Mantilgh
New member
- Dec 6, 2014
- 2,724
- 1
I did my first paying job for a good freind of the family the other day. I had looked at it Easter weekend while visiting and made and plans to work on it. Car is about ten years old and looks like it has been care for.
So I get the car the other day, and he left a name brand can of OTC carpet and upholstery cleaner in the car. Not sure if it was for me to use. Didn't think much of, kinda chuckled and tossed in the box with the few other things he had left in the car. Then proceeded to start on the car.
I had vacuumed, brushed, vacuumed some of the big stains and it was doing nothing to them, so on to the next step. First misted some water, then a small amount of cleaner, on a spot and agitated. Instantly started to foam up. ? I was using Griots interior cleaner for the first time, and thought I read that it doesn't foam much. Hum. Misted some more water on another section of the seat that had no cleaner on it, agitated, and the same thing happened. More foam.
Oh crap, I thought. Every place that I just dampened with water and agitated did the same. Then I thought about that can he left me. I have used this type of cleaner a while ago, but remember the usual direction. Spray, agitate, then blot, and then vacuum away when dry.. I think.
I remember reading someone's post not to long ago about them working for a carpet cleaning company and pulling tons of cleaner out of a customers carpet that had been clean multiple times before. That the previous companies or cleaners had left lots of detergents in the carpet that had not been thoroughly extracted out which will eventually make the stain reappear.
Well, with this in mind and that he is a good family freind, I figured the proper thing to do was to extract as much of this as possible. I probably should have just lightly extracted the drivers seat and foot well, and saved the other areas for another day after discussing with the customer. But, I decided to go all out and try to remove as much as I could through the whole interior and left myself very little time for the exterior.
I was also doing this without the use of a real extractor, just a shop vac and hot water which I assume added a lot of extra time. Now I've put myself in the position where I need to finish up what I started on the exterior, instead of just trying to schedule another visit to do a complete extraction of the previous leftover cleaners. Oh well, live and learn.
My question is how do you handle this type of situation?
Do like I mentioned, make note, skip the extraction, do a moderate cleaning, have enough time because of so to complete exterior, discuss with customer, and try to schedule a proper extraction in the near future?
I know the kid well and believe he alone will give me great word of mouth advertising.
Other question on how to extract this:
Should I do an initial extraction with water, then treat and extract with acidic solution, or extract numerous times with water till most is out, then treat and extract with a acidic solution?
Thanks in an advance.
So I get the car the other day, and he left a name brand can of OTC carpet and upholstery cleaner in the car. Not sure if it was for me to use. Didn't think much of, kinda chuckled and tossed in the box with the few other things he had left in the car. Then proceeded to start on the car.
I had vacuumed, brushed, vacuumed some of the big stains and it was doing nothing to them, so on to the next step. First misted some water, then a small amount of cleaner, on a spot and agitated. Instantly started to foam up. ? I was using Griots interior cleaner for the first time, and thought I read that it doesn't foam much. Hum. Misted some more water on another section of the seat that had no cleaner on it, agitated, and the same thing happened. More foam.
Oh crap, I thought. Every place that I just dampened with water and agitated did the same. Then I thought about that can he left me. I have used this type of cleaner a while ago, but remember the usual direction. Spray, agitate, then blot, and then vacuum away when dry.. I think.
I remember reading someone's post not to long ago about them working for a carpet cleaning company and pulling tons of cleaner out of a customers carpet that had been clean multiple times before. That the previous companies or cleaners had left lots of detergents in the carpet that had not been thoroughly extracted out which will eventually make the stain reappear.
Well, with this in mind and that he is a good family freind, I figured the proper thing to do was to extract as much of this as possible. I probably should have just lightly extracted the drivers seat and foot well, and saved the other areas for another day after discussing with the customer. But, I decided to go all out and try to remove as much as I could through the whole interior and left myself very little time for the exterior.
I was also doing this without the use of a real extractor, just a shop vac and hot water which I assume added a lot of extra time. Now I've put myself in the position where I need to finish up what I started on the exterior, instead of just trying to schedule another visit to do a complete extraction of the previous leftover cleaners. Oh well, live and learn.
My question is how do you handle this type of situation?
Do like I mentioned, make note, skip the extraction, do a moderate cleaning, have enough time because of so to complete exterior, discuss with customer, and try to schedule a proper extraction in the near future?
I know the kid well and believe he alone will give me great word of mouth advertising.
Other question on how to extract this:
Should I do an initial extraction with water, then treat and extract with acidic solution, or extract numerous times with water till most is out, then treat and extract with a acidic solution?
Thanks in an advance.
