A few days ago I received another response from my recent mailing to funeral homes. It was from an owner who had used my services for several years in the 90s up to 2004. Then he suddenly stopped calling. I tried calling him a few times to find out why he was no longer a customer, but he never returned my calls, or an e-mail.

When he called me just a few days ago, he was very apologetic. He said that his father, who had run the funeral home in earlier years, had decided to come out of retirement and "help" his son. One of his "improvements" was to insist on hiring his previous window cleaner to clean the carpets, since "he's cheaper, and anyone can clean carpets".
The son watched as the carpets become increasing dark and grungy looking over a period of approximately 4 years. Then he finally got up the nerve, I guess, to tell his father that he was going back to the company he was using before, (me) who always made the carpeting look great.

When I went there yesterday, I couldn't believe how bad the carpeting looked. There were ugly dark brown and grey traffic lanes throughout, and spots everywhere. My guy said that the window cleaner bragged that he cleaned the carpets with Windex. He said "Windex can clean anything." I beg to differ.

I brought the carpet back, but it took me about twice as long as the job did when I had been doing it regularly - about 3 times a year. I used Vacaway Encap-Green, spraying more heavily than I normally would. Then, using a Fiber-Plus pad (beige pad) I slowly went over one room at a time, in a double-pass or checkerboard pattern. I finished each room with terrycloth pads, removing both soil and most of the cleaning solution. The traffic lanes all disappeared, as did just about all the spots. There was rust here and there, which I got out with the Vacaway rust removal product. So much for Windex.

Real window cleaners don't use windex even on windows, :) Mark, how would you rate encap green compared to other cleaners you use? I used it a few times with mixed results (I don't encap much) so I haven't got an opinion as to how good it is yet. Thanks

I keep trying to remember to order a box of those fiber plus pads, but then I get distracted.

Again.

If you were to have only used the fiber pads what would it have looked like? I wonder because all the cimex users and you've posted about a few jobs in the past where you did fiber pads only. Do you see it as something where you can use a few pads in the bad areas and just a fiber pad on the rest?

Also wondering if you've ever tried tuways with your cx-20 which I assume is what you used.

Thanks Mark. Sounds like you got a loyal customer back there.

Good job Mark. I speak for us all when I say people are dying to get in those funeral homes!
Sorry couldn't resist!

That was a good one Matty!

I've just really started using the encap-green where I might have used non-encap natural-based cleaners before - that is to say, in residential situations. The funeral home involved here is a large old victorian home, so I tend to think of it as residential. It has circa 1970s residential deep pile carpeting I am very pleased with the results I've been getting. Where soil build-up has been on the high side, I have followed with terrycloth pads, and it really does improve the results a lot. The carpet looks much brighter than when non-absorbent pads alone are used, in these types of situations.

I continue to use Releasit Encap DS on the larger commercial jobs, with the low-pile typical commercial carpeting. I like the fact that the job is made a little easier via the white foam film this product produces. Makes it more easy to see where you've been.

And, no, I have not used the tu-way pads on my Cimex - only Fiber-Plus and Fiber-Max pads.