We had a job yesterday that was a very low pile commercial carpet. There were some trouble areas that needed specific attention (human feces) and we used the challenger with Orbit Natural. After cleaning the areas, most of the feces spots were gone; however, everywhere we cleaned now looks to be a darker color than the rest of the carpet - even after it dried. It seriously looks like we ruined the carpet but we are clueless as to why this would happen. The, now larger spots are everywhere our challenger cleaned. Went back today and tried encap over part of the trouble areas but the darkened spots are still there. Any suggestions or experience with this?

Do you know if they tried cleaning those areas with any off the shelf chems?

That has happened to me several times, i usually ask n tell them right away of the outcome.

I too am clueless as to the cause. Would it be possible for them to let you work on the rest of the carpet at their facility, so to even out the effect?

Bill, we know that they did not attempt cleaning the floors prior to our cleaning. The carpets do not have a pad and are glued to the floor.

Mark, unfortunately, the dark spots are not very consistent. In other words, there are dark spots where the challenger touched, but their are small areas within the dark spots (no pattern) that are fine. Yes, we have the work for the entire building and hope we don't lose it over this. They love our encap work, but I have no clue why the challenger left this type of result.

We are going to try hot water extraction with a de-browning agent to see if that helps. If it doesn't, we may be replacing a lot of carpet

I would try using a protein based spot remover and flushing with a water claw ALOT you wont belive how much gets in there at least a few gallons (a little at a time) on the spots. Then I would hit it with Pro's Choice Urine Stain remover or Stain Magic. I'm assuming that the darker areas are where the feces was. Is that correct. We have a tendancy to think that encap can cure it all on CGD but you do have to pull out the spotters and I've had that exact problem with animal feces before. I wen in for two diarea doggie accidents so I brought my shop vac and water claw and I was amazed at how much water i had to put thru the carpet before it rinsed clean.

Water claw won't work on CGD commercial carpet with no pad.

Unless you have pile damage from excessive abrasion, then I suspect you overwetted the areas cleaned. It may, or may not be wicking of soil. It can just as likely be bleeding from soils in the concrete. I have this on occasion in a large church account I deal with.

Lots of flushing, extracting with a hole glide and fan drying is all that will correct it in my church carpet from hell account.

"church carpet from hell"...that's funny. Thanks for the advice. It is very possible that we over-wet it. We'll try your process.

Thanks