Got a call back yesterday

**danny4406** · 10-01-2009, 11:04 AM

I had one of my techs do a job about a month and a half AGO in a elderly womans apartment. This is from one of the complexs I do. The property manager calls me and says there is bleach spots from the bathroom all the way to the door. Thats right I said over a month ago. I told her I would take a look at it Friday. The only thing I can think of is this woman spilled bleach on her carpet and is trying to pin it on me. I told her why so long on the complaint if we did something wrong she would of noticed it within a couple of hours. The manager said the tenant went on vacation and just noticed it. I hate jumping to conclusions but my mind wonders. This property is a gold mind to when it rains do not want to lose it. My tech says there were no spots when he did the job. Guess I have to wait to see.

**Scott W** · 10-01-2009, 01:49 PM

The spots proably are new. But hard to prove either way.

Fix it quickly with bleach neutralizer and some crayons. Then move on.

**Kenny Wright** · 10-01-2009, 02:52 PM

Get a big box of Crayola.

Scott excuse my ignorance; what is bleach neutralizer, how do I use it, and where do by it? Thanks.

**tony123** · 10-01-2009, 05:18 PM

bleach neutralizer and some crayons? intresing.

yeah thats a tough one Daniel. Someting like that happend recently to me where the tenets where pinning me on a tar on the carpet, luckly the manager knew about it before i got there! Phew....

**Frank DiGi** · 10-01-2009, 06:14 PM

Like Scott said will work.. But I would make a point to say" I don't clean with bleach " Or do I use any product that has bleach in it to cause this"..
Like you are saying its a gold mine for you.. I would just try what Scott said and keep them happy....

**Scott W** · 10-01-2009, 06:55 PM

Originally Posted by Kenny Wright

Get a big box of Crayola.

Scott excuse my ignorance; what is bleach neutralizer, how do I use it, and where do by it? Thanks.

Bleach neutrralizer can be any of several reducing agents. The most commonly used one is sodium thiosulfate which is also called "hypo.' This is sold in dye kits to neutralize bleach spills before doing spot dyeing. One popular brand name is Chlorid.

Any place that sells spot dyes kits should have it but often in small bottles. For larger sizes, try Americolor. I think they are in Tigard Oregon. You can also look on the Internet under any of the chemical or brand names.

Spot dyeing with crayons is simple after a little practice. Depending on the shade of colro for the carpet, you may find a crayon that matches exactly. Many time s you will need to mix.

Don't carry the box of 64 Crayola brand into the home. Make the client think you have something special.

Simply rub a single color crayon onto the bleach spot from different directions to cover the entire tuft.

Or - if you need multiple colors combined, this can be done by slightly softening the wax crayon with a few drops of rubbing alcohol. Then rub multiple colors on the tuft until you get just the shade you want.

A variation on this is to place a few drops of rubbing alcohol on a piece of ceramic tile or smooth glass. Rubb the crayons and mix on this "pallette" until you get the right color. Then rub onto the spot.

Up to this point, there are solvent solvents including our solvent clean that can remove the wax.

When you have it just right, place a damp white towel on top and hit it with a wall paper steam, steam iron or similar. Give it 30 seconds or so of steam heat. The color is now locked in.

The fiber will feel different and may look different if you are down on the floor looking right at it. But, it will fool anyone from standing height.

**Kenny Wright** · 10-01-2009, 07:01 PM

Two questions:

Does the neutralizer need to be rinsed/removed before proceeding with crayon?

Do I get the wax up with Solvent Clean before damp towel and heat or will the solvent remove the crayon color?

**Clean Image Care** · 10-01-2009, 08:40 PM

Wow, I thought the crayons was a joke.
Amazing

**TheEyeball** · 10-02-2009, 06:18 PM

Just curious, why use crayons when you can use carpet dye?

**mrpurified** · 10-02-2009, 06:27 PM

Cookie cutter, tape , iron

**Scott W** · 10-02-2009, 07:04 PM

ANSWERS -

Clean the wax up with Solvent Clean if you don't like the color and want to change. Otherwise don't clean it. Once you apply the heat, the color is set and will not clean out.

Why use crayons instead of carpet dye? Personal preference. Many men are partially or completely color blind. They find it easier to get crayons to match than liquid dyes. Also some fibers will not accept liquid dyes but can be dyed with crayon. Stain resist fibers resist dyes and may turn out much lighter than expected. They don't resist crayons.

If you are good with dyes, a dye will always give a better final feel to the carpet than crayons. If you have the tools and a scrap of carpet to do a boned insert, that will give a great result.

**TheEyeball** · 10-03-2009, 10:31 PM

Originally Posted by Scott W

ANSWERS -

Clean the wax up with Solvent Clean if you don't like the color and want to change. Otherwise don't clean it. Once you apply the heat, the color is set and will not clean out.

Why use crayons instead of carpet dye? Personal preference. Many men are partially or completely color blind. They find it easier to get crayons to match than liquid dyes. Also some fibers will not accept liquid dyes but can be dyed with crayon. Stain resist fibers resist dyes and may turn out much lighter than expected. They don't resist crayons.

If you are good with dyes, a dye will always give a better final feel to the carpet than crayons. If you have the tools and a scrap of carpet to do a boned insert, that will give a great result.

Thanks for the answer. I was shocked to learn crayons are used to do color repairs. Never heard that one before I started coming here.

**TechnicRay** · 10-04-2009, 01:59 PM

Reading this made me extremely angry. I hate when clients say they were gone on vacation and didnt have time to call back. Id probably feel the property manager out and tell them you will have to charge the tenant to spot dye it. If there are too many you end up having to dye the entire apartment. Also Id ask to see the walk thru sheet from when she moved in. If there was bleach on the carpet then the maintenance men would of caught it a before she moved in.

**donerightcc** · 01-17-2010, 07:06 AM

wow, gotta try this

**bonesheal** · 01-17-2010, 10:26 AM

Glad this came up! I'm going to put some bleach spots in my carpet this week and see if I can make this work.

**Elite Carpet Cleaning** · 01-17-2010, 10:49 AM

Simple awesome. I got to try this. I am new to the carpet cleaning world so I am learning all kinds of cool tricks. Never thought a crayon would come into play in carpet cleaning. If it is 1 or 2 spots is it easier to use a cookie cutter or do you still recommend the crayon trick?

**Newman** · 01-17-2010, 11:02 AM

Danny, how did this call back turn out?

Originally Posted by Elite Carpet Cleaning

If it is 1 or 2 spots is it easier to use a cookie cutter or do you still recommend the crayon trick?

Crayons would be the first step. Whatever you do is correctable / changable. If you are still not happy with the look, then go to a patch repair. Bleach spots usually end up in traffic patterns in the carpet where there could be fiber damage, sun lightening, ect.. The repair pieces that you steal from the closet look new. The tuft variation will somtimes show.

**ACC** · 01-17-2010, 11:03 AM

Thanks Scott for the useful tip. I think every situation is going to be different and having that extra tip or trick is money in my pocket. Cookie cutter idea is good as well but you dont always have a piece of carpet to do that repair with. More tools in the bag = more money in the pocket.

**wandwizard** · 01-17-2010, 11:57 AM

My thoughts on this are clear. I will own up to something if I know I caused it, but I will not own up to a problem when it is crystal clear the person living there caused the problem. It is clear in this case that the person living there used bleached in her bathroom, probably to disinfect the toilet or something and dripped the bleach on to her carpet w/o knowing it. The thing is when bleach goes on to a carpet it does not immediately take the color out. On a few occasions over the years I've cleaned places where the carpets' dye had been compromised by bleach or other strong chemicals and as soon as I cleaned it the dye was removed. In this case I would have ask the lady if she uses bleach in her bathroom or if anyone else had, because I use no products in the home that will remove color from any carpet. I would have told the property manager the same. Either the woman currently living there spilled bleach on the carpet or the person who lived there before her did it, but it was not evident until the carpet was cleaned and revealed the problem. Chances are that color came out the instant the tech cleaned that carpet and he either was freaked out and didn't want to tell or he just didn't notice which is unlikely. The very fact that color was only removed in those spots is proof in itself that the person living there currently or the one before them did the deed otherwise the color would have been removed over the entire carpet if the cleaning solution had anything at all to do with it. I have cleaned homes where the home owner had gotten the bright idea to mix up some bleach with dish washing liquid for spot remover and every place they used it the color came out. I've also seen people use laundry stain removers that contain bleach and that will take color out of carpet too, but not until some unsuspecting carpet cleaner comes in and cleans the carpet!!! A few years ago I cleaned a living room for a woman who used Mean Green full strength to spot clean her carpet. Every single place she used it took the color out as soon as my wand hit it.

**danny4406** · 01-17-2010, 09:56 PM

I took a walk down to the lady's apartment with the property manager. Upon examining the carpet there was hundreds of bleach marks about the size of pen tops from the bathroom to the kitchen. I told the woman that there is absolutely no cleaning solutions in my van that would cause this. She responds with she has nothing in her apartment that contains bleach. It went back and forth for awhile in a good way with no arguing. She finally says well maybe while filling my bucket up in the tub with floor cleaner to clean my kitchen floor it might of dripped. Well mam may I see the cleaner when looking at the ingredients I see peroxide is one of them. Mystery solved. I offered to fix it for 300 left my business card and never heard from her.