Olefin Carpet Cleaning

 

Olefin Carpet Cleaning

 

Olefin Carpet Cleaning is, often, relatively easy. However, olefin has a huge wick back problem that can cause headaches for the cleaner. Olefin carpet, is most often, a "berber" style carpet.

The Berber tribe in N  Africa, made a loop, salt and pepper style rug that became the name of todays salt and pepper, loop style "berber" carpets.

Todays loop berber can be olefin, wool or nylon face fiber.

Olefin carpet is easy and difficult to handle. How can this be?  Because it is almost non-absorbent. A spill can make it to the lower part of the fiber or the backing without getting absorbed. If the fiber was nylon or wool, it would absorb much of the drip, not allowing it to reach the backing. 

The spills are now sitting below the surface waiting to come to the  top. Other materials  that stayed on the surface could have been wiped off or worn off during vacuuming or from being walked on. When we clean, our hot water moistens the loops. We have now created a highway for the stain filled moisture to climb to the top of the fiber. Olefin fiber doesn’t wick, the moisture does.

 

The top of the carpet cleaned up great. The materials down below are on their way up to the surface. The homeowner calls the next day to say. "My carpet looks worse than it did before you cleaned it!"  The staining material wasn't absorbed, running down the fiber or "wicking" back up. 

 

  

One way to clean olefin

 

1)  Remove as much dry soil as possible by vacuuming, “the easy way”,  as the IICRC manual says, before turning it into mud.

 

 2) Use less prespray on olefin because olefin won’t absorb like wool and nylon. It's not necessary to use the same amount as on wool or nylon because it won't soak in..... it will run down the fibers.

 

3)  Use Olefin prespray. It works better.  Olefin loves oil. It is attracted to it. It does not soak into the fiber, it sticks on it. The oily soil on the olefin fiber can be very difficultto remove. The customer is confused. They are told it's "kid proof", you can pour bleach on it and nothing will happen. Nothing is supposed to stain it. 

 

Walkways can have a grey look that can't be cleaned out. The oily soils may clean out, but the crushed loops that reflect light different than the non crushed loops, will not.
Olefin fiber can be scratched and dented on the sides. When water fills the scratches and dents they appear to go away. The scratches can re-appear after the moisture evaporates.

 

4)  Serious spill type stains can be bonneted off the surface with a cotton pad or wiped off with a towel after prespray. You will prevent the material removed from being pushed down into the carpet with the water pressure of your wand. This isn’t always needed, but it’s better to be on the side of caution and do it too often rather than not enough.

 

 5)  Sometimes, if you don’t have a rotary machine, vacuuming with your wand after prespraying will remove 30-40% of the staining material. That means less to get pushed down into the non-absorbent fiber.

  

 

We want as much as possible for all movement to be “UP”, not “DOWN”.

 

6)  Re-apply a light mist of olefin prespray and brush it in with a grooming brush.

 

7)  You don’t need or want a lot of pressure. Reduce it to 200 - 225 psi. Volume does not change, just the pressure.

 

Only do this on the really grungy stuff. But, even on the lightly soiled ones, extensive vacuuming is required. Also, cut down your prespray volume and wand pressure.

 

 8)  You may need to change your wanding technique for olefin berber and woven, if you, like me, rinse all the way across and come back to dry stroke.

 

Do This:

 

      Rinse, followed immediately by a dry stroke, rinse, immediately follow with a dry stroke. Extract the moisture before it soaks in.

 

9) A slightly alkaline to neutral rinse product through the machine, seems to leave less residue than an acid. An acid after a high alkaline, which is what olefin prespray is, can leave a whitish look from salts that form.

  

10) A cotton bonnet pad can assist in drying, as a wand can bounce over the bumpy surface leaving some moisture. Bonneting can help clean between the uneven loops where the wand couldn’t go. It sometimes can help prevent wick back of spots.

  

11) Air movers. Dry, dry, dry.

  

 

Another effective way to clean olefin berber, if you have the equipment, is encapsulation. A BrushPro or Cymex can be very effective at cleaning and also does a good job at preventing wick back. BE SURE TO BRUSH ONLY DAMPENED CARPET. Etched olefin from pads or brushes spinning cannot be fixed. Carpet mills really don't like rotary scrubbing. Use soft brushes as olefin fiber melts at a very low temperature.

click link  goo.gl/ig0vi

 

Berber style carpet can be wool, nylon or olefin face yarn. A professional knows the difference. There can be problems waiting for those who don’t know.

In the past, an experienced cleaner could identify an olefin berber by its’ relatively hard and bristly hand compared to the softer, more giving feel of nylon. This ls getting more difficult. Some olefin is feeling softer as the mills get better at imitating nylon.

 

A clue that it might be olefin berber is when the wand feels like it’s sliding over a greased surface. It gets much less grip on the fiber than on nylon or wool.

 

Olefin crushes where weight has sat on it and it won’t spring back, or put another way, it’s non-resilient.

 

The burn test is the quickest and most convenient.  Attendance at an IICRC carpet cleaning school gives you an introduction to it. Use the chart from the manual. Another good idea is to get some olefin, wool and nylon carpet samples from your friends at the carpet store and practice burning these samples till you can identify them without hesitation.

 

Olefin is great for family rooms that get kid use or for rent houses. All the colored spots & stains will clean out. It’s not a luxurious feeling fiber and shouldn’t be used by those expecting this.

 

MAKE MONEY!

 

Dennis Klager

IICRC Instructor