Filtration soil and carpet cleaningby Jeff Cross

Found in many homes and some commercial settings - those mainly in colder climates - filtration soiling is tough to remove and takes time to do so properly.

Nearly all on-location cleaners charge more for this type of service.

Filtration lines (soiling) are those dark lines or bands of soils that you find along walls, under doors that are kept closed for a length of time, under the skirting of furniture, and more.

Its makeup is oily and the molecules of the soils are so small that cleaning them or removing them from fibers is difficult. In addition, they have an electrical "charge" that bonds them firmly to the fiber.

How they form

Filtration lines occur no matter the type of home, business or facility.

What matters: Indoor air quality and the construction.

As everyone knows, warm air moves up, and as it cools, drops back down. That's why hot air balloons defy gravity.

Something that not everyone knows is that warm air also likes cool surfaces.

This means that as air is warmed, typically while the furnace runs, the air - full of pollutants - goes up and then searches out cooler surfaces, such as an outside wall or another room.

As the air moves toward the cooler area, it will push its way through carpeted surfaces (under doors, etc) and "clean itself".

Just as carpet is a filter, it is much more so when air moves from one room to another, or when air moves under furniture, etc.

What is left behind is a buildup of oily soils that are very difficult to remove.

As more time passes, more soils build up and soon you have a tremendous cleaning challenge.

What to do?

As with any cleaning challenge, you should attempt cleaning a dirty area with your normal cleaning protocol.

With filtration soils, it's the same thing. Precondition a small area of filtration soils, work into the pile, and rinse.

Most likely, you will see little to moderate improvement.

This means you need to get aggressive with your cleaning procedure.

To prepare for successful cleaning of filtration soiling, gather a moderate to stiff agitation brush or scraper (remembering that tamping is always the safest way to agitate fibers), a gel solvent, and a strong oxygen cleaner (either powdered or liquid).

Getting to work

A good cleaning procedure to begin with to remove filtration soils is (after vacuuming):

• Apply a preconditioner to the filtration soils
  • Agitate into the filtration soils (tamping or carefully scrubbing)
    • Rinse
      • Apply a gel solvent
        • Agitate
          • Rinse

            The use of encapsulation chemistry is effective on filtration soiling. The chemistry encapsulates the smaller soils, making for easier removal.

            That's one of the main challenges of filtration soiling - the tiny soils. Any chemical that will strip these from the fiber is a good choice.

            Formulated soil filtration products from your supplier often have the ability to break the particle "charge" of the filtration soil and the fabric.

            Challenges

            Probably the biggest challenge to removing soil filtration lines is where they are on the carpet.

            Although about one-third of soil filtration lines are under doors kept closed most of the time, the other two-thirds are in areas very difficult to work on.

            Click here for a CRI bulletin on filtration soils.

            After opening the above CRI bulletin, you'll see that filtration soiling occurs mainly in carpet where air is forced from one room or area to another. There are some nice illustrations in the bulletin that explain this potential problem.

            If your customer or client has a room that is seldom used, and the door is kept closed, the air that goes into or out of that room moves under the door - which means that the pollutants in the air are trapped in the carpet under the door.

            After all, carpet is a filter, and when you concentrate air movement in an area (such as under a door) you get more soiling in that area.

            You need agitation

            The key to removing filtration soiling is agitation. Even the strongest chemical won't do the job by itself.

            Many carpet cleaners have attempted soil filtration removal by applying the correct chemistry and "scrubbing" the chemistry into the carpet.

            These same carpet cleaners have found that they damaged the baseboards, walls or other close surfaces at the same time.

            Many filtration soils are along walls that go up or down a set of staircase, or along the baseboards of walls.

            Imagine the difficulty attempting proper agitation against walls that you do not want to harm.

            There are many good chemical formulations for soil filtration removal. Check with your supplier for the best ones for you. No matter which one you choose, be prepared for heavy agitation on filtration soils.

            Better scenarios

            By now, you are wondering why you would want to attempt removing filtration soiling.

            Here are some additional steps you can take, after regular extraction techniques fail.

            How they begin

            The best way to remove challenging spots or stains like this is to think of how they became a problem in the first place.

            Filtration soiling is a heavy combination of soot, petroleum soils and other contaminants that find their way to concentrated areas of carpeting and, sometimes, furniture.

            The challenge is to match up the cleaning agent and technique to the type of soil.

            Filtration soils build up over a long period of time, which means that you need a strong cleaning protocol to remove these soils.

            This often means: Solvent, strong oxidizer, and lots of agitation. Hard to do in confined areas, but still the best solution.

            • Repeat if necessary (all steps)
            1. With a flip-top bottle, apply a gel solvent to the filtration lines (the use of a gel solvent is safer as it doesn't have a high risk of creating delamination)
               • To protect the wall or baseboard, use a "shim" of some kind - this can be a piece of wood, plastic, or cardboard that will protect the wall or baseboard
                 • Work solution with as much agitation you can use with the particular fiber you are cleaning (a bone or plastic spatula or small brush works fine)
                   • Before rinsing, apply a strong solution of hydrogen peroxide, always remembering that
            2. natural fibers need special care (for synthetic fibers, accelerate the peroxide solution with a few drops of ammonia)
            3. Agitate the chemicals on the fiber and let them mix and dwell for several minutes
               • Rinse, but keep the shim close to the wall or baseboard, in order to avoid harming the wall or baseboard
                 • Repeat as necessary, allowing the peroxide solution more time for a better chemical reaction

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