Q:
I cleaned a tan sofa and it turned pink after it dried! I rinsed it with an acid rinse and thought it was always safe. What happened?

A:
What you experienced is known as an “indicator dye change”. This rare occurrence is caused when the fabric’s dye reacts with a cleaning solution in the same way that the dye used in litmus (pH) paper turns various colors depending on the pH of the solution that it is exposed to.

When a fabric that has such a dye used in it is rinsed with an acid rinse, it may turn pink or red just as pH paper would when dipped into an acidic solution.

Here Is A Possible Solution:
Ammonia as you purchase it in the grocery store is the best solution for this problem.  Avoid “sudsy ammonia” or cleaners that simply have ammonia as an ingredient, as such products contain detergent that may leave a sticky residue.

Unfortunately even “straight ammonia” can be of variable strength, so to be on the safe side, dilute the ammonia 50/50 with water before using it.  If the discoloration remains, re-apply it at full strength.

NOTE:
If the fabric contains dyes that might bleed, even this brief exposure of ammonia could potentially cause color bleeding!  Unfortunately, if you are already in the position of correcting this problem, you have little choice but to assume this risk.  That said, ammonia rapidly self neutralizes and is very unlikely to cause color loss when used in this fashion.

Before you show up with an arsenal of products, you need (and your customer needs) an answer to these three questions:

1. Did the stain remain after cleaning?
2. Did the spot come back when it dried?
3. Did the spot show up over time?

The reason that these questions are so important is that they speak to three different types of problems.

1. “Did the stain remain after cleaning?”
   If you’ve done everything you could to clean the carpet and a stain remains, you might need to use reducing or oxidizing agents with some of your advanced skills to remove this stain. And, in some cases, there are stains that cannot be removed regardless of your skills and available stain removal chemistry arsenal.
2. “Did the spot come back when it dried?”
   If spots disappear during cleaning, but reappear after the carpet dries, the problem is probably wicking. This needs to be treated with an absorbent powder or sprayed with an anti wicking agent
3. “Did the spot show up over time?”
   This is more likely a sticky residue than a wicking problem. When adhesive residues (such as from tape) or clear sugary drinks spills, the soil that was attracted to the sticky residue comes up easily, leading the cleaner to believe the spot is gone. If it comes back, you need to follow more extensive spotting procedures to remove the sticky residue that in the case of a spill is likely deep within the carpet yarns, and will require extensive flushing to remove.

Each of these three different circumstances requires cleaning, spotting, and stain removal skills to correct. But those products and skills are not of much use, and can sometimes even work against you, if you don’t know the difference between the three.

While most products will work as well after freezing if they are thawed out, there are a few categories that may be permanently damaged if left out in the cold overnight.  These includes:

• Carpet Protector
• Liquid Enzyme products
• Floor Finishes

Some of these products, especially protectors, are sold as “freeze/thaw stable”, but most are not.  Leaving such products in an unheated vehicle overnight when temperatures go below freezing risks a loss of the product’s performance.

Even though most other cleaning and spotting products do not lose effectiveness when frozen, the fact that you’d start your day trying to pour a frozen bottle of prespray (as an example) into a measuring cup is not likely going to be pleasant or productive for you.

If you cannot store your vehicle in a heated garage overnight, remove all of your cleaning agents and other treatments and bring them inside for the night.  It will protect those very important (and expensive) protectors, deodorizers and floor finishes.  It will also make the use of all of your other products easier and less annoying while you cope with the unavoidable annoyances cold weather brings to us all.

Looked at objectively, residues are really only “bad” when they create a problem. Bad residues come primarily from the following:

• Inferior cleaning detergents that promote resoiling
• Over use of properly formulated detergents
• Odor control treatments that are not designed to be left in the carpet fibers after cleaning
• Odor control treatments that are incompatible with cleaning agents or stain resistant finishes
• Other post treatment products such as silicone carpet protectors, laundry fabric softeners, etc.

All of the above mentioned materials can create considerable aggravation for the cleaner and the consumer.

HOWEVER: There Are Good Residues As Well!

The most obvious example of a good residue would be the fluorochemical protective treatments, such as Scotchgard™ and Teflon™. The residue that these products leave on carpet and upholstery help to repel oil, water, as well as dry soils. This residue actually lengthens the useful life and appearance of the consumers’ furnishings.

Another example of a good residue would be the revolutionary encapsulation products that have recently exploded onto the marketplace. Encapsulant products have superior cleaning qualities that keep on working after application to
enhance better soil removal during subsequent vacuuming, and this type of residue also works to prevent wicking.

Interestingly, encapsulants are also able to remove finer particles of soils that otherwise remain and leave dull traffic areas after conventional hot water extraction. Encapsulants are not only used in shampoo type operations, but are now present in some hot water extraction detergents, acid rinses, and even as stand alone post treatments to prevent wicking.

In the past, in many cases, abused commercial carpet was rinsed thoroughly to minimize residues that might contribute to wicking or resoiling. [A time consuming and laborious task] Today, commercial carpet cleaning experts are finding that using the help of an encapsulating “residue” will better control wicking and resoiling than low residue rinsing [with unbelievable time savings].

Finally, there are cleaning detergents that leave residual antimicrobial treatments on the carpet to keep the carpet fresh smelling by inhibiting the growth of bacteria and fungi. These residues are also very desirable for the long term health benefits that they provide.

Switch your paradigm, and realize that in some cases, the BEST thing that you can do for your customer, is to leave a (appropriate) residue on their carpet!

I’ve spent nearly three quarters of my lifetime working with upholstery cleaning products, tools, and procedures. Over that period of time, the largest single obstacle to a cleaner’s confidence in becoming a fine fabric specialist was the fear caused by the perceived complexities of fabrics, testing, as well as the cleaning chemistry and procedures.

The following procedures and products are the simplest, the safest, and the most effective means of cleaning and restoring everything from the most durable synthetic fiber fabrics to the trickiest, hypersensitive natural fiber fabrics available to anyone today!

Why the SIMPLEST?
Because most of the cleaning is done by one of two preconditioners: “Upholstery Pre-spray” for synthetic fiber fabrics, or “Natural Fiber Cleaner” for natural fiber fabrics and blends. Other than the occasional need of an additive or a specialty spot and stain remover, these two products really “do it all”.

Why the SAFEST?
“Upholstery Pre-spray”, while designed primarily for colorfast synthetic fibers, self neutralizes rapidly and easily rinses away. This prespray has the power needed to break down oils, fats, and grease that has bonded to oil loving synthetic fibers, but few of the risks associated with other alkaline prespray products.

“Natural Fiber Cleaner” starts with an acidic pH, which makes it ideal for all natural fibers and blends, and especially safe to use on white and potentially non colorfast fabrics. The acidic pH of this product means that no additional acidic rinsing agents are needed, unless severe color bleeding sensitivity exists.

Why the most EFFECTIVE?
Using this unique system; you have a self neutralizing alkaline cleaner, Upholstery Pre-spray, for synthetics, with which you can attack the most troublesome oily soils that otherwise make the cleaning of such abused upholstery fabrics a time consuming and fatiguing task. Plus, in addition you have the unique Natural Fiber Cleaner, an acidic cleaner for natural fibers which is absolutely the best acid based cleaner I have ever used! It has a surfactant system specifically designed to attack oily soils, as well as built in solvent boosters to assist the surfactants so that fabrics that might be otherwise seen as beyond cleaning, can often be restored to a nearly new condition.

For complete article, please visit…
http://www.ecleanadvisor.com/public/765.cfm

Each of these parasitic insects create discomfort for your customers, and may be difficult to eliminate.

Here are some of the serious questions that are heard frequently, along with a link to an article I have published in the eCleanAdvisor.com where you can find some additional links to an excellent resource you might wish to share with your customers!

Q - How can you tell if the residence or building is infested?
Q - What should you know about insecticides and other methods for treating bed bugs?
Q - What might you do when returning from a visit to an infested residence?
Q – Do bed bugs cause harm or spread pathogens?

For answers to these questions and MORE, please go to:
http://tinyurl.com/25bxjq2

A cleaning technician who might hesitate to suggest the “add on” of some upholstered furniture cleaning while on a carpet cleaning job is not as likely to hesitate when he just has to connect an upholstery cleaning tool and “go to work”.

Unfortunately, this ease of quickly switching tools also makes it easy to overlook such important steps as:

• Testing
• Inspection
• Dry soil removal
• Preconditioning
• The use of a properly designed upholstery tool
• The use of proper cleaning chemicals

Regardless of the cleaning equipment or system used, the neglect of these important considerations will result in unsatisfactory results, displeased customers, as well as the probability of expensive damage claims.

For the most important considerations in using truck mount equipment to safely clean upholstered furniture areas follows: http://www.ecleanadvisor.com/members/139.cfm

Over the past two decades many cleaners have shifted from the use of alkaline carpet cleaning detergents to the use of acidic rinse agents.  Cleaners began to become concerned about potential cleaning residues, and while some attempted to solve the problem by rinsing with clear water alone, others chose to use existing chemistry to attempt to neutralize pH as well as rinse cleaning agent residues from carpet.

The products they first tried were already available, and had been on the market for several years already:  Acidic Rinse Agents.

These products were primarily used for rinsing upholstery after preconditioning, and their primary purpose was (and still is) to be used for stabilizing dyes, preventing cellulose browning, and softening velvet and chenille fabrics.

These products still work for carpet, but have mostly been replaced by products that act as cleaning agents as well as neutralizing agents.  These products are acidic in pH, and do help to neutralize preconditioning agents, but have the added benefit of providing cleaning as well as neutralization.   With these acidic cleaning (rather than rinsing) agents, you need not precondition the entire carpet, but instead only the parts that have heavy accumulations of petroleum, proteins, or fats.

If you use the new generation “dry” upholstery cleaning tools, such as the Upholstery Pro, and acidic cleaning detergents, your chance of causing browning is far less than it once was.

However, if you tend to clean all upholstery with “the same stuff” (usually an alkaline cleaner) and use old fashioned wet upholstery tools, browning still can occur. Should you ever cause browning on upholstery, follow these steps to correct it:

1. Remove the furniture from your customer’s house whenever possible. Most browning removal procedures take repeated applications, and visiting a home several times is costly to you, and annoying for your customer (which means it can become VERY costly to you if they tire of your visits before you have solved the problem.)

2. Clean the furniture using only an acidic rinse agent (such as Upholstery Rinse) or an acidic detergent (such as Natural Fiber Cleaner). This method will also remove the alkaline cleaning agent residues that caused the browning in the first place. Rapidly speed dry immediately afterward, and in most cases, the browning will be gone, or greatly reduced.

3. If step 2 does not work, apply an acidic neutralizing treatment, preferably one that does not contain any detergent or surfactant (such as Dye Stabilizer and Rinse). The reason not to use a product with a surfactant is that this eliminates the need to clean the fabric once more, or leave further residue. Repeated cleanings and accumulated residue will cause texture changes.

4. If step 3 does not work, apply a reducing agent, that again does not contain a surfactant (such as Coffee Stain Remover). This type of product requires time to work, and has a strong odor,and in this case may leave a powder residue than can be vacuumed away without causing distortion.

5. If step 3 doesn’t work, you will need to rinse the fabric again, dry quickly, then use a non-chlorine oxidizing agent (such as Boost All) added to a neutral shampoo (such as Fabric Shampoo). This application will need to be followed by another acidic rinse application, and speed drying. This step may result in over whitening and additional texture distortion, and should be avoided whenever possible.

While your first goal should be to never allow browning to occur, if it does happen, your best choice is to attempt to remove the browning with steps 2 and 3, repeating those steps as needed and drying quickly. In this way you have the best chance of removing the browning, and also minimizing texture distortion and bleaching that cause additional damage.