Stain Guard

I received another call from a customer who seems to be having an allergic reaction to a carpet protector applied by a competitor. They want it gone immediately and have me booked tomorrow to do the entire 3-level house. After going through that same issue last year, I called the product maker (named on the invoice) to find out the best way to strip their product from the fibers. As soon as I mentioned the allergic reaction, I got forwarded to several people until finally landing at the desk of the Supervisor of technical development who recoreded the call for legal. All I wanted was some product information regarding its limits to try and speed the removal process, but they wrapped up in legal lingo and just became defensive.

I guess that is the nature of society these days and they were immeditately thinking lawsuit defense. I didin't think it was an unfair question, they know what damages their protector, so why can't they just tell me that? Instead, they wanted the product UPC code, application date, where it was purchased, how was it applied, etc. as well as suggesting that it was impossible for it to trigger an allergic response. We all know that after several cleanings you need to re-apply the product, so I was just trying to get some information to best remove it in one attempt. I guess the whole topic sent the turtle back into the shell.

I have never been a fan of protector and this didn't improve my view on it. Oh well, I guess I will use my best judgement.

I don't use protector on my carpet because we have pets. I would not want to take a chance of making them sick. We cage them when I clean, so they don't walk through the power max I have from Cobbs.

If someone wants to sell/use it, I don't have a problem with that.

But there should be something on the label or the MSDS to tell you how to remove it, in case someone does have a reaction or just wants it removed for some reason.

One would think being defensive like that and refusing to help, would open them even wider to a lawsuit if there was to be one. The homeowner wants it gone, so why not help?

I agree, I never offer it anymore. It does a fine job, but even the new formula leaves their chemical in your body for more than a month post exposure. Do that several times per week and you are swimming in it. I value my own health more than any stain protection. It is just a personal choice, but I was surprised by the responses being so defenisve. I just wanted to know what would break it down faster...high heat, oxidizers, etc. In the end, the only advice they offered was to just rinse it with hot water...nothing more.

I figure since the wife is already suggesting replacement, I can be very aggressive in my efforts, but if I can help them AND not damage the fabrics, that would be ideal. I guess I can only go into it like a traditional cleaning job, but with a little more aggressive agitation and higher than normal heat.

Wouldn't a high PH cleaner also work for breaking it down?

It should as would an oxidizer, but I know that the product is supposed to withstand a couple of HWE cleanings before needing to be re-applied, so I wanted to accelerate the process. I will be cleaning the house this afternoon and plan to clean as normal, but use the HOSS extractor on it to increase agitation. Maybe it helps, maybe it doesn't.

That call turned into cover there ass phone call.

Doesnt high heat strip protector?

It should all have an effect, but it didn't get it done the first time I cleaned it. The other cleaner applied it to smart-strand carpet which makes no sense at all and I didn't want to damage the carpet by being too aggressive the last time. The customer said that it did help reduce her allergy issues, but did not get rid of it. I just wanted to have greater success this time around.

I was pretty aggressive this time around and scrubbed the hell out of it, used a strong alkaline prespray, upped the heat, and used very slow strokes. I don't know what else could be done. The wife returns tonight, so I should find out pretty soon if it had the desired effect. With the exception of the OSR, I used a prespray that has proven to work really well on those corn-based carpets and should not cause damage.

I stayed long enough to get everything dry to the touch to make sure there weren't and issues...looked really good. Now it will be up to lady of house to find out if it helped.

Smart strand...what a bunch of crap.
Upscale flooring store has it in show room. Creamy yellow. Some what new black top parking lot. Traffic oil.
"This is smart strand, should clean up really easy".
"Can you get it a little cleaner?" He has no freaking clue.

Yup, not a fan of the stuff and a pita to push a wand through it.