Cleanfax, September 2019

A year later this new carpet is ready to be cleaned but the cleaning company fails to reach an acceptable level of cleaning It turns out this new ber likes oil a lot more than the previous one His cleaning company nds a remedy for the problem by adding a solvent spotter to the preconditioner but this also raises the cost of cleaning e apartment owner is unhappy with the price increase and chooses a di erent cleaner is new cleaner uses an absorbent powder method and like his competitor also nds the new carpet di cult to clean Later the second cleaner tries an oleophilic absorbent made for special jobs which works but he too must charge more to reach an acceptable level of cleaning Frustrated with all of this the apartment owner hears of an expert who helped a neighbor with his cleaning issues e expert sends samples of the carpet o to a laboratory for testing ese tests have standardized AATCC ASTM protocols and do not go to the extra steps that our cleaning companies have gone to e test results nd the ber is below the acceptable limits so the court declares this carpet to be uncleanable based on the de nitions of acceptable levels of cleaning us technically this new carpet can be cleaned but legally it cannot Perceptions of clean In both scenarios the carpet was clean by one de nition but not by another so what does this mean for the industry Todays professionals need to know more than just how to clean a di cult carpet We need to know the legal de nitions of words like soil clean and cleaning When called into question the judicial system will use industry standards to de ne terms and test like with an AATCC ASTM test to determine cleanability Professionals must also recognize that the customer will have a di erent understanding of soil compared to industry or legal standards and they will hold us accountable for any miscommunications A thorough consultation with the customer prior to service can help alleviate these problems James Jim B Smith is an IICRC approved instructor a senior practicing inspector and part of the of the IICRC S100 cleaning standard voting consensus His educational studies come from Texas A M University and the University of Houston He has been in the cleaning industry since 1975 For more information visit his website at www carpetinspector com jbs call 972 334 0533 or email jsmith@ carpetinspector com SEP 2019 cleanfax com 11 FREE INFO Reader Service 212 at Cleanfax com freeinfo