Some rugs can be damaged with over wetting. Lower moisture methods can avoid problems with cellulosic rugs that are likely to brown, composite rugs that may have differential shrinkage, latex backed rugs or hand tufted which may suffer from latex migration, rugs with ink stencils which can bleed, secondary backings which can shrink or water mark and rugs which are not very soiled, so therefore not requiring deep, aggressive cleaning methods.
Bonnet cleaning with LST has proven to be a very good method for dealing with the above mentioned cleaning challenges. You can save yourself and your customer untold troubles, plus, you can make tremendous profits using LST.
First complete a through inspection of the rug(s), (see "Rug Inspection") document any preexisting damage, and consider having a release of liability form signed.
Remove dry soils with your best method of dusting (see "How to Perform Dry Soil Removal").
Prepare LST solution by mixing 8 oz. of LST into each gallon of warm (100° to 115°) water, and place into a pump-up or electric sprayer with an 06 size jet. Spray apply LST solution to the entire face pile of the rug, do not over wet. Include fringes too.
Using a standard rotary floor machine (175 RPM) with pad driver and bonnets or pads, or a Cimex machine, you can obtain safe and effective results. Spray your bonnet or pad with LST solution to ensure that both the carpet pile and the bonnet are lubricated with LST. Spin bonnet over the rug surface. After cleaning approximately 30 to 60 sq ft. flip bonnet over, spray with LST solution, and continue cleaning. Once both sides are soiled, use a fresh clean bonnet, spray with LST and continue cleaning. Usually only 2 or 3 bonnets will be required to clean a 9" x 12" rug. Remember to get the fringes too. If you find that the rug is too wet, you may want to spin a dry bonnet over the pile surface. Be careful to not over agitate and watch for shedding, do not over dry or over agitate rug.
Speed dry with air movers or place in dry room to speed drying. Fringes may require more cleaning (see "How To Clean Fringes") after the rug has dried.
Because LST will physically trap soils, post drying vacuuming is required. Simply dry vacuum the rug pile after drying is complete, use a high quality, high performance vacuum for best results.
Cotton fringes are often the most difficult part of the rug to clean. Many cleaners end up damaging the cotton by using oxidizers (i.e. hydrogen peroxide, chlorine bleach, sodium perborate, or other oxygen bleaches) to clean the fringes. Always pre-inspect for this damage by pulling on the fringe in several areas. Also look for signs of bleeding, browning, physical damage, old tea dye, mold and dry rot. Some cleaners charge an additional (i.e. $2.00 to $7.00 per foot) fee for fringe cleaning. Remember that many believe, the finer the fringe, the finer the rug. So, the finer the fringe cleaning, the finer the cleaner.
Clean the rug first. Often, good cleaning on the entire rug will result in nice clean fringes. To improve your odds of getting clean fringes with your first cleaning, pretreat the fringes with Fringe Cleaner. To prevent browning, immediately after cleaning spray with diluted Rug Soure, comb out fringes with a fringe brush and speed dry.
Sometimes fringes will need more attention after normal rug cleaning. Use a product designed specifically for cotton fringe cleaning. Avoid products using oxidation, the majority of products out there have oxygen producing chemicals in them - do not use these products - they permanently damage rugs. Proper chemistry for cotton will use reduction, the exact opposite of oxidation. Mix up a small amount of Fringe Cleaner with warm water (100°f to 120° f ) as per label directions. Mix up only what you will use as unused solution should be discarded after four hours. Label directions are as follows:
INSTRUCTIONS
1. After inspecting fringes, dust, brush vacuum or blow-out with compressed air.
2. Pretest in small inconspicuous area.
3. Pretreat oily, greasy, or heavily soiled fringes with Sublime or other anhydrous solvent prespray to break oily bonds.
4. Dilute Fringe Cleaner at 4 to 1 (32oz./gal) with warm water.
5. Carefully apply to fringe, knots, and kilim strip only - avoid face fibers. Use paint brush, sponge, upholstery brush, or other application device. Agitate by tamping or brushing as construction allows.
6. Hot water extract with clear, clean, hot water using a fringe cleaning tool or other
extraction device. Use extra vacuum only, passes.
7. Treat clean fringe with diluted Rug Soure to prevent browning and to accelerate the cleaning action of Fringe Cleaner.
8. Comb out fringe and dry as fast as possible. Some rugs have wool or silk fringes. Some hand made rugs made in more recent times are using synthetic yarns. As mentioned above, often good rug cleaning will take care of the fringes too. But when very soiled, pre - treating the fringes with a solution appropriate for the fiber type is a good practice. For wool and silk use Ultra Dry Neutral pH, simply spray on fringe and groom in. Allow five minutes of dwell time. Then clean as normal.
For synthetic fringes, use a pre-spray solutions appropriate for the fiber. Often cleaners find Ultra Dry Original to be a great fringe cleaner for synthetic fibers.
Heavily soiled fringes, especially those with oily, greasy, parking lot or kitchen oils should be pre-treated with Sublime to liquefy oils and break oily bonds, spray apply or brush on Sublime to fringe, knots and kilim strip. Since Sublime is an anhydrous solvent, it should not be damaging to rug pile yarns, but avoid pile yarns so you do not end up with a cleaner end on your rug. Allow one or two minutes of dwell time, then use one of the techniques listed above to complete cleaning.
If fringes still look bad after cleaning and drying, Fringe Whitener can make them look better and whiter. Fringe Whitener covers over discolorations without damaging the cotton fibers.
Some rugs have fringes that are henna, antique or tea dyed. Sometimes this color is removed during cleaning. You can replace this color loss with Tea Dye, or use it when white fringes are not wanted by your customer
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