What is your process to pre-test area rugs for bleeding and other potential problems? When do you decide to not immerse a rug?
There are a few ways that give good results. Take a test pad (paper towel, white cloth etc…) appl your cleaner and rug a color. Same but leave the pad on over night. Or the Lisa Wagner Hot and Wet test, soak pad in hot water cleaner and apply. I like Lisa’a it is fast and pretty accurate. Something else is to check for urine contamination . The old school way, sight, smell and touch (takes experience) Black light. pH spot meter to see where the pH is high. It shows urine and gives a likelyhood of bleeding. Trick is to meter the right spot so it goes well with the other two. Urrine can take a wool rug up to a high alkalinity of 12.5 at which point it is a time ****. A little experience goes a long way. Obviously a wool on wool Afghan rug is likely to bleed and also buckle. Certain other rugs are a continual problem. Some guys go by experience and keep plenty of AntiDye or white vinegar handy. Best wishes, Barry O’Connell http://www.SpongoBongo.com
@clean image marketing. Are you a cleaner or a marketing company? Or both? Your logos are awesome! Who designed them. Two thumbs up on your appearance.
Sorry about that Tron. I will defer to you and you can explain how you do it. I thought anyone who had done it before would get what I was saying. But I guess not. Best wishes, Barry O’Connell http://www.SpongoBongo.com
I sound like a jerk sometimes but I don't mean to, just the way I am. Actually you sound very educated in this matter so I was excited to read what you have to say but maybe I'm just retarded but I don't understand half of what you said, I don't mean I don't know what the words mean I just don't get the sentence itself. Like "appl your cleaner and rug a color" ?????
Hey Tron, I was not trying to bust your chops. I am dysgraphic which is a disability similar to dyslexia. Also my eye sight is going. When I said "appl your cleaner and rug a color" I was trying to say RUB the color that you want to test. If you have the cleaner on the test pad and color comes off when you rub it is going to bleed. I was also trying poorly to say that testing a color in one spot is not valid if there is old urine somewhere else. Urine can take a good color and ruin it. Lisa's test is faster and very accurate but you still have to watch for old urine. Rug washing used to be like Russian Roulette but with the new chemicals any guy can cash in on the rug washing trade. I will try to spell check and proof read better in the future. Best wishes, Barry O’Connell http://www.SpongoBongo.com
Thanks so much Barry, that's a big help. I used to wash a few rugs, but that's been almost 10 years ago, so my memory was failing me. But I'm thinking of setting up a rug wash pit in my garage and going after them again. Hey Tron, I'm a cleaner and a designer. Designing let's me burn off some creative energy, and cleaning gets me away from the computer. Thanks for your comments. BTW Barry, is the vinager to bring the PH back down in an emergency bleeding scenario? Or do you apply it to all urine areas prior to washing? Sorry for the newb questions.
Hi Phillip, Both. I laid it out as best I can in http://oriental-rug-cleaning.blogspot.com/2011/10/urine-contamination-send-vinegar-back.html I wrote it mostly to help me sort out all the info. What it is is that most Oriental rug dyes are acid dyes. If the wool gets alkaline from the urine the dye can basically fall off the wool when it gets wet. The dye stops sticking and the water carries it. We call that bleeding. So the water moves the dye and it finally lands on a color and dries. If it is lighter it shows. Red dye landing on blue is barely noticeable but the usual complaint is that the red lands on white and turns it pink especially the fringes. So if you can get the wool back into the neutral or acid range it helps. That is what the acid is for. Vinegar is just a cheap mild acid. It is not the best but it is really cheap and better than nothing. If the rug dries with bleeding in it the colors are set. To remove the bleeding takes a color Striper. The least expensive person I know is $50 per hour with a 3 hour minimum. Or you can buy the rug. By the way. If you need help on Rug Washing feel free to ask. Dusty Roberts and I have been helping guys like you who are getting set up. We do recommend stuff we know works but it is not about selling you soap or equipment. I don’t sell either. Best wishes, Barry O’Connell http://www.SpongoBongo.com
You can also use glacial acetic acid - if you can find it. I can't get it anywhere near me - used to but had to drive 90 mins. First time I ever used it on a nasty urine soaked rug I was amazed! The whole wash floor turned pee yellow! Now I go to Sams club and buy gallons of it - a pain as you end up with a million empty bottles - can't find drums of it. For bleed test I heat up a coffee cup full af water in the microwave - dip a white towel in it and press down on the rug. best to do it on several different colors. If no color transfer I repeat with the cleaning solution I am going to use to double check. After a while you can spot a bleeder - however - don't get too cocky and skip this step as you will get burned!
Hello the rugman quote: "For bleed test I heat up a coffee cup full af water in the microwave" That is very dangerous for your face and your eyes and for your safety. When you disturbe the hot water coming out of microwave it could explode (because of superheating) http://www.science.uwaterloo.ca/~cchieh/cact/applychem/waterphys.html http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NeWQ72X-YnM http://www.lsbu.ac.uk/water/microwave.html http://www.stevespanglerscience.com/experiment/exploding-water-in-the-microwave jamshid rowshan
Sounds good man, thanks for the info, me and The Eyball are in the early stages of setting up a rug cleaning shop, we both operate our own CC businesses and we share a huge shop that has tons of room to build this "spa" I want it to eventually become the premier rug cleaning facility in Indy! So I'm starting on it this week. I'll probably start a thread and post pics as I go. I'm really researching everything I can about it and what equipment would be best to have. Cleaning these things with our TM on the floor just isn't good enough in ,y opinion for these high end rugs, and I want to have real reason for getting 4 bucks a sq ft for it. Any advice is always helpful. Thanks
