Picked up a rug to clean at the shop, its not woven but has a latex backing similar to a regular carpet, anyway,cleaned it as normal, took it back to the customers home, unrolled it, and had an explosion of white dust on her hardwood floor. It doensnt seem like dirt, but actually the backing flaking off. Is there anything I can do to remedy this, or do I need to buy her a new rug as per her request? Thanks.
The back coating can often flake off these latex rubber backed rugs. This may be in part a result of cleaning. It could be a result of an aging rug. The rugs are usually inexpensive. So you may want to buy her a new rug to keep a good customer happy even if you do not think it is your fault.
Your customers rug is delaminating. It is nothing you have done as a cleaner, unless you dry cleaned it. And I am sure you did not dry clean it. Age causes delamination. Instead of making this a fault issue, next time you can capitalize on the problem and offer to relaminate the rug for her at a cost. Its easy to do and we do it all the time. You can buy latex and put it on yourself and make good money doing it. Another scenario would be that your customer is using powder fresh or something. That stuff loves to hide deep down and can be difficult to remove. But if your certain its the backing then it probably is the backing.
It is the glue / latex crumbling and not your fault. Next time you get a similar rug pre-warn your customer and usually they are understanding. Or like Ara's suggestion latex the back again and make more money, I love the up sell.
That's one way of doing it Rob. May I suggest using a trowel next time. You get good coverage and less mess.:AddEmoticons04233:
Trowel is OK but we use a 6" Taper's Knife/Spatula, works great, good control and easy to clean just let the latex dry and peel it off. If you only do a portion of the rug use painters tape to square off the repair it looks neater and more professional.
Thanks guys for all the info, Yeah Rob, that was my coworkers idea too, he said lets shellac it! Anyway, going to roll it up and take it back to custy, with new explanations on what is going on with her "prized JCPenny cheapo rug"
I hadn't heard of rug latex or redoing the backing. Cool idea. Is the latex available in the big box stores or is it a specialty item? Do you generally redo the entire backing or just trouble spots? And of course the most important question is how much do you charge for the service? Thanks.
