Customer has large solarium with huge beautiful plants around the walls. I believe the room is a good 15 yrs old, never professionally cleaned. Its a white shag carpet. There are many stained areas where large plants have been placed for extended period of time.
Home sits on 40 degree slope of hillside and room is on 2nd floor. I regularly use my challenger OP with pads or fiberplus pad and encap. I also have HWE with rotovac available. My Cimex is not going to make it up the narrow stairs. Any suggestions? Haven't seen any shag carpeting in years.

I know what ya mean about shag carpet. Did a dentist's break room with that type of carpet using my op. The room was in the attick and it never got a pro cleaning. It was the most difficult carpet I've come across yet. Hope I never see any of that stuff again. I did manage to get it clean with my cotton pads, it just took a real long time.

Brian is right. Because of all the material, it takes
longer to clean carpeting like this. Tell the customer that you will need to charge a time-related surcharge to work on shag.

You challenger will clean it fine, unless it has the frieze fibers in it, then it will distort the LONG shag way too much.

distortion of Frieze was/is one of my largest concerns of OP.

a couplle experienced OP'ers told me to use Steve Smith's Durapads. i ordered some and will use'm when i need'em.

checkout http://vacaway.com/index.htm
and call Steve Smith, he is an honest fella who loves to help.

thanx --- Derek.

Did a job on orange shag yesterday. It was in an old but classy Deck House being put up for sale. I always
kind of groan inwardly when I see shag, but this one
brightened up very nicely. I realized our work would
be in vain, since the first thing any new owners would do would be to rip this stuff out.

Appreciate your comments. Thought I'd give an update
I hauled my 1/2 HP Challenger up the mountian. I charged 3 times my normal rate and informed the customer of expected results since the carpet had several stains and soiled areas. Gave her a choice: call a HWE guy who would have the carpet wet for days or pay for a professional job. She agreed but still was doubtful if it was worth the extra fee.

I padded with Excellent Punch very, very slowly. Used a small handmachine with fiberplus pad (and excellent DS) to do around everything I couldn't move as there wasn't a lot of room between HUGE plants and furniture.

OP cleaned it nicely but it still showed a couple of stains. The floor was 99% dry when I was done so I thought I'd haul off my tools except for the challenger and returned with Excellent DS encap. I encapped to finish using a green stripped pad from hasco. Dynamite!
The pad had cleaned it nicely, but the encap Brightened up the entire room.

Result: One happy customer and one well rewarded cleaner.
Best part is I never had to haul that portable out of the truck

Dennis - That's a great success story. Maybe the next time I'm called upon to clean shag-style carpet,
I'll just triple my rate, and follow your script.
Thanks for sharing. You should write that up, and submit it to Cleanfax Magazine. I'll bet they'll
print it.

You made many fine points in your response but I am disapointed in your comment that mentioned "calling the HWE guy and have it wet for days".Now while we may have all expierenced this either first,second or third person.your statement makes it seem as though every single company and/or owner operator that happens to employ the HWE method,(whether its' their only method or one of many that many cleaners choose to use,) all leave the carpet wet for days.You actually sound as if you have worked for Chem Dry spouting off totally incorrect propaganda(sp).
Now ,right now I don't own an OP unit,that doesn't keep me from participating on almost all of the BBs'.I typically utilize at least two methods per job because I know how much is left behind after a cleaning with any single method.With that being said,I've serviced plenty of homes with HWE that without the application of a soil repellant,would dry within 1-2 hours simply due to the fact that I utilize the pressure gauge on my TM,perform multiple dry strokes(all the time),make use of airmovers,ect...
Not one method is better than another,even though some are more appropiate than others.
Patrick

Patrick, don't take offense, this is not about the informed cleaners, that statement would apply though to the largest percentage of cleaners.

If you take it personally, then you must consider yourself a part of the hacks, real cleaners don't leave it wet for days no matter what method but many hwe guys do leave it that wet. Customers testemonials day after day validate that.

No offense meant at all to HWE guys. I also perform HWE when necessary. Only I find it less and less necessary in my area of service.

I didn't include all info for the sake of brevity.
The customer had told me prior that in the past she had had one of the francise guys clean with a truckmount. They had charged what I did for one room, but they had done 4 rooms and she expressed this since she thought my price was high. So I politely said I fully understand, but my standard of work is superior since I can use mulitple methods of cleaning. Then she told me: "she wasn't happy with them due to the fact that stains had returned and the carpets were wet for days"-- her words.
Prior to her remarks I was considering HWE and then padding dry.
I simply view my different tools as different means to an end: a clean carpet and happy customer!
I live in NE PA, MOUNTAINOUS area with high stair runs and quite long distances from parking areas to front doors. Not to mention some pretty harse weather for three months of the year. In my opinion, TM's simply are impractical up here, but its just my opinion. I'm originally from the Jersey Shore and never had customers concerned with 'methods' of cleaning.
I find about 75% of my customers here, ask me about 'how do I clean' since they have been unhappy with franchise guys using HWE in past.

I know there are good cleaners out there using HWE, but some unhappy customers are looking for something new. For any HWE guys looking on, their gripes are always the same. They claim they leave the carpets wet for days and they feel they are "in and out" too quickly.
I'm an older guy and have learned to spend time with the customers. I'm very thankful I found Challenger and Cimex along with the products from excellent supply. When I find a trashed carpet, I'll use my portable with rotovac and followup with challenger and pads. I show the customer the soiled pads and explain this is the secondary cleaning process (in this case-removing more soil) and also 'drying' their carpets. They love it. So do I since I do charge more for this type of cleaning.

For the record, my preferred means of cleaning is the is my challenger with Punch or FP pad or hesco pad with excellent DS. The challenger is easy stair climber and also more easily used in furniture crowded rooms. I only haul out the portable HWE for restoration type work and my Cimex for accessable first floor work or commercial work. I love the Cimex on Berber, it blows away other methods in this area.
My challenger is the tool that is ALWAYS in my truck.

Dennis,thank you for clearing that up.I do understand your situation with your area.Its odd around here,besides going behind the HWE franchises,I also go behind the non-HWE and supposed non-HWE companies for lack of clean-ability and dry timesLooks like we're all having to re-educate clients.

Jason, I know that I'm not a hack,by a long shot.My concern when a blanket statement is being made is that a "greenhorn" not the un-informed could be reading these postings and easily become mis-informed.
As BoB W. says:"Get it clean,get it dry"!
Patrick

well said Patrick

and thanx for sharing the story Dennis!

thanx --- Derek.