cleaners and property owners have the challenge of treating a problem that cannot be easily seen.

While the ultimate solution may include removing carpet and cushion, there are times where subsurface treatment can be attempted without disengaging the carpet.

To properly perform subsurface treatments, you must locate the odor source and be confident that the urine contamination is isolated to that area. The use of UV lights and moisture sensors will assist you in this task.

Individuals (whether cleaners or property owners) who are unwilling to use such tools will rarely be successful in subsurface treatment attempts.

For decades, the tool of choice for subsurface treatment has been an injection syringe. Such syringes have larger needles than are used for medical purposes, but still only allow relatively small amounts of odor treatment solutions to be applied. You must aim such needles at a variety of angles and you may only hope that sufficient treatment solution is reaching the affected areas.

More recently, special extraction attachments, such as the Water Claw Spot Lifter, have enable cleaners to flood the area with gallons of deodorizing solution and then extract the excess moisture from carpet and padding. Such a treatment process better assures a sufficient delivery of deodorizer to the source area.

However, just as with the injection syringe, there are concerns that must be addressed:

If you choose to flood a contaminated area over a wood subfloor, especially when on the second floor of a home, or over a furnished basement, you must pull back that portion of the carpet and place plastic under it. Otherwise you might end up flooding through the floor and through the ceiling below.

Such precautions are time consuming, but critical if you choose to use such an "invasive" method of odor treatment.

Surface Treatment of Urine Odors

If you've done a reasonably thorough inspection of most urine odor situations, you'll likely have found that most urine odor contamination problems require more than just a surface spray application or cleaning.

However, once your customer is made aware of the cost involved in either Subsurface Treatments or Total Restoration of urine contamination, some will ask you to "just spray something on the top, because I can't afford to do that."

You must be VERY careful before you give in to this seemingly reasonable request.

If urine contamination has penetrated into carpet backings and cushion, not only will a surface treatment rarely work, more often than not your cleaning will actually make the odor worse! If this happens, your customer will rapidly forget their "reasonable request" and they might actually insist that you now completely treat the carpet at no additional cost, because it "smells worse than ever now!"

This trap reminds me of what happens to cleaners who dry clean furniture because the customer is fearful of the "S" code that insists on dry cleaning. Only when the fabric doesn't clean up well (most often the case) do they THEN want it to be cleaned with water, but of course at no charge.

To avoid this trap, make certain that in your initial inspection that you show your customer the extent of the damage from urine. Remind them that surface treatment and cleaning will likely (not maybe) make the odor worse. Have the will power to refuse to do the job wrong for less money.

Because ultimately you'll be doing the job "right" for free later if you don't!

Finding the Source: The Secret to Urine Decontamination Success

I'm often called or in receipt of emails where I'm asked "Is there a deodorizer that will eliminate urine odor without having to inject into the carpet cushion, flood the carpet, or remove the carpet?" This question is usually followed by this type of statement: "I just want to spray the carpet, and not get involved with all of that. What do you recommend that works?"

My answer, of course, has to be: "Nothing".

The problem with urine odors is not so much their chemical complexity but the relative inaccessibility of the real problem.

Its for that reason that the cleaner who is faced with this issue must carefully inspect the carpet and locate the true source of the odor.

To do this inspection, you need the following tools:

1. Your ears: Ask the customer questions and listen carefully to what they tell you. Has this animal recently been ill, and otherwise has avoided urinating on the carpet? How large was the pet, and how many pets could have been involved? What was the species and gender of the pet? What attempts were made to treat the problem before you were called? (They've always tried something, have no doubt.)

2. Your nose: Where does the odor seem to be the most intense? The customer will not be as sensitive to the problem as will you, because they have acclimated themselves to it.

3. Your eyes: Look for areas that have turned yellow or brown. Urine is sticky, so what looks like a brown drink spill is often urine residues that have attracted soil.

4. UV Light: Use an UV light that is powerful enough to work in the daylight or home lighting. Protect your eyes with amber glasses. Remember that the UV light will reveal other residues and discolorations as well. Urine will usually show light yellow to light green under UV light.

5. Moisture Detector: The use of a moisture detector will help to isolate areas of contamination as well.

Once you locate the source of the odor, the use of appropriate subsurface application and extraction equipment will usually do the rest. Or, in more cases than cleaners would like to accept, the carpet will need to be disengaged so that the cleaner can decontaminate the site directly.

In subsequent blogs, I'll address such steps in more detail.

Urine Contamination Systems Indicator Guide Concept

Over 20 years ago, my father was hired to teach group of interior designers how to clean upholstery.

As he recalls: "I knew I was in trouble the moment I saw them. They were wearing the finest garments, bracelets, and several rings.....and that was just the men!"

These individuals were, of course, people who understood fabric, but not the complexities of cleaning the fabric. Nevertheless, they wanted to have a system to care for the furnishings that they sold, so they needed to be trained.

All of the standard (and complex) methods of testing and cleaning that existed at that time were beyond their grasp (or at least their interest), so Lee had to come up with a simpler system of testing, inspection, and cleaning that made sense to such people.

In one evening, he created the Fine Fabric Care Systems Indicator Guide. This guide has been used for decades since as one of the easiest and most reliable ways to test, identify, then easily and safely clean upholstery.

Last month, he challenged me to do the same thing with pet odor treatment systems.

In the field of pet odor control, cleaners sometimes find the array of products, tools, and potential scenarios for treatment to be very confusing. This problem is much the same as upholstery cleaning used to be before the invention of the system indicator guide for upholstery.

The simplest means of narrowing down and defining the processes need to correct pet odor control begin with identifying the three treatment conditions that most often exist:

1. Surface Treatment. Pet damaged carpets that require only surface treatment have little odor, the event that caused the contamination was recent, and only repeated once or twice, if at all.

2. Sub Surface Treatment: Carpets that require sub surface treatment have odor that is more readily identified, the deposits are weeks or perhaps months old, and the animal has "visited" the area several times.

3. Restorative Treatment: Restorative Treatment is needed when the odor becomes overpowering, the animal has continued to contaminate the carpet over several months or years, and this long term, repeated contact has saturated the carpet, cushion and flooring.

In my next blog, I'll discuss the inspection tools needed to determine which contamination level is present, and what will be necessary to restore the carpet and remove the odor.

Browning Correction with Red Dye Removal Products

I was recently sent a cushion asked to correct a browning problem on a cotton fabric. The browning was not severe, but it was widespread, and did not respond to an acid based browning treatment.

I felt that the next logical step would be to try a mild reducing agent. Before I tried this standard procedure, I thought this might be a good time to try something that I'd heard worked, but had never tried myself: Using a red dye stain remover.

I applied a small amount of Pros Choice Red One to the most severely discolored area, and was pleasantly surprised when the brown disappeared after just a few minutes. After I saw how rapidly and completely the product worked, I applied it to the rest of the fabric, and likewise the brown disappeared everywhere.

After the fabric dried completely, a few areas still were light brown, but one more application took care of that small amount of discoloration.

My conclusions are that this product removed browning more easily and quickly than the products most of us use for cellose browning. Also, consider this:

How many of us carry true cellulose browning removal products on our trucks any longer? But most of us carry red dye removers, such as Red One. This means we can get more use out of less products, which keeps things simpler for our staff, and ourselves.

Tolerance of Odors

For the past few years I've been experimenting with a variety of "detergent free cleaners", such as Masterblend Soap Free and Bridgepoint Prolon. In an effort to see how effectively such detergent free and odor free products would work, I limited my use of boosters other than oxidizing boosters that are likewise odorless.

Just a few weeks ago I went to clean some carpet as a favor for a neighbor, and grabbed some "standard traffic lane cleaner" that contained solvents and detergents and used that instead.

As soon as I began to spray the product, I found the odor so objectionable that I barely could complete the job! This was the same product I had used for several years before that had never bothered me. It then dawned on me:

I had "deadened" my perception of that odor in the same way that your customers become likewise "immune" to the odor of urine in their home!

I'm certain you've entered a customer's home and been "hit in the face" with an overpowering odor of urine that the customer is apparently oblivious to. But have you ever considered that you have customers who are "hit in the face" by the odor of some of your cleaning products that you no longer notice?

I am not suggesting that you toss out everything you own that might offend any single customer. I AM suggesting that you have friends or family members who are not involved in your business be present when you use some of your mainstay products and ask them to tell you honestly how the odor affects them.

If you find that you are using some products that seem to make your "test subjects" uncomfortable, consider looking at unscented cleaning products and some of the new deodorizers such as Hydrocide and Anti Allergen Deodorizer. These products are incredibly effective, and when you work, your sensitive customers will be more comfortable and reassured that what you are using is both safe and effective for use in their homes.