hi everyone, quick ?, when encapping, should i use a cotton pad, or the green striped pad, should it be wet, damp, or dry. also does anyone know of a good synthetic "scrubbing" type pad, something a little more aggressive than the green striped, and is it safe to use it on most carpets. thaks all, bill
Hi Bill,
When I "pad-cap" I have been using the encap punch juice from excellent-supply.com. For pads I have using the aggressor pad from bonnetpro.com. I use these pads for both commercial and residential. At first I was not sure they were doing much absorbtion compared to the cotton pads. You can run with them a long time and they still do not seem to get that dirty. They are not a cotton pad. They are some type of synthetic blend. Anyhow, I took the one pad I used for the job home and soaked it in about 2" of water and did the dirt ever begin to "ooze" out of that pad! I was impressed! It was holding a lot of dirt! These pads are expensive. About $30.00 ea. But they last forever. I begin with them dry and just keep going and going with one pad. Some times I may fip it over. If you call them they will make a pad to fit the challenger (13"). You do not need a glider so you are cleaning with the entire pad. They have a scubbing strip in them to help with aggitation. I have used them in residential with no problems. Some guys have used red or black floor scub pads with no problems and so far these scrub pads have not caused me any problems Well Bill, that is how I have been "pad-capping". Works great for me and you use one or two pads for the entire job, you scrub and absorb the dirt in a single pass!!
Steve S
The 2 fiber pads sold by www.excellent-supply.com are very good for encapping: the beige fiberplus pad for most work, and the grey fibermax pad for tougher jobs. I have occasionally used red, and even green pad on very bad commercial glue-down (CGD) carpet. These can be bought for about $5 each in the tool rental section of any Home Depot). Once I even tried (with the permission of the absentee landlord owner) a black pad designed to abrade factory-applied wood finishes prior to recoating. The carpet in his rental unit was beyond trashed, and he was ready to replace it. The "Black Magic" pad, from Virginia Abrasives, tore through the mess without seeming to cause any damage to the carpet, enabling the owner to put off carpet replacement for another year. Sometimes these super-aggressive (red, green, and black) pads will cause an OP machine to bump around too much to do the job.
I believe so. One potential problem with red pads: the color can come off the pads a little bit onto the carpet. I had read a post some time ago stating this, but had forgotten about it. I had some red come off on a light-colored carpet recently, but quickly put down a damp cotton pad, and it got all the red out. I suspect green pads might do the same. I don't encourage the use of these pads except in the worst, most trashed-out situations, where the owner is ready to throw them out anyway.
I briefly tried a blue pad on a trashed berber and quickly noticed the carpet was turning blue... I quickly put down a cotton pad and it picked it back up... last time I try that.
