Thread: Encapsulation 101

How many square feet could a well made 20" bonnet cover on average? I know it a hard question, but I would liek to know about how many cases of bonnets I would need for a job, without having to ring them out, and at what size of a building would it be become more fruitful to get a machine.

Is there a great variance in area with the quality of bonnet? I had contacted a Bridgepoint supplier, and the gentleman was suggesting just 200 ft2. Would that be for a cheap bonnet making the $40-$50 ones payoff in the end?

Originally Posted by rougew

IICRC instructors seem adamant that encapsulation can only be done so many times before HWE. How many times would you think that could be done. My instructor sad it should be no more then three times.

IICRC instructors want you to HWE after 3 times because that is the safe way to go. Most of the time you can encap 3 to 4 times. Again, depending on soil conditions.
When I do an initial cleaning it is HWE. The next 3 cleanings at 3 month intervals are encap. What I am doing is using HWE annually and encapsulation in the interim.

Originally Posted by grimel

I've tried the green stripped bonnets and white pads. I'll take the white pads every time. Then again, I like the carpet brush on my 13" really well too.

As for the 360 vs a rotary encap, if you do enough dry passes to prevent wick back, you can do about 2x the carpet with the rotary.

On residential or commercial, or both? (and I assume with a carpet brush on the 360 if commercial)

Originally Posted by grimel

Commercial, I don't encap residential.

Who told you the carpet brush was required for the 360 on commercial? Might use it on a really nasty Chinese/Mexican eatery, but, I generally leave it at home.

Force of habit. I have always used a carpet brush to agitate pre-spray on my wanded extractor.

Originally Posted by Dave Yoakum

I use it for commercial cleaning. I use a 175 , encapuclean(or use your favorite juice) and instead of the fiber plus pads I use synthetic bonnets that have hard fiber strips embedded into them.

I did a 1000 sq ft job this week as a demo and it turned into over 13,000sq ft..

Customer love it better that HWE, after they see the results.

You can differentiate yourself from the HWE with all the many benefits, Fast drying, better results, no wicking, no hoses, no noise, faster cleaning.............

Was this a normal 175 rpm machine, or an op machine. I was looking at op machines at ccop.com, but they are not listing rpm's

I encap almost 100% of my commercial accounts. I Use a Cimex and an 20" Challenger OP. My fastest results when doing open hallways or large open rooms is about 2500 sf an hour. In normal offices I expect to get about 1500 - 2000 sf an hour.

I use Releasit DS primarily and Vacaway's Encap Green and Hot Knife occasionaly. Ive only seen one machine that claims 10,000 sf an hour and that is a gigantic $10k duel bonnet machine that I forget the name of.

I have used Bridgepoints Encapuclean and I wasnt very happy with the results. I have not used either of there new Encapuclean products so I can not say if they are any good or not.

Encapsulation isn’t mentioned as a method in the current S-100 standard. John is correct though that some of the carpet mills (not the IICRC) recommend that for every 3 encapsulation cleanings the carpet should be hot water extracted. It can get kind of muddled because the IICRC also has absorbent pad or bonnet cleaning and shampoo (rotary brush action) as methods, although many mills don’t recommend rotary brush action, especially bonnet cleaning. One mill in particular says their warranty is voided if type of rotary action (even a Cimex) is used to clean their carpet. I had an interesting discussion with one of the mills regarding their warranty and he basically said since they make the carpet and often times have to replace carpet that’s been damaged by cleaners they certainly can dictate what can and can’t be used on it, despite what the IICRC says. (Even though I didn’t agree with some of their warranty requirements I couldn’t argue with that.)
Of course, it’s all somewhat relative as to the methods used. That can vary greatly depending on the type of soil, proper equipment usage, frequency of cleaning and most importantly taking into consideration the budget of the customer.
It’s been my experience that most customers that buy carpet just want to keep their carpet to looking good at a competitive price and don’t care how you clean it. It will more than likely be your call on how to accomplish that. After all, we seldom know who manufactured the carpet we’re cleaning much less what the specifics are of their warranty.

I do a ton of encapping on my commercial carpet cleaning and absolutely love it. But I still do some occasional hot water extracting, when needed. I can’t imagine being without either one.
Jeff C
JonDon SFS

Very nicely said Jeff C.

Someone just recommended me using a carpet cleaning cleaning system that mix encapsulation and dry powder, including a pre-treatment for the carpet fibers...the company promoting that is called Brush And Clean. I could really use some information on new dry cleaning methods for my business. Any feedback guys?

Thank you