A few weeks ago I attended a hard floor and Maintenance course at restormate headquarters based in cramlington .
Restormate Run by John and Lynn Kelly is a supplier of all carpet cleaning sundries and equipment that covers all of the uk online and is based in the North East .
John was a one time a carpet cleaner himself and has a wealth of knowledge and is always eager to give good solid advice on all cleaning and training matters .
Hard Floor Care & Maintenance Course
Trainer : Jamie Pearson
Jamie pearson on a training day on hard floor care and maintenance using a rotary scrubber
4th Generation of my family involved in the cleaning and maintenance industry
began working part time during my school days on daily cleaning, flood restoration and specialist cleaning projects.
Training of Floorcare contractor network for flooring manufacturer by age of 17.
Responsible for delivery of major restoration projects from age of 19.
Managing portfolio exceeding 1,000,000m2 per annum maintained from age of 21.
Managing portfolio exceeding 1,000,000m2 per annum maintained from age of 21.These are the reasons I traveled a 300 mile round trip as Jamie is a expert in his field in not only hard floors but in how to acquire high end jobs and clients .
I would recommend that if you are interested in starting a hard floor restoration company , spend the day with Jamie First
Here is a couple of photos of Dans first restoration of a very badly soiled and stained vinyl tiled floor, in a car showroom in the wakefield and barnsley area .
Badly soiled and stained vinyl floor restoration
Badly stained and soiled vinyl tiles, in a car showroom
Badly stained and soiled vinyl tiles
after photo of a stripped and polished vinyl floor
after photo of a stripped and polished vinyl floor
Prochem pro 35 crb that is specifically made for wet or dry cleaning
Encapsulation cleaning
What is encapsulation cleaning ?
Its a process of removing or trapping or encapsulating soil in a polymer or crystal film ,this polymer drys encasing the soil, and this allows the soil and contaminates to be vacuumed away in the next normal cleaning programme.
encapsulation chemicals incorporate a crystallizing polymer that resists re-soiling better than traditional detergent based chemicals.
Old type carpet detergents act like a magnet and , attract dirt after the cleaning. New encapsulation detergents are made up of polymers that crystalize. the polymer dries to a brittle consistency that wont attract soil .Lots of the new encaps have built in soil retarders that stop rapid resoiling and keep fibres cleaner longer.They also have a deoderiser incorporated into the product ,which leaves carpets not only looking great but also smelling fresh.
The Advantages
It dries very quickly short pile fibers typically dry in under 30 minutes.
It eliminates problems with recurring spills and wick back
heavily soiled carpet cleaned using Encapsulation Method
Prevents rapid resoiling.
The cleaning process is quicker than Hwe.
The machinery is portable (oreck)
Machinery
Electric sprayer or good pump up sprayer
Slow speed rotary
oreck
op Machine
Prochem Pro 35 or any contra rotating brush machine (CRB)
the oreck orbiter , used mainly in domestic situations
used for lighter cleaning in domestic situations
Carpet brush
Commercial grade vacuum cleaner
Encapsulation Chemicals
Dynamall
Fusion Clean (Solutions Cornwall)
Realist
chemspec
Prochem
Hydramaster
Low profile carpet endcapped
Cleaning Process
My aim before applying any encap solution is to remove the maximum amount of dry soil from the carpet .
This is accomplished by using a crb on the dry carpet ,then all edges are brushed out using a edging brush ,
We then give the carpet a thorough vacuuming both north, west, east, and south ways.
Next stains,draught marks and chewing gum are treated and removed
The solution is then mixed up as per instructions
It is then sprayed over a fixed area of about 10 to 20 sq yards depending on humidity as we don’t want it to dry out , it is then left to dwell for the recommended time usually 5 mins.
we then run a rotary over the solution using a pad working in a overlapping fashion going left to right then up and down if needed .Air movers can be used at this point to speed up the drying process
Once completed a post vacuum is needed when dry ,this can be completed by the customer or in house cleaners . I like to do this myself before I leave if possible
Host Cleaning
‘Host’ is a trade name for a company that uses Micro sponges to clean carpets and rugs using the VLM (very low moisture) system.
This system uses the contra rotating brush machine to agitate the sponges into the carpet after a good vacuuming.
Heavily soiled areas and stains are treated with the appropriate pre spray (lightly) prior to laying down the sponges this is to give the pre spray adequate dwell time to break down stains
After the sponges have been applied (about a good handful per sq metre) they are allowed to absorb all the dry soil and stains that have been broken down, they are simple vacuumed away .
Here is a Host video demonstration using a combined vac and brush machine