3 Causes of Permanent ‘Staining’ on Commercial Carpet
The Most Important Part of Carpet Cleaning: Extraction.
July 7, 2020
Advances in Marble Restoration
August 27, 2020
Over 20 years ago, a valuable carpet cleaning lesson was learned when a baby threw Spaghetti O’s on a carpet. I tried and tried, but couldn’t get the stains out with any cleaning or specialty stain removal treatment!
Why?
It began to make sense after I realized the material used to weave the carpet (nylon, wool, olefin, etc) makes a big difference with staining. It turns out it was an Olefin fiber or polypropylene, the same material used for commercial carpets.
But first, let me digress and explain the difference between a stain and a spot.
A stain is created by an actual chemical binding between the carpet fiber and the spill or smudge. There is no binding involved with a spot. They may look identical, but usually, spots are dark in color and just dirt. Whereas, a stain is usually colorful. (i.e. red, blue, yellow, etc.) Spots are easily removed and stains essentially dye the fiber or your carpet. Cleaning does not get rid of the stains. Specialty stain removal treatments are needed. The chemical binding required to create a stain is not possible with commercial carpet because it is woven with polypropylene fibers.
This is great news…
But polypropylene fibers or commercial carpet can still, be permanently marked in three ways:
| 1. Olefin is the marketed name of this carpet… It is oil-loving! An oily spill becomes ‘part’ of the fiber immediately (absorbed) and there is nothing to remove! That is what happened in my Spaghetti-O’s education. There was no stain to remove. The oil and the color of the food were ‘absorbed’ by the carpet fibers! 2. Low melting point. Dragging furniture around the office can be enough to ‘melt’ the fibers so the dirt is enclosed within the fiber as it hardens again. Permanent dark lines can be easily created by this seemingly innocent task… take care for the sake of your carpet! 3. Easily crushed and scratched. Remember that everything you see is reflected light, and that includes traffic lanes. You can clean away the dirt pretty easily, but the wear can never be cleaned. That wear is what creates apparent dirt (scratched and crushed carpet fibers reduce light reflection) and the resulting dark traffic lane can never be “cleaned” away by anyone. All these disadvantages can be easily dealt with and in a commercial setting, the pros easily outweigh the cons. However, you need to know what you’re dealing with and take the appropriate actions. Such as… avoiding oily spills by providing a break room and do not let employees eat at their desks! |
| Give us a call at (510) 796-1150 if you’re interested in a scheduled maintenance program that saves you money in the long run. |
