Clean carpet will spills on it without extractor??? A little desperate for help

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RMarkJr

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Hello. I just got a call about cleaning the interior of a car tmorrow that has stuff spilled over the carpets. I do not have an extractor. I took it thinking I would just figure it out as I go lol.

My question is how would you tackle this without an extractor? I typically do not get carpets very wet... but I am thinking about kinda dousing the carpet with liquid so I can agitate and then vacuum it up? I am a little worried about it being too wet after that .. but I have seen people do it where the solution doesnt absorb all the way to the point its pretty much sloshing all over the place and then vacuum it up .. I dont think I am going to go that far .. unless I have to.

Now I know that there are detailing companies that do not use extractors .. there is one in Tulsa that has a TON of positive reviews that doesnt use an extractor. So Im sure that they get stuff like this and somehow they do it and I am just not sure how.


Thanks for the help!

I have super degreaser ... folex...carpet scrub brushes... a drill with a carpet attachment ... 6hp shop vac ... chemical guys carpet cleaner stuff (yellow) ...a commercial steamer ... and I guess I do have a newer rug doctor carpet cleaner that has a upholstery tool, I would feel weird using that but I guess I could give it shot lol.
 
Re: Clean carpet will spills on it without extractor???

An extractor would be best, but many of our peers succeed without them every day. Shop vac and brush as much out as possible before introducing cleaner. Rinse and vac when done, then crank the heater. Adding an additional fan can cut the drying time in half. Nathan
 
Re: Clean carpet will spills on it without extractor???

Natron said:
An extractor would be best, but many of our peers succeed without them every day. Shop vac and brush as much out as possible before introducing cleaner. Rinse and vac when done, then crank the heater. Adding an additional fan can cut the drying time in half. Nathan
Click to expand...


would you have to pretty much flood the carpet in order to be able to suck it up?
 
Lots of vacuuming and agitation with a brush before water/cleaner as mentioned above.

Lots of scrubbing and cheap terry cloth towels. The terry cloth absorbs a ton of dirty water and the nap helps scrub. I always try to use as little cleaner and water as possible. I always end the cleaning process with clean warm water and vacuum and towel dry as the final step.

This method is effective on light to moderate soiling. The soccer mom van with 5 years worth of spills is probably going to need an extractor.
 
Re: Clean carpet will spills on it without extractor???

Natron is spot on and I'm surprised there is so much talk on this forum about extractors and so little about other methods. Completely trashed cars are regularly cleaned without extractors. In my experience, extractors are awkward and, especially with carpet, there are spots and corners where you just can't get the extractor in. Sure, you can spray it with solution but you can't suck it back out. I used to use an extractor but don't any more. Here's what I do.

I use an air chuck (air nozzle if you like), a shop vac, and a spray bottle with a commercial carpet or upholstery cleaning product. I'm not talking about a cleaner with detergent. I use stuff that is used by professional carpet cleaners. Give the carpet and seats an initial vacuum. I pre-spray the seats and/or carpet with HydraMaster FabricMaster Heavy Duty Upholstery Pre-Spray. It has a high PH (around 11) but is self-neutralizing. I scrub a bit with a brush. Then I'll spray on either HydraMaster RinseOut (PH around 6) or if I don't have RinseOut, I use clear water since the upholstery pre-spray is self neutralizing. Then I attack the wet carpet with an air chuck and a shop vac. I point the stream of compressed air into the carpet at a 30 to 45 degree angle and hold the shop vac nozzle to catch the crap as it's blasted up off the carpet. It works very well, it's fast and you'll get crap out of the carpet that you'll never get out with an extractor.

I will say that I don't claim to be the ultimate expert on this. I'm simply sharing what I learned after eating a big slice of humble pie when someone with more experience than me showed me how carpets and seats can be cleaned much faster and better than what I was doing with an extractor. And, my choice of chemicals came from time I spent working with a professional carpet cleaner.

Good luck,

Bill
 
Like above, get as much loose stuff of first by agitating and vacuuming.

Then spray the area with your cleaner, maybe Folex if your not sure what the stains are, then scrub them. Pretreat the bad areas while you work on the panels and other areas.

Then I use a couple of old terry bath towels. I fold them up basically until I can't fold them any more then rub the area with it. Frequently switching to a cleaner side.

I use the towels on the floorboards or seats by standing or sitting one them.

I personally wouldn't use Suoer Degreaser, or any strong APC, because it would take a lot of effort to get the residue out.
 
And a definite "yes" on professional cleaning products.

I use a citrus solvent based one and it makes cleaning stains fairly simple.

As soon as you start to agitate, they just disappear.

You have to use caution on vinyl/leather and coated/painted plastics though.
 
I have only one area of caution with Mantilgh's advice. Drying seats by sitting on them undoes much of the cleaning that was just done. Let's face it, if a fabric seat is really dirty, no matter what tools we use, some of the dirty solution will end up in the foam under the fabric. So here's what has happened to me. I would get the seats nice and clean (but still wet) and then put a towel down and sat on it. The dirty solution from the foam was then squeezed up through the fabric and got the seats dirty again. If I'm working on a 4 door car, I have a fan on a stand that I point in the door of whatever section I'm not working on. For example, if I'm working the front of the car, the fan blows across the back seats. This knocks down a lot of the moisture. Then once I'm done, I let the car idle with the windows cracked and the heat on full blast (using whatever setting it takes to have the AC compressor on). After an hour or so, things will be dry.

Mantilgh is spot on about not using APC or cleaners like that. I would also avoid consumer carpet cleaners like Resolve. Once you get stuff like that into carpet you'll never get it all out and it will leave a tacky residue.

Bill
 
That's true about the wicking of the junk down in the seat and compressing the cushion.

I don't have much of a problem with it now because I can spray and wipe a lot of things up or use a microfiber kinda saturated with the cleaner and follow behind with a dry one. That way it's doesn't get super wet.

But sometimes I need to go heavy on the cleaner and my "butt towel" will show some good spots and maybe a spot or two on the seat. I can usually touch them up without too much difficulty.
 
waelwell said:
I have only one area of caution with Mantilgh's advice. Drying seats by sitting on them undoes much of the cleaning that was just done. Let's face it, if a fabric seat is really dirty, no matter what tools we use, some of the dirty solution will end up in the foam under the fabric. So here's what has happened to me. I would get the seats nice and clean (but still wet) and then put a towel down and sat on it. The dirty solution from the foam was then squeezed up through the fabric and got the seats dirty again. If I'm working on a 4 door car, I have a fan on a stand that I point in the door of whatever section I'm not working on. For example, if I'm working the front of the car, the fan blows across the back seats. This knocks down a lot of the moisture. Then once I'm done, I let the car idle with the windows cracked and the heat on full blast (using whatever setting it takes to have the AC compressor on). After an hour or so, things will be dry.

Mantilgh is spot on about not using APC or cleaners like that. I would also avoid consumer carpet cleaners like Resolve. Once you get stuff like that into carpet you'll never get it all out and it will leave a tacky residue.

Bill
Click to expand...

Thanks for the help. What about how wet to get these carpets .. remember its a spill so Im sure that things got saturated deep into the carpet. Would I need to flood the carpet pretty good in order to suck it up with a shop vac?

I wouldnt go as far as FelipeTV on youtube .. if you search Deep shampoo carpet cleaning from him you will see what I mean .. now I wouldnt take it that far . but I am thinking about getting them pretty darn wet to be able to suck it up.
 
if you dont get it super wet then how would you tackle a spill that saturated the carpet? wouldnt you need to get it really wet to suck it up?
 
Look, if you're using an extractor, you're shooting a high pressure stream of liquid into the carpet. Sure, you're following right behind it with a strong vacuum. But you're putting a LOT of liquid into the carpet. There's a reason many in the detailing business divide interior work into "wet work" and "dry work". Yeah, you need to get things pretty wet. Flood? No. But you'll need to get it good and wet. In an area where someone spilled a drink, you'll want to resort to Mantilgh's method and drench that spot and blot it back up with a towel. But I wouldn't go that far everywhere.

Bill
 
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