FLOORCARE & MAINTENANCE Carpets are carpets… right? Prochem’s Sales Director, Phil Jones, explains why that's not always the case.
When it comes to cleaning, carpets are often perceived singularly: get a machine, some solution and off you go. However, like cars, they all get you from A to B, but do it differently – not only in the cleaning processes available, but also in the chemistry a certain carpet (or more importantly, its fibres) can bear.
Many cleaners get apprehensive cleaning carpets, thanks to whispered horror stories of shrinkage, colour loss, stretching, or black or brown patches that can remain afterwards. Nobody wants to explain these to customers, so let’s look at the main carpet types being sold and installed in homes and commercial environments.
Textile floorcoverings in offices are predominantly carpet tiles. They’re fitted easily and individual tiles can be changed when required. Tiles come in a range of colours and patterns, manufactured with either a nylon or polypropylene pile fibre: to clean them without worry demands knowing what chemical solution to use. If the pile fibre is polypropylene (a synthetic material made from oils) it’s deemed to be chemically inert and isn’t affected by chemistry.
However, a nylon fibre (also a synthetic material) is more sensitive to some cleaning chemicals which, in certain circumstances, could cause dye bleed (loss of colour) or fibre degradation. That’s when it’s useful to know the basics of the pH scale, which measures the strengths of water-based detergents in terms of acidity, neutrality and alkalinity.
Prochem makes this easier to understand by colour-coding on its packaging. Many alkaline cleaning products have a green or blue label on the bottle/tub; neutral-based products generally carry a yellow label; and acidic are orange and red.
So, polypropylene can be cleaned with stronger alkalinity than a nylon fibre should, and with fewer issues.
A common issue with carpet tiles is staining. Look at a carpet tile side on for a strong secondary backing – often bitumen; an oil-based material, like tarmac, it gives the carpet tile a dimensional stability. The enemy is known as bitumen-bleed.
If operators choose either a strong alkali or possibly a solvent (oil) based product to remove a greasy or unknown stain from a carpet tile, detergent may potentially sink into the carpet tile and start dissolving the bitumen layer, which dries back to the surface leaving a black/brown mark.
This can be difficult or even impossible to remove. Many offices simply change carpet tiles, but this comes at extra cost when the problem can be eliminated by using a solvent-based spotter in a gel format, like Prochem’s E840 Citrus Gel.
Carpet tile manufacturers are beginning to remove bitumen layers in favour of more sustainable material without
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affecting the tile’s quality and performance. Recycled fishing nets or plastic bottles can maintain the dimensional stability and fulfil sustainability requirements as well as cutting costs. In most residential environments, carpets are fitted wall-to-wall and made from polypropylene, nylon, polyester and wool fibres.
Nylon and wool are ‘pH-sensitive’ and should be cleaned with more delicate chemistry, especially products carrying a WoolSafe-approval logo. Prochem is the UK’s largest manufacturer of WoolSafe-approved products, with 17 solutions in its range.
A fitted carpet is made in layers, with a secondary layer being the carpet’s back. A sign of a good quality carpet is a natural, plant-based material such as hessian (jute) on the back. However, ‘cellulosic browning’ can be caused by cleaning and/or the use of high alkaline products on carpet – the dye within the natural material is affected, causing it to bleed to the surface. This mark can be difficult to remove.
Once again, manufacturers are making changes to production processes, which actually have an advantage to the cleaner, as they’re removing the natural plant-based material in favour of recycled synthetics.
For over 50 years, Prochem has run training courses for the cleaning industry. Its one-day carpet cleaning course is particularly popular for cleaners wanting to know about potential pitfalls and how to avoid them.
www.prochem.co.uk/training
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