FAQs - Tile & Grout Question

Q: Hey Jim,
I have 300 SQ ft of tile I need to clean and was looking at the Viper Venom. Is one gallon enough and do you sell a sealer too? Is there free shipping if you exceed a certain dollar purchase amount?

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A: Good choice Joe,
Viper Venom has a variety of dilutions according to soil level. At its strongest, a 50/50 dilution, 1 gallon will still be plenty for 300 square feet. By the way, what method of cleaning will you be using for cleaning the tile and grout?
And, yes we do offer sealers as well: just go to . . .
http://pembertonstore.com/index.php?main_page=advanced_search_result&search_in_description=1&keyword=grout+sealer

You will find a number of products listed; I recommend the Hydroforce Grout Sealer (despite its name, it seals tile and stone as well).

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Q: Hey Jim,
I have a small tile cleaner machine I bought from Lowes. Will this type of unit be able to handle this type of solution? I have six properties and Coit showed me this product and I thought I would give it a try since all the other solutions I have used so far have been sub-par to date. What sealer would you recommend after using this type of cleaning product?

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A: Joe,
Viper Venom has been formulated to be used with high pressure extraction, which requires equipment that generates 800 pounds of water pressure per square inch at a minimum.

A word of caution regarding your tile cleaner, I have reason to doubt that the system you bought at Lowes can produce the pressure & water volume needed to achieve the results you want.

I'm not convinced that Viper Venom will be able to help to restore your grout with the type of application equipment you presently own.

You are welcome, of course, to try the product, but I cannot guarantee that you will be happy with the result.

Again, the sealer I recommend is Hydroforce Grout Sealer.

FAQs - Browning On Sofa

Jim

I recently cleaned a polyurethane/polyester sofa and it ended up getting some browning spots. Here is what I used: Bridgepoint Fabric Prespray mixed with Citrus Solv. I started to clean the sofa and ended up running out of gas. Left to fill up, came back finished cleaning and the next day the customer called back saying there were brown water stains everywhere. What is your professional opinion on how I should reclean this?

Brent
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Hello Brent

The problem will likely be easy to solve, but I'll need a little bit more information first:

1. How did you determine that the sofa was polyurethane/polyester? A label that described such materials describes the filler material, not the face fibers that you clean. Or did you do a burn test? If you haven't, I'd like you to do a burn test just to determine if it contains natural fibers (cotton/linen/wool/silk/rayon). If you aren't sure how to do this, let me know and I'll coach you through it.


2. Describe the type or appearance of the fabric.
   Is it:
   • Solid white or cream?
   
   
   • Printed?
   
   
   • Does it have a woven pattern with several colors? (such as jacquard)
   
   
   • Shiny?


3. Are the brown stains brown throughout or just at the edges? Do they appear randomly or are they more concentrated in areas that might have gotten wetter than others?

Finally, since you use Bridgepoint products, do you have any of the following products:

1. Fabset


2. Coffee Stain Remover


3. Boost All


4. Buff All


5. Fabric Shampoo


6. Stain Zone

You shouldn't need them all, but depending on the final diagnosis you might need some of them.

Jim
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Thanks Jim,

Maybe you could tell me what I need to look for when doing a burn test. I looked at the tag today and there is a hint of cotton mixed in it. Also it is white, and light brown or tan stripes I believe that it’s where I got the fabric a little too wet, I had to leave for about 25 min. (believe me I did not want to do this, but I had to do what I had to do, so this allowed the soap probably to dry and caused the browning, just my opinion). Yes we carry all of the products you listed.

Thanks Jim let me know what you think,
Brent
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Hi Brent

OK, here's what you need to do for the burn test:
Get a small pair of scissors and snip out a slice of fabric from under the skirt or inside of the zipper (there is always a hem or seam allowance that you can take).

The clipping should be the size of a finger nail clipping.

Light the clipping, blow it out, and press the ash between your thumb and finger. If it feels hard, its synthetic (polyester/nylon/olefin/acrylic). If it's natural, it will crumble and leave a black smudge on your finger (cotton/linen/wool/silk/rayon).

The browning makes me think that it's natural.

I'm a little worried that the brown or tan stripes might have bled (bleeding is usually irregular and looks like brown spots) but that's a rare problem with the formula that you used.

Its more likely that you have browning, which is most safely corrected by rinsing the fabric with FabSet at a rate of 2 ounces per gallon, and drying it rapidly. If you can put it in direct sunlight, all the better.

If that doesn't work, mix the Coffee Stain Remover per label directions with hot water, apply to the stained areas, and also put it in the sunlight.

Should that not work, use the Boost All, Buff All, and Fabric Shampoo by diluting them together at label use directions, applying it overall (not just on the brown spots) in the form of a foam, then putting it in the sun to dry (do not rinse).

I am a bit concerned about the Boost All step, as in some fabrics it may over-whiten the material, which is why I recommended that you apply it overall, not just on the stains.

Jim

Upholstery Cleaning Products: Keep it Simple and Safe

I had a conversation with a cleaner who shared his frustration with all of the different products being recommended for cleaning upholstery, and the confusion he felt in trying to establish a sensible cleaning system for his company to use.

His concerns made me take a hard look at what products are made available for upholstery cleaning, and how a cleaner can narrow down that list to what is truly needed for upholstery cleaning in the 21st century.

Here's my list:

AVENGE FABRIC PRESPRAY (NEUTRAL): I always tell students that if I could only have ONE product with which to clean upholstery, it would be this type. This excellent upholstery preconditioner has a neutral pH (7), and use a surfactant that does not allow for deep penetration through the fabric. Avenge Fabric Prespray will suspend body oil, food spills, and other "common upholstery soils".

If the fabric has been allowed to become "abusively soiled" or has become exposed to smoke damage, and Avenge Fabric Prespray cannot not adequately loosen soil, you may either choose a higher pH preconditioner, or use boosting agents to enhance your neutral upholstery preconditioner.

Which is the better choice? First, review the characteristics of the available products:

AVENGE HEAVY DUTY FABRIC PRESPRAY (ALKALINE): Avenge Heavy Duty is more effective on synthetic fiber fabrics that have strong oil bonding characteristics, such as olefin and polyester. However, Avenge Heavy Duty should only be used on colorfast, synthetic fiber fabrics.

BOOST ALL: Boost All is a powdered, non chlorine bleach additive that will brighten and whiten dull or yellowed colors, remove most protein and tannin stains, and also eliminate yellow/brown discolorations from oily soils that are bonded to olefin and polyester. You should be aware that Boost All will raise the pH of your preconditioning solution, and thus you must test this solution for any potential color related problems on the fabric that you intend to clean. Also, off white cotton fabrics may become snow white after the application of Boost All.

CITRUS SOLV: Citrus Solv is an additive that will increase the grease and oil cutting quality of your preconditioner without altering the pH. When cleaning fabrics that have become exposed to body oil, newsprint, and petroleum, Citrus Solv will greatly improve your results

Using Avenge Fabric Prespray on natural fiber fabrics and Avenge Heavy Duty Fabric Prespray on synthetic fiber fabrics is the easiest system, but with training and experience, the use of boosters with Avenge Fabric Prespray will usually render the best results.

For the vast majority of your cleaning needs, the only other product that you must have is an acidic rinse agent.

FABSET: This acid rinse agent offers the following benefits in upholstery care:

1. Dye Stabilization: Most dye bleeding and color fading may be prevented when FabSet is applied both before and after the cleaning process. Non-acid dye stablizers, such as Dye Loc should be used only if dye is not stable when tested with FabSet.


2. Browning prevention or removal: Fabrics that are rinsed or post treated FabSet and dried rapidly are less likely to brown. Unless pre-existing browning is severe, rinsing with FabSet followed by rapid drying often removes browning.


3. Natural fiber velvets dry softer when rinsed or treated with FabSet, followed by grooming and drying with drying fans.
   

With the use of proper tools, cleaning equipment, and training, seldom will a cleaner need more than these few products. Products such as alkaline upholstery emulsifiers, "Haitian Cotton" detergents and shampoos, and dry cleaning solvents are of very little use to cleaners who have the most up to date training and technology available today.

FAQs - Fixing Wicking

Q - I have a customer who spilled a mix vodka tonic and grapefruit juice on a Berber carpet, he had another company clean it, it looked good until it dried, then it wicked up looking brown.

He called us to try and clean it. What treatment could we use to remove the stain?

A - Just by the fact that the spot "wicks" shows that the need for elaborate cleaning chemistry is not as important as controlling the "physics" of drying and wicking.

I would treat the area with a good general purpose spotter, such as Perky or Avenge, rinse it thoroughly, and if possible, use the "Water Claw Spot Lifter" for the most complete extraction possible.

Finally, you should pack the area with an absorbent spotter, such as Bridgepoint Stain Absorb or Masterblend Absorbent spotter. If you have neither of these, absorbent towels with a heavy weight on top might work, but it is a poor substitute for the super absorbency of these "crushed mineral" absorbents.

Apply the powder to a depth of 1/8" on an inch, and an extra 2" around the diameter of the original spot.

FAQs - Cleaning Silk Covering on Sofa

Q - Thank you very much for your detailed instruction. This morning I called you and we had a brief conversation on a few cleaning subjects. Before I enroll and sit down for your certification class, I have a few projects on my hand, which I would like to get your advice as to how to proceed. I am ordering a gallon of your shampoo and I am planning to clean a few sofas with silk covering. Please provide me with some instructions.

As I mentioned I have been in laundry and dry cleaning business for 15 years and have some familiarity with fabrics and their sensitivity against chemicals, especially silk.

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A - I enjoyed our conversation today. It is my belief that your background in textile care and your desire to develop this needed service will help you to create a successful business enterprise.

Hand cleaning of silk fabrics takes patience and care. As with the wall panels, you should test with dry cleaning solvent first, as dry solvents are less likely to cause color or texture distortion. This is especially important on multicolor fabrics or those with velvet or chenille construction.

Should you feel it necessary to use a water based solution, the Bridgepoint Fabric Shampoo is the safest material that you could use. Even considering the products safety, you should still clean a test area near the zipper area of the cushion to assure there will be no texture distortion or color loss.

If you test area looks acceptable, proceed as follows:

Dilute the product per label directions, then dip a clean, white towel into the solution. Wring out the excess moisture, and make a flat pad, just as you did for the wall covering.

Wipe the fabric with the dampened pad, then follow up with a dry towel to remove residual moisture.

FAQs - Oil Stains on Fabric

Please send the fabric sample if you can, but I can give you some idea of the challenges you'll face with this product:

Viscose is another name for rayon. Rayon (as you likely know or remember from class) is a fragile fiber that becomes very weak when wet. Cotton stays strong, which is good in most cases, but in blends with rayon (viscose) this can happen:

The strong cotton swells up as it absorbs water, and as it does, it causes the weaker rayon to stretch around the saturated swollen cotton yarns, which creates shrinkage. This shrinkage may be difficult to correct as the weaker rayon may split either during shrinkage or during attempts to stretch the fabric back into shape.

The second issue is the tanning oil. Oil is always a challenge to remove from textiles, but in this case it will be even more challenging. Most oily stains respond best to preconditioning agents that have a solvent booster added, especially when followed by aggressive hot water extraction techniques using the highest heat possible in the rinse extraction solution.

This technique is great for thermoplastic synthetic fibers (acrylic, nylon, olefin, polyester), but not so great on natural fibers or "synthetic natural fibers" that use regenerated cellulose like rayon and acetate. With these fibers the solvent booster causes the preconditioning solution to "wet out" the fabric, which can contribute to shrinkage. Follow up hot water extraction will have two additional risks:

1. The heated solution required to break the oil bonds that exist in the fabric will also wet out the fabric more readily than lukewarm solutions, which also might contribute to color bleeding.

2. The needed aggressive scrubbing strokes with preconditioning tools and the extraction tool may damage the rayon (viscose) yarns.

With all of that considered, you might want to pass on attempting to clean this fabric unless you have some clear limitations of your liability that have been put into writing.

FAQs - Cleaning Area Rug in Place

Q - I have a customer who would like the traffic area (center) of the rug done. She said the rug was cleaned by another company in place. Would I be able to use a mix of Energy & Extreme Clean, and extract with End Zone? If so, what do you suggest as to the settings for the heat and wand pressure. She does not want the rug removed for cleaning. The rug size is approx 7 ft by 9 ft. I have a copy from your site on Area Rugs, Wool.

A - There are times when it makes sense to clean an area rug in place. Here are my suggestions:

1. Would I be able to use a mix of Energy & Extreme Clean, and extract with End Zone?
   Unless you are certain this rug is made from olefin, do not under any circumstances use Energy and Extreme Clean on this rug. You should precondition the rug with a mild detergent, such as Avenge Fabric Prespray or some other upholstery preconditioning product that is within a safe pH range for natural fibers. You should be safe to rinse it with End Zone, though given the choice I'd prefer you to use Fab Set.


2. If so, what do you suggest as to the settings for the heat and wand pressure.
   I'd recommend that you set your temperature at 180 or lower, and use a hand tool at 150 psi or lower. When cleaning rugs in place, its better to use a hand tool to prevent overspray on the surface on which the rug is resting. A truck mount upholstery cleaning tool is ideal for this purpose.

FAQs - Browning on Wool Rug

Q - Once again your crew came through for me in a very busy week last week. Speaking with Jim B about a couple of troubles with my 200 Max made for a more profitable week. Your guys are great and a class act for all to follow. Please tell them thank you for their help and sorry if I called to often.

I wanted to know if you know of a product that can handle browning on a wool rug. One of the floods I did had a large wool rug in the lobby. I don't know if it was preexisting browning but wanted to have ammunition in case it wasn't. Thanks again!!

Blessings,
Dan H

A - Thank you for this message. Lee and I are proud of our staff here, and it is always good when we see the hard work that they do is recognized. We'll be sure to let JB and the rest of them know of your kind thoughts.

Browning can be very difficult to remove from wool, as it is either staining from a jute backing, staining from minerals and soil that infiltrates with water intrusion, or both. Wool's absorbent nature and resistance to releasing stains makes the prospect of fixing this a 50/50 proposition, at best.

We have a browning treatment in stock from Masterblend called, simply enough: "Browning Treatment". Its only 10.26 per gallon. After you apply the product, you should clean the carpet with products appropriate for wool.

Thanks again for your upbuilding comments this morning Dan.

Jim

FAQs - Maxim Advanced for Carpet & Upholstery

Q - What is the difference between Maxim Advanced for Carpet and Maxim Advanced for Fabric and Upholstery?

A - The differences between "Maxim Advanced" and "Maxim Advanced for Upholstery" are considerable. The name similarity is a marketing decision based on how popular the "Maxim Advanced" names has come to be. A related example would be how back in the 1970's, when Dupont wanted to compete with Scotchgard. Dupont called its first protector "Zepel". No one would buy it.

Then a smart marketing guy figured to use the same name for the product used on pots and pans: "Teflon". Its a different product applied in a different way, but it explains the benefit easily.

So Maxim Advanced for Upholstery has two major differences:

One, it contains a dye stabilizer. It won't keep everything from bleeding, but it will prevent bleeding in 99.999999999999% of the stuff you clean.

Two, its "elastic". Most protectors aren't, and don't need to be. But when sprayed on upholstery that gets sat on, it stretches when the fabric does. So its more appropriate for upholstery, and far more durable.

FAQs - Upholstery Cleaning

Q - When I clean cotton upholstery, I use fine fabric shampoo, sometimes boosted with Boost All (buffered with Buff All)and sometimes Citrus Solv. I mix it in a bucket, work up a foam, apply it with a brush, spray it lightly with Fab Set and vaccuum it off. This works well but is time consuming, also sometimes the brush gets too wet and I get part of the fabric wetter than I wanted. I wondered how Avenge neutral prespray would work as compared to what I'm doing?

A - This low moisture, also known as dry foam, cleaning technique has stood the test of time as a very safe and effective method for cleaning fabrics that might otherwise be susceptible to cellulose browning or color bleeding.

When you boost with Boost All and Buff All, you not only prevent browning, but you also will often remove preexisting browning or tannin stains. I would caution you that this mix might overwhiten natural cotton fabrics, and that you might want to consider boosting the Fine Fabric Shampoo with Coffee Stain Remover, which will prevent/cure browning without overwhitening. The Citrus Solv is very useful for oily soils, but you should note that it does tend to eliminate you foam, and might be responsible for the "wet spots" you are noticing.

To get more even results when you do use low moisture cleaning, squeeze your shampoo solution (with whatever additives you feel are necessary) through a natural sponge or a hydra sponge and create a thick foam on top of the solution.

THEN dip your horsehair brush into the foam only. This will prevent your "wet spots".

The Avenge Neutral Prespray is a very effective prespray that works well on natural fibers. However, I have found that it is more likely to cause color bleeding (even with its neutral pH) than will Fine Fabric Shampoo.

Do you own a "dry tool"? You can use Avenge Neutral Prespray more safely with a Hydrokinetic, Drimaster, or Hy Dry Tool than you can if you are using a "wet tool".

With "dry tools", you'll save time and get the fabrics cleaner than ever. But even with those tools, there are still many times that the original formula you outlined is the best choice for restoring heavily soiled sensitive fabrics.

Just remember, sponge first, then brush.