How To Clean Flotex Carpet

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#1

hi, can any one tell me how to clean a large flo tex carpet which is full of enbedd soil, thanks terry. :rolleyes:

soak it and scrub it and extract it!

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#3

i have pre spayed with prochem multi pro and have used extraction pro to rince, but is still re soiling on top

Terry,

I am sure that Goron intended to say dry vacuum first!

If it has been cleaned before with a detergent, it may already be carrying a high residue. Wet a small area and see if you can work up a lather with a soft brush - if you can then, probably wetting well with water, brushing in thoroughly and rinsing either with plain water or an acidic rinse agent is likely to produce the best result.

Always clean Flotex on the wet side and allow good airflow at the carpet/wand interface whilst flushing.

Hi Terry

John is on the button with the dry vacumeing of flowtex
as they tent to hold quite a bit of dry soiling
this is one carpet that i always dry vac especialy in comercial
and iam no angle when it comes to prevacing.
do it twice at least, in oppisite directions and you will find the exstraction prosess so much easier and quicker.
another tip if very very dirty and doing a large areas ie 1000 squfoot
plus. i sometimes put the prespray on with -- wait for it --- a watering can with a fine rose head on it it just gets it down quicker and you can get it on a bit heavier as well. if you have a rotary machine 200 speed our lower you can use it also on it.

Davy

Hi terry

just re read your second post. If your are useing prochem products
i personaly dont really rate multipro. I personaly would use ultrpac renavate if i was useing prochem prducts on this carpet with a dwell time of about 10 minutes
if you have a rotary use it to scrub it in also.

You mentioned a resoiling problem, if your machine has only a 100 psi pump it probily isnt getting enough water down to rince the soil out completly our you could be pulling your wand over the carpet to quickly
also when you have finished the cleaning proscee go over it again with a acid rince prochem sell fabric and fiber rince and that will help to reset the ph plus you will pull more soil out the second time round.
These type of carpets do need a lot of rinceing and pre vacing.

Davy

David

Take care with your use of Ultrapak ..the dyes on Flotex carpeting are only surface dyes.

I have successfully cleaned acres of Flotex carpeting in situations where you could scrape black grease off with a knife using relatively low pH chemicals.

Hi Terry

I too have cleaned acres of Flotex.

For me, the most important part on trashed Flotex is the preparation. I will pre-vac and then using the stiffest brushes dry agitate well with a Host/Envirodri/Agimac type machine. Wear a mask, the dust produced is phenonimal! Then vac again, brush again, vac again.

My preferred chemistry is for a micro-splitter. Dye test and use Solution H/D or One Step Dynax if safe, or Solution No2 or regular One Step if dyes are sensitive. Go Woolsafe if necessary. Agitate again with the stiffest brushes. You will still pull out loads of fibrous krap. It's amazing what Flotex will absorb! Finally, freshwater rinse. In extreme cases, the spray/scrub/rinse process has to be repeated. The excess of fibrous material will not be removed without the high intensity agitation with the stiffest of brushes.

It's important to realise that this process is not carpet cleaning. It's carpet restoration so must be charged accordingly. During your inspection, look carefully for heavily worn pile. This will always look duller than the rest.

I have a contract with an outdoor pursuits centre which has virtually nothing but flotex. You can imagine what a combination of muddy boots, careless school parties and insufficient routine vacuuming does. Just yesterday I cleaned a 40 sq.m. area which had never been cleaned in 10-15 years. Spent nearly three hours on it, put 40 gallons of water/chemicals through it (with a TM) and it was still dirty. My first reaction with this stuff is that unless you can lift it and throw it in a bath or something, it is impossible to remove all the soil.
Agree with all the previous comments, emphasising that you cannot over wet flotex, the more water the better. I also find that it doesn't matter much what you use on it, releasing the dirt isn't a problem, it's extracting it. I personally wouldn't use a rotary as I think the fabric offers too much resistance, an agimac/tm4 is better. Folk are amazed when they see what comes out of a dirty flotex floor. I hate the stuff.

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#10

I have a contract with an outdoor pursuits centre which has virtually nothing but flotex. You can imagine what a combination of muddy boots, careless school parties and insufficient routine vacuuming does. Just yesterday I cleaned a 40 sq.m. area which had never been cleaned in 10-15 years. Spent nearly three hours on it, put 40 gallons of water/chemicals through it (with a TM) and it was still dirty. My first reaction with this stuff is that unless you can lift it and throw it in a bath or something, it is impossible to remove all the soil.
Agree with all the previous comments, emphasising that you cannot over wet flotex, the more water the better. I also find that it doesn't matter much what you use on it, releasing the dirt isn't a problem, it's extracting it. I personally wouldn't use a rotary as I think the fabric offers too much resistance, an agimac/tm4 is better. Folk are amazed when they see what comes out of a dirty flotex floor. I hate the stuff.

hi, i must say after going over it 4 times the same amount of mud came out, the problem that i had is that my wand seem to leave some patches of soiling still on the top of the pile, i have the chance of cleaning this schools carpets 4 times a year, so what would be your advise on what to buy to scub it, regards terry.

Terry

Presuming you have HWE kit and a decent commercial grade vacuum cleaner, I would go for an Envirodri/Agimac machine. I would try to get it with the Gold and White Chipmunk style brushes supplied as standard with the machine (usually comes with just the white) and buy the black stiff brushes as an extra. Run the brushes in first.

If you're coming to the Cleaning Show at the NEC in two weeks time, you'll get to see all that's available.

Hi Terry
MMM fond memories. Can't stand it. The real trick is ALL the above. Only to add, when you've soaked it tilt the wand right up or right down if you are short until you hear air escaping & it's not sucking solid to the deck & unfortunatly keep going over it. It does get better but can take many cleaning passes.
Tried Rotovac- Failed. Tried Dry Fusion- HA! failed. Tried the trusty wand- Wahhay!

Good luck

Hi all

The only rotary that i have found that works pretty well on this stuff
is the one that texathem supplies with there system.
The reason being is because its gear box driven and not belt driven
plus its well balanced machine.

Davy

I regularly clean a couple of nursing homes with Charly pads, a 180rpm rotary and microsplitters (now M-Power) getting great results despite large amounts of tea, fruit juice, trampled-in sandwiches and urine.

The trick is to dilute the M-Power at about 1:200, apply heavily and to always work with a wet pad.

Many years ago I had to clean some of this stuff in a garage showroom.
I rang Flotex and asked them how to do it.
They said to mix a bucket of my normal cleaning solution, throw it all on the floor to flood it, scrub it well with a stiff yard broom, then extract.
I have done this more or less ever since, according to the size . Plenty of liquid and stiff brush, I find white brushes on an Agimac good. With my slotted tool to extract they usually come up well without too much trouble, they take a while to dry even with good extraction.
Amazing how much rubbish comes out of its short pile, sometimes nearly an inch in the bottom of the tank.

Trevor

Trevors method works exceptionally well on Flotex and I have done similar myself.

But a word of warning, especially if the floor levels work against you, things like the base boards on kitchen furniture can absorb excess water and "blow" so be careful.

That's interesting John, never tried charlies on flotex before, always found any pad too "sticky" and worried about burning out the motor on the rotary. Maybe I will experiment next time with them but, honestly, I just cannot see how you can get the dirt out of a flotex carpet with a LM method, - maybe if you are in there every few weeks perhaps it works in the long run?
Going back to the original post Terry, it was a good point about tilting the wand to get some air flow, but if you are working with a portable you have my deepest sympathy... I use a TM and would hate to have to clean flotex with a portable now. The best thing to do is persuade your customer to rip up the 'tex and have some LP polypropylene carpet fitted in its place.

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#19

You're welcome Terry - worth joining, wasn't it? :wink: