Mark & Other pro's,

Kind of confused hear and still trying to figure this whole thing out...

What is the difference between general Op cc'ing and encapsulation cc'ing?

Hope I did not butcher that technical name to much.

With standard OPing, you are absorbing/removing/extracting soil as you go along. That is why true OPers use 100% cotton, or 90% cotton pads, as cotton fibers are super-absorbtive. The standard scrubber-type pads sold online and by your local janitorial supply house are made up of synthetic fibers - basically some form of plastic. Plastic doesn't absorb anything, or much of anything.

Encapsulation means scrubbing in a specially-designed cleaning product via a non-absorbtive pad: nylon, "hog hair", or even a scrub brush. The object is not to immediately remove soil, but to have the scrubbing action separate the soil from the carpet fiber. The residue of the scrubbing action is a virtually invisible mixture of dried cleaning solution and removed soil.
It dries into tiny, super-fragile crystals, which fragment and vacuum up when the carpet your have just worked on is vacuumed - usually by someone other than you.

There is a middle ground between straight OPing and straight encapping. It is called Padcapping. When you padcap, you are using BOTH cotton pads AND an encapsulating cleaning product. You will remove a lot of soil as you go along, as you would with straight OPing. AND, whatever residue you leave behind will be in the form of the crystals described above, which will easily break away from the carpet and end up in the vacuum cleaner. When you OP with a non-encapsulating cleaning product, a bit of the residue will remain dried to the carpet fibers, which will probably cause resoiling to occur a little more rapidly than would take place had you used an encapsulating cleaner.

THANKS MARK!

Still a tad confused but this is all learning how this vlm / op works. I still have questions:

So if i am just oping i am pre-spraying with a cleaner, dampening the cotton pad and then using the machine to do the scrubbing?

If i am encapping i am using the machine with a special brush, an encapping cleaner, and then the machine to do the work?

I guess at first i want to keep it specific and simple: Vacuum, pre-spray, clean with the machine and be done. oping is best for this?

I have a chance to maybe do some cleaning for home builder that has 4 show homes. Most of it is wood laminate, some vinyl flooring, some tile and some carpet. I know the office manager and she was interested when i told her about being able to clean her show houses floors with the VLm / OP method. she said when i am up and running to give her a ccall for a test cleaning. Can i clean wood laminate by op method?


I was sent a video of a HOS machine with spray nozels attached to it any idea if this is a current machine or a new one coming out.