Carpet Care: Unusual Carpet Cleaning Words

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As in many industries, the carpet cleaning industry has its own jargon to address a variety of related issues.
 
U.S. Products, manufacturers of professional carpet cleaning equipment, has put together a “Top Ten” list of these carpet cleaning terms with a special emphasis on some of the oddest-sounding ones, according to Nick Wiebe, Marketing Manager for U.S. Products and HydraMaster.
 
Here is Wiebe’s Top Ten List of Unusual Carpet Cleaning Words:
 
1.  Bone scraper. This is a blade-like tool typically made of bone or plastic used to remove or loosen soils or material coated on carpets.
 
2.  Feather-in. To feather in is to use a bone scraper (or similar tool) to work a stain remover or chemical agent into carpet fibers.
 
3.  Fume fading. This is a loss of color in carpets. Gas fumes released from furnaces can cause fume fading.

4.  Clouding. Clouding is usually caused by overwetting the carpet. Essentially, moisture and chemical residue from past cleanings wick up (move up) to the top of the carpet, causing a cloudy look.

5.  Browning. Closely related to clouding, browning occurs when soils in carpet fibers wick up to the top of the carpet.
 
6.  Fluffing. If loose fibers appear on the surface of the carpet before or after cleaning, it is referred to as fluffing.
 
7.  P.O.G. This is a type of solvent used to remove paint, oil, or grease from carpets.
 
8.  Digester. An organic enzyme used to break down organic stains is called a digester.
 
9.  Sequestrate. This is a chemical agent that helps reduce water hardness.
 
10. Builder. Also called “builder material,” builder is added to cleaning solution to soften water and increase the solution’s effectiveness.
 
“There is also a very common term that needs explaining, and that is low-moisture extractor technology,” adds Wiebe. “It is used but not fully understood. A key criterion of a low-moisture extractor is that carpets dry in two to four hours.”