Road oil on Carpet!

[yankees1]

What is the best product to remove road oil from carpets? Someone mentioned to use brake fluid on a rag! Suggestions?

[Eliot Ness]

I`ve yet to find a grease or oil stain that Spot Shot wouldn`t remove:



http://www.wd40.com/Brands/spot_shot.html

[salty]

Carpet safe solvent.

[imported_Grouse]

Here Recycled info i have typed a few times. this should help point you in the right direction. If you have questions after this, I have the thread tagged so I wil see updates.



these are out of context but the information is good.


Well the key is knowing what your doing. If your taking a stab in the dark, then you really don`t have a clue. IMHO you should seek some good training. Via IICRC classes. even the basic classes will set you on the right road to a sucessfull cleaning system.



You can effectivly clean a carpet in a car with



1/2 gallon garden sprayer,

the right chemicals

a shop vac

a small fan.



you can clean a carpet effectively with

a ho````er truckmount

and chemicals



you can clean it effectively with

a dense sponge,

bucket,

vacuum

towels



you can... well you get the picture. It is about knowing the process the chemicals, and what each situation entails. Some will take far longer than others, some will take less.






It is possible to use it as a agitator to work in the chemical product to reduce the time or heat needed for the product to work.



In that instance you could do just as well with a wool or terry bonnet, as it will not heat up the fibers as much as a brush. The fibers ina car are very heat sensitive.



Now if you wanted to aid your drying process after you cleaned the fiber, take a clean dry bonnet or wool padd an run it over the top of the fibers, switching bonnets when it becomes too wet.



This is commonly refered to as bonnet cleaning, In many cases i have used it in comercial buisness to keep the fiber from wicking caked in dirt up to the surface. Carpet and fiber dries top bottom up. It evaporates from the surface drawing the remaining moisture to the surface, in many cases bring the dirt and grime with it. It`s rare for it to bring dirt from the backing, or pad. It`s possible but you`d have to basically flood the car.



In reality even with the best combo of systems you can only clean about 70-80% of the fiber carpet surface, so you will have grime and soils left in the carpet. The key is to leave so little moisture that the carpet does not have time to migrate those soils to the surface.



To do this you should follow a very tight regimn of cleaning proceedures.



1) dry vac



2) dry vac again.



90-95% of the soils in the fiber are dry particulate dirt, best removed by dry vacuuming. if you add moisture to a poorly vacuumed fiber/carpet you have to work 10 times harder than needed with 10 times the amount of chemical and water than is needed. With 3-4 times the drying time. So dry vac very thoroughly. Use multiple attachments.



3)Pre condition stains and spots.



Why do this now? Because stain removers work best when applied to virgin stains, In many cases if not all that i can think of right now detergents will inhibit the stain removers if applied before the stain remover. So spot treat trouble areas first, Buy specific products for those areas. lightly rub them in and let them sit while you prepare you chemicals for the main area.



4) Pre treat the fiber/carpet with cleaner.



use a proper cleaning product. Read the dilution ratio`s More product is not better or, lower dilution. These products work in conjunction with water, improperly mixing them will provide very poor results. Normal carpet cleaning agents are 32 parts water to 1 part solution. Once applied Brush in with your brush or PC if you feel the need. Despite what you think agitation will not improve your dirt removal. In many cases you`ll keep the detergent from working by agitating too much. In some cases you will distort the fiber. (velvet it) The purpose of agitation is not to break dirt free, but to get your cleaning product to as much surface of the fiber as possible. So light agitation will suffice.



5) Extraction,

You can use a bonnet method i mentioned above, think Chem-dry the nationally owned chain.

You can extract with shop vac and 1/2 gallon pump sprayer of clean water or water 1ith 1/2 oz of vinager mixed itn

You can extract with LGCM or similar tool.

You can extract by buffing with a towel.

You can use a HW extractor.



The key is to get the fiber clean, then get it dry as possible, then get it set up for the shortest drying time as possible.



6) Drying.

There is little air movement in a car, So turn the fans on crack the windows, set up small portable blowers. The faster you get this dry the less soil wicking you will have. Adding significant air movement and ventalation will cut drying time in half if not by 3/4. Adding the bonnet buffing i mentioned befor can make even a HW extracted carpet dry with in 45-1 hour of finishing.










I disagree autopresise. but as they say Put ten carpet cleaners in a room and you`ll have 10 ways to clean carpet.



Rag the key is to dry the fiber in about 4-6 hours. any more than that and you could have wicking of soil to the surface.



tufted fiber dries top bottom up. That means it evaporates from the surface drawing the remaining moisture up. If the drying time is excessive it will also bring up any remaining soils.



so, how do you get it to dry in 4-6 hours.



first you dry vack with ho````er extractor about 3 times for every time you pull the trigger on the hand tool. that is the basic standard 3:1, if carpet is exceptionally soiled 4:1.



finally you add air movement. Lots of it. get that air moving accross that fiber to dry it off. what is small and would fit in a car,truck? drop two of these in the rear or in each seating section blowing dry air across the fiber. drying time should be cut by as much as 4 hours for really wet fiber.



http://www.interlinksupply.com/index.html?item_num=AC081+++++++++++++++



the first one is new to me. but I used these in the carpet industry for tight spaces and steps because of their size.



I purchased one for my dad for christmas for his boat. I prefer these over the first one because you can set this one up side down to blow air under seats. I`ve used it once or twice in my mom`s car to very good effect.



7631245541








Depending on the PH of the product you use you`ll want to bring that ph back to Neuatral before you apply any protectants.



Neutral detergents make for (in general) poor cleaners, They make better specific spot removers.



alkaline cleaners make for great dirt and grime cleaners. but do very poorly on tanins, urines, and protien based soils.



Acidic detergents make for poor dirt removals, but do very well on urines, tanin, some protien based stains, and some food based dyes.



Enzymes are usually reserved for organics like foodstuffs, grass, and others.



Solvents, make for very poor detergents as they have almost no cleaning ability. However wehn combined with an alkaline detergent you will finde a combo that will defeat many oily soils found in cars. Apply the solvent to fiber first, work in with brush, then apply AK detergent.



The kicker is nearly every car is going to have a combo of this mess. So you need to be knowledgeable to address each with the propper product so you will have the best chance of sucess.








mix it up in a garden sprayer with as much hot water as you can. (be careful the hot water and chem will create pressure in container.)



Spray liberally in to fiber area.



Brush into fiber, Not so much for agitation but to be sure the product is completely coating the fiber.



Let sit or dwell for 20 min or so. give or take.



Here you might be able to apply the steam to improve the cleaning potential. it`s worth a try.



With a second garden spray spray with clean clear hot water. spray one section at a time.



extract with shop vac.



spray rinse water again in same area. I believe you`ll need to rinse it at least 3 times to get as much of the slurry or TLC out of the fiber.



Dry with vac between each rinse.



Set up fans or blowers to move the air with in the vehicle to speed drying process.




Solvents, make for very poor detergents as they have almost no cleaning ability. However wehn combined with an alkaline detergent you will finde a combo that will defeat many oily soils found in cars. Apply the solvent to fiber first, work in with brush, then apply AK detergent.



It depends on what you are trying to do. usually when people say degreasers they want something to suspend the grease so it can be washed away. The issue is that this is a bit more complicated than just that. to get suspension of an oily substance you need two things. Some sort of solvent and some sort of detergent.



here is a test. Take some oil based paint and put it on your hands.



then try washing your hands with citrus solvents. Yes it makes the oilbased paints thinner but does not remove them. even when run under hot water it still is a poor detergent.



now while you have that citrus oil mix on your hands put a detergent into the mix, tide, dawn, bar soap what ever. rub liberally you`ll begin to see the oil paint suspended in the solvent detergenst mix. Run your hands under the water till clean, rinse and repeat the citrus-detergent mix.



now try the oil paint with just detergent first. then add the solvent. since the process was inversed the solvent can`t directly act with the paint nearly as well. Causing it to be a longer process.



with clean hands apply paint again. Mix the citrus solvent and detergent together. then try and clean your hands. It will work but it will take a while longer.






What you need is a solvent and a detergent and an extraction method.



a good simple solvent, citrus (delimonine) either liquid or gel. Xylene, 1,1,1 tri clor. ect ect. Apply it to the grease. work it in gently.



then apply a good detergent. you need a fairly high alkaline detergent for greases. So that cuts out woolite carpet cleaner, folex, resolve. If you can`t actually get your hands on a professional carpet detergent, use bissels LGCM detergent just mix it at 32:1



Work the detergent on the grease stain. Let it sit for about 10 min.



then extract the detergent with a LGCM while running detergents through it as a rinsing agent. Dry stroke the seat dry.



now rinse the seat with clean water. Bissel cleaning detergent is notorious for reattracting dirt. by rinsing with water you lessen the likely hood of this happening. Dry stroke the seat.



Set up ample air movement to dry the seat as soon as possible.



protect with fiber protectant before 100% dry.




Heat is a key factor in cleaning but not the only one. Basically there are 3 factors. It is the combo of all three that make for a good clean in the shortest time spent.



It goes like this. Think of a pie chart. with 33% for each of these three sections.



Chemical/agitation, Heat, Time.



With each of those the at 33% you have a good clean. But lets say you don`t have heat. Well You then add more dwell time and more agitation/chemical product. Lets say you don`t have product/agitation, Well you add more time and heat. If you don`t have time you add heat and product/agitation.



My suggestion is combine your APC with your steam cleaner. Try it at 10:1 or so, then steam clean and buff dry.