Oh no, the stairs you cleaned turned white!

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I got an email saying that the stairs I just cleaned turned white.   So I went over today and took some pics. It is from ice melt that accumulated over the years. the fine powder wicked to the surface as it dried. You can see that it vacuumed right out and looks fine.

I remember when I got this account, they said that the other cleaner was giving them grief when this happened to him and they fired him. Instead of fixing the problem he wanted to argue and blame them! All I said was don't worry, I'll take care of it. I explained why the carpet turned white and it is all better now. I also said if they would like me to re clean it, I would be happy to. Simple... so very simple.  

When I cleaned these I used formula 90 to extract and liquid quake hd for prespray. They were samples that I got from a cad at the local supplier. I should have used an acid rinse but it never even occurred to me until afterwards.

I ran into stupid little problems when I started cleaning. First thing that happened was I had everything running and in place, went to squeeze the trigger on the hydroforce and nothing. So I check all connections and they are fine. I disconnected the hydroforce and the male end didn't have the little nub or whatever and spring. So silly me, I take the one off my wand and say to myself;   "Crap I should have taken it from my upholstery tool!" Then my doggone hydroforce was not working correctly so I took off the tip and the dang screen was plugged up with junk, I cleaned it off and looked it over and I discovered that the spring was broke and the little bearing fell right out. Luckily I use an older model hydroforce for my protector so I thought I would rob  the screen from that one. I needed to clean the screen with a wire brush and all was well.  

To tell you the truth I didn't know there were screens on the tips. Anyways, I hope that all you Real Cleaners like the pics and the story.

That happened to me in an office space. The janitor crew used carpet scent powder all the time. Had to clean twice to get it right

With all your little problems and frustration you recognized the problem and made a great decision and took care of your client. Thanks for the great info, pictures, and knowledge of what was going on.

Ryan S wrote:That happened to me in an office space. The janitor crew used carpet scent powder all the time. Had to clean twice to get it right

When I first looked at the photos, I was thinking the same thing. I run into talc-based powders all the time and have to ask the customer if they would sprinkle sand on their carpets? Then I remind them that talc is a rock!

Like it was said, you identified the cause and provided the solution. That is what a professional does when they run into surprises, so it looks like the customer has found themselves an excellent cleaner. 

I've had the ol' white powder residue wick up deal happen on many occasions over the years.
In my case it's always from excessive use of Carpet Fresh and poor or no post vacuuming.
So it really builds up deep in the carpet, and then lucky for us lol it wicks to the surface as the carpet drys and makes it look like we did something wrong.

The good thing is, usually just a good vacuuming will remove it. If there's still signs of it after vacuuming, you can quick n easy hit it with Encap.

Like most wicking problems, re-cleaning with HWE will usually just start the cycle over. I guess unless you just did a real quick low moisture pass.  .......but that's why I mentioned a quick light Encap going over.  

Great point Davey. I often hit stairs with encap and the cyclo polisher for that very reason. The results have always been good.

I was ready to do that too. I have a little Porter-Cable tool and when I looked for my encap, I didn't load it on my truck.

Good job!

Hey thanks everyone. I actually was looking at the pics and decided that the right thing to do was to re clean them. So I went back out today to finish all 4 stairwells.

After I cleaned them they looked great but they looked great after the first cleaning as well. The only thing that I did differently was change over to an acid rinse.

I thought about taking pictures of the steps but figured that it wouldn't be fair since they were not dry. I will post them when I go back. They have one of these barrels at every entry. It was a real nice day to clean carpet. 


 

That's dedication folks, I like it. The superman on the side looks good too! 

Ahh haa you found the culpret.

Nice van Pat nice and clean like the graphics too

Pat when you go back to do it for (I hate to say it but...) a third time, since you HWE again, I'd recommend at least doing a 'Encap Rinse', 'if' you do choose to HWE again, so there's much less chance of a 'next time'.  Although I would expect the problem to be less Severe after drying this time (as with many wicking problems) I think that you may still have a problem, but I hope I'm wrong!  

Or as I said in my previous post, just vacuum thoroughly and do a quick Encap cleaning to remove any residue left behind after vacuuming. But if you decide to HWE clean again, at least if you do an Encap rinse you will much less likely have a problem again, or if you do, you'll have a much better chance of being able to rectify it with just a good vacuuming.

:geek: