Tuesday, March 25, 2008

 

March Graduate Success Institute

Tile and Grout and Loose Rug Seminar "Floors" the Attendees

On March 7 franchisee Joe Bartz hosted Duraclean's Graduate Success Institute at his facility in Belvidere. The tile and grout cleaning session was presented by Scott Warrington of Hydro-Force while the Loose Rug Cleaning was presented by Duraclean Central personnel.

Duraclean Specialists, Inc. - Belvidere, IL


Joe's facilities were a perfect venue where he an open area of tile and grout in his office for the hands-on portion of the training and a very complete loose rug cleaning operation in the warehouse portion of his building.

Bartz's warehouse area and loose rug cleaning operation.


It must be a "Belvidere" social status thing...

Attendees included franchisees from Wisconsin, Illinois and West Virginia.



Pictured (from left) Duraclean Specialist technician Rollo, sponsoring franchisee Joe Bartz, Duraclean Central's Dave Horwath and Danielle Canup and franchisee Rick Fritts (WV).

Tile and Grout Cleaning
Tile and grout cleaning is a low cost investment with a high return. The market for this service is ever expanding while carpet cleaning is shrinking. Why? Because carpet is being replaced by tile floors. As a result there is a greater potential for tile and grout cleaning. When you go into a home or business you will often find both so why not be prepared to clean both surfaces?


Scott Warrington of Hydro-Force presents the tile and grout cleaning session.

In his almost 40 years in the cleaning and restoration industry Scott has a tie-in to Duraclean. In the early 1970s he worked for an Alabama franchisee and cleaned with the original Foamovator.

Part of Scott's presentation covered the various types of tile and grout that can be cleaned including tile characteristics, related solutions, sealers and techniques.



Scott Fritts (WV) compares two tile samples.

The comprehensive classroom portion of the session lasted almost two hours.


Scott winds up the classroom portion of the training.

The class moved on to the tile floor area. Scott proceeded to go through the components comprising the tile and grout cleaning package.


The corner brush is used to get soil out from corners and up the bottom of tiled walls.

The grout brush is used to agitate soil out of grout lines following the application of the special tile and grout cleaning solution.

The main area of a tile floor and grout is usually cleaned with the SX-12 which has a rotating head with two nozzles that spray high pressure water (usually around a minimum of 850 psi) onto the surface which is then vacuumed off of the tile floor.


The SX-12 tool is used for large open areas.



The underside detail of the SX-12.

The group then was given time to work with the SX-12.

Chuck Russell (IL) gives the SX-12 a test run while Brandon Rossey (WI), John Murphy (IL) and Gene Rossey (WI) look on.

Other tools and attachments were also discussed including the corner tool.

The corner tool attachment is used for corners and to simultaneously clean floor perimeters and the bottom of adjacent tile walls.


Sealing of the grout lines is extremely important in maintaining its appearance.


The GroutStick with sealer in the tube applies the product directly to the grout line with a wheel applicator.

Besides the package components to perform the service (not all are shown here) there is a computerized tile and grout training module.

The training module covers both the service and sales portions of tile and grout cleaning both in English and Spanish versions.
If you are interested in receiving more information regarding what is involved in tile and grout cleaning and want the seminar handout and/or a tile and grout package quotation, make your request through Bill Ondratschek at: bill@duraclean.com

Loose Rug Cleaning
Because hard surface floor installations are on the rise, so are loose rugs for decorating accents and comfort. Loose rugs may be cleaned in a plant dedicated to the process (in-plant), on-site or at the cleaner's facility.

Vince Caffarello starts the Loose Rug seminar.

Vince began by explaining similarities between carpet and rug cleaning regard to common fibers. Then he he did a brief overview of history of the process of loose rug cleaning.


Vince talks about the in-plant wash floor process.

The background regarding loose and Oriental rug construction, pre-inspection issues and repairs that can be made to rugs was covered in detail. The classroom session concluded with a breakdown of the steps required for cleaning rugs in-plant, on-site and at the cleaner's facility.


Bill Ondratschek talks about factors that may cause color run or color transfer.


The hands-on portion began with the first step of rug cleaning which is dry soil removal. It is often called "dusting." There are several ways to do this. Demonstrated was the "Rug Badger" that uses a metal grid "Rug Rack" that allows soil to fall from the rug down to the floor.

The inverted rug is placed on the Rug Rack and the Rug Badger moves over the surface to shake loose the dry soil.


The underside of the Rug Badger shows the straps that strike the rug's backing (a mechanized version of the old wire form rug beater).



Shown is dry soil that was removed from two rugs.


Dry soil may also be removed by using a pile lifter or the motorized tool of a Duralizer II vacuum unit starting the inverted side of the rug.
If there are no deeply embedded stains to remove, the rug in Bartz's set-up goes directly to the "wash floor." When there are deeply embedded stains that require some dwell time for their removal prior to cleaning, the rug is first put into a pit for soaking. A common stain that may be present is urine.

Here Joe Bartz has a pit for soaking out urine stains in a recirculating liquid enzyme. Average time for removal: 3-4 hours. The soaking removes the urine and the associated odor.


Sample from the wash pit: notice the color!!!! This is the flushed out urine.


After the soaking a rug like this one it can be put into another floor area called the wash floor.


Joe can put a rug on this wash floor for removal of the enzyme and remaining urine. The clear water spray rinses the carpet while the water with the residue is pumped out (upper left-hand corner of the floor).


The rug on the wash floor (following the enzyme soaking/rinsing or directly from the dusting step) is flushed with 400 psi solution.

The flushing operation helps to wash away any significant amount of the remaining soil.

The next step requires removing the wash floor solution through vacuuming the moisture up from the rug backing through the pile. This can be accomplished in one of three ways.


Gene and Brandon Rossey and Rick Fritts watch Joe use a Water Claw.


A HydroX is another option.

In Joe's set-up he can use a roller to work the moisture up and away from the rug toward the pump-out installed in the wash floor.

Following the wash floor steps foam extraction cleaning is done.


Joe demonstrates the last cleaning step.


The cleaned rugs are hoisted up on Joe's multiple rug pole set-up for drying.



Hard to dry rugs and those prone to shrinkage and/or color run are positioned on Joe's "tack out" floor. The grid is used to square off rugs and the floor has holes where air from the two air movers blows up through the tack out floor's surface and onto the pile of the inverted rug.

If you are interested in receiving more information regarding the loose rug cleaning seminar you can request a copy of the seminar's handout by contacting Bill Ondratschek at: billo@duraclean.com.

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# posted by The Duraclean Team @ 2:33 PM




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