Diesel soot and carpet don't mix.

I gave an proposal for carpet cleaning for a twenty story high rise condo near Ala Moana center in Honolulu last week. It's a very short polyester loop pile (indoor out door) brown, glue down carpet. It has a lot of diesel soot from trucks and buses along with urban traffic. They've tried the "one cord portable squirt and suck guys" with the expected poor results. It hasn't been touched in two years and they're thinking about tearing it out. Needless to say my bid is quite a bit higher than they're used to paying. My plan (I'm open to suggestions) is after vacuuming I'm going over the carpet with a Cimex scrubber with pads and a high Ph pretreatment followed by an extraction. (Hoses run up the stairwell from a good truck mount) I explained the carpet wasn't going to look new due to wear and tear so to have realistic expectations. If anyone has any experience with this type situation.

Forgot to mention I'll be using a hole glide on the wand. I'd set u a demo on the lobby carpet and when I got there the plan had changed. They wanted a demo on one of the floors. I hadn't brought along the Cimex so after prespraying I used a little Oreck orbital followed by extraction. I hadn't planned on running hoses up a stairwell so worked up a pretty good sweat. It looked pretty good but there was plenty of soot left down in the pile.

Diesel soot is both oily and carbon based so you have a unique situation. I would be thinking strong emulsifier is going to be needed. Something that can really attack the oil aspect of the carpet.

Remember, "oil loves oil" and that type of carpet is going to want to hold onto it for dear life. The agitation of the cimex will only smear it around without a strong emulsifier that can be a little foamy to hold it in suspension....something like "Dirt Chaser" from Pro's Choice.

Being the indoor / outdoor stuff, you don't have to be nice....hit it strong from the start. Might even add some liquid "Power Gel" to the scrubbing pad to really cut through it and up your water pressure a little as well.

Sounds like it might get a little messy.

one of the best products ive found for extreme oil, and I mean EXTREME grease/oil

is none other than grease eraser, but soot is carbon based so you might want to dig deep with a crb

I would vac the heck out of it first, pre scrub your emulsifier with the Cimex brushes, extract with some extreme heat, finish it off by spraying some encap and using the Cimes pads

I would have em buy new! sounds like more than I want to do. lol

Hey I'm not a carpet cleaner but I've got a customer that cleans movie theaters. Popcorn oil butter salt and crazy as it sounds he swears by viper venium as a prespray then extract, says that it works great for him. He still has the contract after 3 yrs and still cleaning with it. I've used it for a degreaser cleaning equipment. Just throwing it out there.

Ace...what ever he uses it needs agitation ....sounds like its deep and a prespray will only work the top. If its not to much footage I would work it. Pics would be good.

Ace...youre not a carpet cleaner ??? the real question is "have you ever stayed at a Holiday Inn Express?"

Hey I said i'm no carpet cleaner. But I was just telling you what one of my customer uses and works for him.
Viper venom is for tile cleaning with a 12.5 Ph.
And yes I have , and sorry if I irked you.

Nobody was irked ACE, Devon had his tongue firmly in cheek.

As one who does clean theaters, that is an interesting idea. I've seen guys clean them with pressure washers as well at 1,000 psi, but that is outside of reason to me.

I have used Oxyblaster on theater carpets before, so the Viper probably isn't much different. Might be worth trying it out the next time around.

Thanks for all the great ideas guys. I use a 12.5 ph prespray on polyester carpet and usually use pads. If I get the job I'll try the brush heads on the Cimex along with your suggestions.

I also have a 16 plex theater job with plenty of popcorn oil and soda spills. I was using the high ph as a prespray followed by an RX-20 extraction. I switched to encapsulation through the Cimex along with about half a cup of 35% H2O2 per tank. The old carpet is noticeably brighter due to the H2O2. After I run over an area with the Cimex we extract the heavy traffic pattern with the RX-20 to blend it all in. The rest of the place looks great just using encapsulation. My cleaning time is cut dramatically so the profit margin goes up. Win win for everybody. One note about the theater carpet. It's not the short poly crap I see in most theaters. This is a very old and faded nylon which has been around for thirty years. When I took it over a number of years ago it was horrendous. I over bid it on purpose because i didn't want it. It's turned into a steady profitable job after all.

A theater willing to pay.....that is a keeper my friend!

I clean 3 of them per year and they are more frugal than any property manager I've worked for over the years. I have to really squeeze hard to find some extra coins.

Sorry Ace...I was making a poor attempt at being funny. This forum has been a little to serious for me lately. I try to enjoy life a little and cut up. Maybe to much.

Milspec6 I know what you mean about theaters being frugal. That's the reason I gave a high price bid. For eons they had gone with the lowest possible bid and the carpet looked it. After I hit it with 12.5 ph prespray and 220 degree extraction through an RX-20 it was an ah ha moment for them. The carpet has lightened considerably over the years and needs cleaning once a month. By contrast the carpet in the Mililani theater (I don't know who does it and it looks like it's never touched) looks like concrete. I wouldn't wish that cleaning job on my worst competitor. Well maybe I would. LOL

Wow, 20 floors with TM ? You're a brave man !!!
Devon, I actually laughed at your comment but just to clear the air a bit, I'm not sure you know already or not, Ace is our precious TM mechanic, that's why he said he's not a carpet cleaner, lol.

I'm going to do 5th floor office tomorrow and I'm already shaken up on pulling the hoses up

Hey I'm curious did you get the carpet cleaning at 20 story building how did it come out.

Milsepc6,

The theater is actually a good money maker. You have to have a manager who sticks to her guns on the way the place looks. We start a 10pm in a big lobby area that's not in use. The last movie has started and they won't be out until nearly midnight. We can cover ground fast with a Cimex going ahead of the RX-20 two man crew. The whole place gets knocked out in three and a half hours. It works out to around $400 an hour. I can't complain. I never thought I'd see that happen with a theater. Most don't want to spend the money.

That's my kind of theater....should see if they would throw in a few free movies per month as well.

As a teenager, I used to have a deal with the local theater and bowling alley to clear any snow greater than 3 inches in exchange for free movies and bowling for me and one guest year round.

I think I only had to plow the lots maybe 3x all winter. It was a great deal for a 16 year old.

Why would they/you want to start income the evening?
I use to do one; 8am- 4-5 hours and get the humongo lobby and 2 halls(6k sf) + do 2-3 screens of the 8 they have.
Open before matinees.

Re: the desiel soot.
Now I'm no chemist...
Would an encap help?