Congratulations on your choice of flooring. You have the world most durable, tried and true carpet fiber known to man! Wool carpet (in the form of rugs) has literally been around for thousands of years, and is known to last for hundreds of years with proper care. The oldest known surviving rug is the Pazyryk Carpet, which is dated to the 4th-5th century BC! It is only in the last couple hundred years that carpet was installed stretched wall to wall, rather than spread loose on the floor as rugs.
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However in last centuries, wall-to-wall carpeting became more popular, and in the first half of the 20th century, wool fibers completely dominated the wall to wall carpet industry. There was simply nothing that compared with the quality. Sometime after the fifties, however, nylon was invented and soon took the dominant position in the market, largely because it was much more economical than wool. Wool is still available today and is much prized for its environmental perks, it ability to "bounce back", ability to hide soil, its naturally fire retardant qualities and many other advantages. The drawback is that a quality wool carpet typically costs 4-10 times as much as the cheaper fibers!
Obviously, if you have a quality wool carpet in your home, you want to take good care of it! Now this article is primarily concerned with cleaning wall-to-wall wool carpets, not the "area rugs" or "oriental rugs". Keep in mind that these are very different, and need to be cleaned differently. Always take your rugs to a plant where they can be properly washed dried in a controlled environment. Do not attempt to clean them the same way that wall-to-wall carpet is cleaned.
Now, can you get your expensive wool wall-to-wall carpet professionally cleaned? Absolutely, and you certainly should. One of the advantages of wool is that is can hide a tremendous amount of dirt before it begins to show. However, the dirt is still there and can cause Indoor Air Quality (IAQ) and odor issues as well as reducing the life of your carpet. It will not hurt your carpet to clean it using the industry recommended Hot Water Extraction (steam) Cleaning method. This is the most thorough, effective method for removed dirt and gritty, fiber-eating soil in the base of the carpet. Here are a few pointers to remember when getting your wool carpet cleaned.
Keep in mind that, being an organic fiber, wool will tend to smell a bit "organic" (wet doggish) when cleaned, but this odor will quickly dissipate as the carpet dries. Drying should not take longer than 2-6 hours on average.
One of the advantages to using wool cloth or fibers, is that it takes dyes very readily. One of the disadvantages is that it keeps on readily accepting dyes after installation! In other words, stain removal can be a pretty challenging proposition on wool, especially on old stain that have been "set" with time. It certainly can be done, with the right products and skill, but don't expect to see that Kool-Aid pop out of your wool carpet like it did on your olefin carpet.
Be sure that your cleaner does not use highly alkaline cleaning agents. Somewhere around a pH of 8.5 is the limit. Alkalinity will degrade organic fibers, can result in yellowing or browning, and causes fiber degradation over time. This is possibly the most important different between cleaning conventional carpet and wool. The Cleaner must be very careful that he does not use overly "hot" cleaning solution. Also, bleach is a huge no-no! Bleach will actually dissolve wool, so don't be tempted to remove a tough stain with bleach, and plan on hiring the carpet-dyeing guy. You'll be hiring the repair guy instead!
With these few guidelines you can get your carpets steam cleaned every year for many years to come, and even many of your children's years, without fear that you are somehow ruining your wool carpets. With the proper level of knowledge and skill, it is perfectly safe and highly recommended that you get your wool carpets regularly steam cleaned.
One of the most time consuming and tricky aspects of commercial cleaning, is the task of stripping and sealing a vinyl floor. there are many problems associated with it and if you don't know what you are doing, then the results can be anything but impressive. A decent commercial cleaner that's worth his weight would know how to do a fantastic job when attempting to strip and seal your vinyl or most other types of flooring.
First off, the area needs to be cleared of all furniture and other bits and pieces. Then the area needs to be thoroughly vacuumed as any dust left on the floor will ruin the glass like finish you are hoping to achieve. Most office cleaning companies have all the proper equipment needed to do this properly. Once the are is clean, a mop and bucket should be used to thoroughly wet the area with the stripper in the bucket. the water should always be as hot as possible, not boiling though as that may damage the floor and not to mention the fumes in the steam from the stripper. Once the stripper solution is down, some steel wool should be used around the edges but always wear gloves as the solution can be very caustic. Remove all scuff marks with the steel wool. then run a buffer with the vac off using the correct type of pad depending on how much old polish needs to be removed. Run the buffer length wise and then cross wise to make sure the whole surface area of the floor is covered. Once that's done, use a wet vac to remove the stripper off the floor followed by a clean mop to clean up Warehouse floor cleaning any streaks and excess stripper.
You should let it dry before giving it a final buff to seal the floor. Most commercial cleaning companies that I have ever worked with usually leave that last step out for times sake but if you don't seal the floor before laying down new polish, the finish wont be as good. Once the floor is completely dry, run a vacuum over the area to pick up any loose dust which remains on the floor. Give the floor at least three coats of a suitable polish and wait till the coat is touch dry before applying the next coat. At no time should you buff the polish between coats. Try and allow at least eight to ten hours hardening time before the floor is used. if the polish is too 'soft', then any scratches or scuff marks will become permanent when the polish hardens. this hardening usually takes between 24-48 hours depending on the polish itself.
