Take Your Carpet Care Further
Maintaining and restoring carpets can be costly and time-consuming for many commercial buildings, prompting more building service contractors to incorporate encapsulation into their carpet care programs as an interim method to prolong deep cleanings with extractors. According to Charles "Mickey" Crowe of Woodstock, Ga.-based CLEEnTech Consulting Group, encapsulation generally is a faster, easier process than hot water extraction, helping to boost productivity and lower labor costs. "Encapsulation chemicals encapsulate and crystallize the soils that are attached to the carpet fibers, causing them to release from the fibers and clump together," says Crowe. "When the product dries, you vacuum up the crystals, and in the process, you vacuum up the soil." Lonnie McDonald, president of the Low Moisture Carpet Cleaners Association in Grandview, Mich., estimates production rates of 2,000 square feet or more per hour with encapsulation, compared to about 600 square feet an hour with hot water extraction. Bill Yeadon, senior instructor at Jon-Don in Roselle, Ill., adds, "In a really busy building, you may do encapsulation on a bi-monthly or quarterly basis, and then do hot water extraction toward the end of the year."