Canada’s First Green Cleaning Company to become CSSA’s Green Sustainability Contractors

Fresh and Clean Carpet Cleaning of Toronto, Ontario is very proud to announce that they have become the first Certified Green Sustainability Contractor under the new CSSA Canadian Geen Sustainability Program. The Canadian Sanitation Supply Association (CSSA) has developed a comprehensive management and operations program to help standardize the cleaning industry from coast-to-coast. Fresh and Clean has been an industry leader in green cleaning. Several changes were necessary to comply with the new standard. This includes cleaning with microfiber rather than cotton cloths and the use of HEPA vacuums in the cleaning operations. Fresh and Clean continues to use cleaning solutions approved by Envronmental Choice and the Carpet and Rug Institute’s Seal of Approval. Contact Lee Senter- Fresh and Clean 905-669-0607 www.freshandclean.ca

Seam sealer added later

Again this week I saw two situations of installers just not getting it when it comes to seam/edge sealing.

First one was from an installer who was repairing a seam that had a depression along it that was likely caused by too hot of a seaming iron.  The guys who had tried to fix the seam the first time had dismantled the seam, redid the seam and then left a tractor with the customer and asked her to run the tractor over the seam all weekend. Needless to say the customer was not impressed. The last installer went in there and said he could not match up the pattern. It was a high /low loop and the pattern was just less than an inch long. The installer said he could not powerstretch the carpet a half inch to help line up the patterns. I found this quite unbelieveable, especially when there were no elongated holes in the secondary backing that always exist when the carpet is adequately stretched. The same installer told me the seam he constructed was excellent and that he sealed the seams from the bottom with a glue gun!

Second one is from a delamination claim on a commercial install. There was more sealer on the concrete than on the seam. The old Standard said you could butter one cut edge and then butt the other edge into it. The new Standard states that you must seal both cut edges and then add a third bead of sealer to bind the two cut edges together. When I mentioned this to the retailer he was shocked that the new standard says that and that no manufacturer had told them of the new Standard For Carpet Installation.

I guess he has a point, who else would tell the retailers and installers that there is a new standard but the manufacturers? However is it the manufacturers responsibility to tell everyone of the new Standard? Of course it isn’t! I guess this is the tip of the iceberg for us inspectors over the next couple of years.

Shading on a woven face on face

I was commissioned to look at a woven face on face or tops and bottoms as they are referred to.I don’t want any clues on the mill but it is American made and the face fiber is polypropylene. The commissioning party is asking me to inspect a high line. They also stated that the shading problem has been explained away.

I arrive at the home and the only thing the customer wants to talk about is the shading. The customer stated that there were many bands across the width of the carpet when the carpet was originally rolled out in the home. These were likely pressure bands and are actually very common, they are usually repairable on wool and nylon but pretty tough to fix on olefin. Anyways the majority of the bands were no longer discernible. There were variations in the carpet pile showing some areas as dark and some areas are light. This is a cut pile carpet that is NOT made from staple yarns–YOU WILL GET SOME SHADING! I try and show this to the customer by rubbing the pile with my feet and hands. They were not listening. Instead I have the lady customer (in her 60’s) telling me  numerous times that the carpet looks like “shit” and that the sample of the carpet at the retailer is false advertising.

I am of course rattled by their tirades. I am shaking and nervous. I am definitely not in any condition to shear the high line in front of the customer when I know the area will likely show some new shading.

For some reasons the customers think that being rude with me was going to help their case?!? Anyways I guess the moral of the story is that cut pile BCF yarns will usually not be trackless and will show some kind of shading .

Carpet inspections I see that boggle my mind

I see a lot of carpets. I continue to learn each time I am out there. This one defies logic. I went out to see a carpet that was down in two main panels of a bedroom that had just been renovated. The end user had chosen a white wool wilton weave with a viscose blend. It was 75% wool 25% viscose. The renovation contractor decided to install half the carpet in the bedroom while he continued to demolish the bathroom. He then installed the other panel of carpet and seamed them together. Well needless to say there was a colour difference between the two panels. The carpet that was laid down while construction continued was grayer in colour. The contractor called in a company he uses to clean the carpet.  They hot water extracted the carpet twice, once by portable and another time by truckmounted unit. They had no success. I was then called in to inspect. I ended up calling the carpet cleaning company who did the cleaning and quizzed them on how they cleaned the carpet. They told me they presprayed with an enzyme and extracted. I investigated further and found out that this was indeed  dry clean only. My conclusion on my report blamed the Contractor and end user for putting the carpet down during construction. I also pointed some blame at the carpet cleaning contractor for improper cleaning. The carpet cleaning company freaked. They stated that they can clean any carpet by hot water extraction. I pointed out it was dry clean only and likely because there was viscose in the pile which shrinks severely. They said they did not know that. When I pointed out that their was not enough emphasis on dry particulate removal by extra careful vacuuming they said that they vacuumed regularly. I pointed out that they used an enzyme on wool they said it was good for wool(?!?).

It was a double header, a contractor who puts an extremely expensive ($25K) bedrooom carpet down and then works in the area adjacent and a carpet cleaner who thinks he can extract any carpet. Even a woven carpet with funny looking yarns in it.

Gloves Off Carpet Care and Disinfectant

We just got a new order of Concrobium Carpet Shampoo and lo and behold–they have changed the name to Gloves Off Carpet Care. Gloves Off has just recently released their DIN registered botanical disinfectant/cleaner.

It is nice to have new additions to the family of eco friendly cleaners that actually work! In particular its nice to now have a cleaner/disinfectant in one that is certified green.

The eco-revolution is growing quickly. Fresh and Clean will always be in the forefront of green carpet cleaning.

Our prespray TLC  now has the Carpet and Rug Institute’s Seal of Approval, our rinse agent/cleaner Chemspec DFC105 also has the same certification. This means that these ultra safe products can be used on a carpet and not void the carpet’s warranty. If your carpet cleaner does not use products with this Seal of Approval there is a chance that he is voiding your carpet’s warranty. Check with your carpet manufacturer.

Don’t be fooled by other people’s claims of being green—insist on seeing third party verification of their claims.

The certifications you should be looking for are the EPA’s Design for the Environment, Ecologo, Terrachoice and Envirodesic.

We at Fresh and Clean take great pride in using cleaning solutions that have both the CRI Seal of Approval and a Green certification.

Canadian Green Sustainability Program

Well its finally here a green cleaning program made for canadians by Canadians. The Canadian Sanitation Supply Association (CSSA) has started a program that will set the standard for Green Cleaning in facility management. Buildings will be able to receive recognition for their green cleaning and so will building service contractors.

The initial training of ESPs starts this month and will continue into next month. An ESP is an Expert Sustainability Professional. Our company Fresh and Clean plans on having our staff trained by an ESP who will likely be the owner of Fresh and Clean and the author of this blog Mr. Lee Senter.

Once our technicians are trained by an ESP they will have to take a test and will then become Certified Green Sustainibility Contractors.

We’ll keep you updated on this program as it grows.

Concrobium Carpet Cleaning Shampoo

The company that makes Concrobium Mould Control has now come out with a carpet shampoo. Now I hope it truly is a “shampoo”. Shampoos are still used in our industry-especially when dealing with natural fibers on upholstery and area rugs. The idea is to whip the shampoo up and use the foam of the shampoo. The foam is then lightly agitated into the fabric/yarns and then extracted back out.  This allows us to clean using a virtually water free solution and still getting the benefits of quick drying and the power of the cleaning solution.

Why is this exciting for us? Well the product is made of food based ingredients! The only non-toxic product we have been using as a “shampoo” is Ecogent. Ecogent does foam up a bit, but its not really a shampoo.

Our foreman Paul “Stains” McMahon is out there using the product last week and next. We hope to have a report back soon on its effectiveness.

Green Cleaning is No Compromise

We have our preconditioner–this is something that we spray on the carpet at the beginning of the process and is left to dwell on the carpet for anywhere from 5-15 minutes.

This preconditioner is made of micelle enhanced nano-surfactant. These micelles are made from corn derivatives. The neat thing about these nano-surfactants is they have the ability to attach to soils much smaller than regular surfactants. Regular surfactants attach themselves to soils in the range of 3 microns in size and larger. The micelle enhanced nano-surfactant attaches itself to soils as small as 1 micron in size. This may not mean much at first glance but in many situations up to 90% of the soil in a carpet can be smaller than 3 microns in size. The micelle enhanced nano-surfactant is new, but it is turning up everywhere and its making its mark very quickly on our industry.

The second step of our cleaning is the solution that is run through the extraction machine. This is a product made from 100% FDA approved food based ingredients. The really neat thing about this product is that it has the ability to rinse away organic materials and dries to a salt form. So, what this means is that soils (including old soapy residues) get rinsed away and the carpet is left essentially residue free so that it does not attract dirt quickly. Everyone loves a carpet that stays cleaner longer.

Now for those situations where the carpet has just been abused we still carry a variety of other cleaners. However I can safely say that we use the above process over 97% of the time.

Cleaning Green is as Effective as Cleaning With Harsh Chemicals

I often get asked the question “how can one be assured that using green products can compare to using regular off the shelf non green cleaning products?” They also like to add in the aspects of using disinfectants and other biocides on carpets for further cleanliness.

Well let’s start out by saying that scientists don’t usually view disinfecting of a carpet possible. I know of no product that is approved by Health Canada or the US EPA for such a purpose. This whole attitude of sanitizing and disinfecting things is unnecessary in many cases and bad in the long run in others. The repeated use of sanitizers and disinfectants not only kill the bad bacteria but they also kill the good bacteria that are essential for healthy life. There is also mounting evidence that biocides dumped in lakes, rivers and streams are creating antibiotic resistant bacteria.

Disinfectants are supposed to be applied to freshly cleaned surfaces. They are meant to attack that microscopic thin layer of soil that could not be effectively cleaned away from the pores of surfaces by conventional cleaning.

When it comes to carpet cleaning the key to success is thorough organic soil removal from the carpet. Dry particulate can be removed from the carpet by vacuuming. The carpet knap can be groomed up to facilitate vacuuming and allow deeper penetration of the carpet cleaning solution when it is applied. The cleaning solution used should deflocculates the soil from the carpet fiber and allow it to be extracted or absorbed by some form of medium.

The green cleaning movement has allowed industry to create many different cleaning products and solutions. When a cleaner purchases a cleaner there are many different categories of cleaning solutions. There are surfactants, enzymes, solvents and many others. The product is usually chosen for the type of soils to be cleaned. Are they oil based soils? Are they food based soils? Are they animal/human based soils?  Well green cleaning solutions should be chosen in the same way. The industry now has a good selection of different green carpet cleaning solutions.

In other words don’t expect one cleaner to be able to clean every different type of soil load. Remember it’s the removal of the soil that is the important component.  Proper selection of the appropriate cleaning solution is the key to success.

The green cleaning movement is speeding ahead in Canada. On January 29, 2010 the Canadian Sanitation Supply Association (CSSA) is introducing its Canadian Green Sustainability Program to its members and the public. The first certification classes will start in February. All certifications will be audited by independent third parties.

We all hope that the program will have long reaching impact and set the bar on green cleaning in Canada. There are three factors that our company expects in a green cleaning solution:

• it has an excellent ability to clean carpets to levels safe enough for public health
• it is safe for use around chemically sensitive people
• it is safe for the environment including its affect on waste water

Why is CRI’s Seal of Approval (SOA) important?

I am asked this by my students, customers and clients that I inspect carpets for all the time. It really is quite simple and easy to relate to when you think about it.

There are a couple of  old wive’s tales that say “once you clean a carpet it will get dirty that much faster” and the other is “don’t clean a carpet until you have to”.

The reason these tales have wrung true for so many years is that carpets actually do have a tendency to get dirty  quickly after cleaning. Why? Well the proof may lie in the Seal of Approval Program. The CRI tested 25 carpet cleaning products before the program was implemented. Of those 25 products, 21 cleaned worse than water alone!!!

The main criteria for a carpet cleaning product to pass the SOA is:

Overall cleaning effectiveness — This ensures that the product removes soil and spots better than plain water.

Rate of resoiling — This ensures that the product does not attract dirt to the cleaned areas faster than the rest of the carpet.

pH — A more neutral pH ensures that carpet dyes and fibers are not adversely affected.

Surface texture change— The product must leave the carpet pile minimally changed after repeated cleanings.

Optical brighteners —  None is allowed, as they can leave some patches of carpet lighter than the rest.

Colorfastness —  Products must not be so aggressive that they cause a color change in the carpet.The rate of resoiling is often made worse by the carpet cleaner’s over use of cleaning chemistry. For some reason cleaners don’t like using measuring cups.

This just expedites the problem.