Carpet Care: Do You Know Your Spots from Your Stains?

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Like most industries, carpet cleaning has its own vocabulary. However, according to Wayne Boone, Director of Sales for HydraMaster, a leading manufacturer of truckmount carpet cleaning equipment, because there is so much science involved in carpet care, “The industry may have more industry-specific terms than other segments of the professional cleaning industry.”
 
For instance, Boone suggests these terms often can cause confusion and are sometimes misunderstood by end-customers and carpet cleaning technicians alike:
 
• Spot: A spot is foreign material attaching to the yarns or fibers in carpet, and it usually can be felt.
 
• Stain: A stain is caused by a color-changing substance that penetrates the yarns/fibers, and it usually cannot be felt.
 
• Soil: Most spots and stains can be classified as soils—any matter foreign to the yarn/fiber.
 
• Low moisture: Often misunderstood, this refers to carpet cleaning methods that allow carpet fibers to dry within two hours or less.
 
• Neutral cleaning product: This refers to any cleaning product that has a pH of 7. The product is neither acidic nor alkaline.
 
“Two other terms that invariably need explanation refer to systems that make carpet cleaning much easier and more worker friendly,” says Boone. “These are ‘live center vacuum’ and ‘live center solution.’”
 
According to Boone, live center vacuum means the hose on a reel can always be connected to the vacuum source; “the reel does not have to be rolled out in order to be connected to the extractor.”
 
Live center solution is similar but means the reel can always be connected to the water source.
 
“These examples are really just the beginning,” adds Boone. “The industry could use its own dictionary, which would probably have to be updated regularly because it is evolving so quickly.”