Wednesday, April 30, 2014

Carpet spots sills and stains - Red wine; Coffee; juice ; liquid; Curry sauce, Spaghetti, water, beer, wine, champagne; soft drink; fanta; coke; lemonade; etc


Spills on Carpets Upholstery or Curtains


The liquid is absorbed into the carpet(natural wool) and then the remainder is absorbed through the secondary backing and into underlay, sometimes even into the sub floor.(depends on amount of liquid)

Step 1 - Remove cause.
Step 2 - Blot up excess with White paper towel or cotton white towel.
Step 3-  Reduce the the concentration of the spill with water  or soda water. Do not rub, be patient and take               your time (30 mins - 60 Mins)
Step 4 - If you cannot remove any more call Able Carpet Care (03) 9562-7565

Wednesday, April 16, 2014

Selecting the right carpet for your home work

Selecting the right carpet can be hard, we maybe able to assist you.

by Alan Fletcher 

Selecting the Right Carpet Fiber for You!
The type of Carpet Fiber you select will determine how long it lasts, how soft it feels, what colors are available, how easily it cleans and how much it costs. This is one of the most critical factors when choosing and comparing carpets. You must compare apples to apples. For example, you cannot compare a NYLON carpet to a POLYESTER carpet, or a WOOL carpet to an OLEFIN carpet. This  would be like comparing apples to oranges. You have to compare similar carpets and narrow it down to the one that best meets your needs and lifestyle as well as your budget. Learn about Carpet Styles
What Fiber Is Best?

Nylon
Nylon is a generic name or designation for a family of synthetic polymers first produced in 1935 by the DuPont Company. As far as fibers go, Nylon is the most durable and the most resilient of all carpet fibers. A resilient fiber is defined as having the ability to return to its original form or position after being bent, compressed, or stretched. Nylon is the most resilient fiber used to make carpet. This is what keeps a nylon carpet looking like new longer than any other fiber. Nylon is one of the more expensive fibers second only to wool. I would consider choosing a Nylon carpet if you have a lot of traffic and longevity was my biggest concern. 
"Do the Tactesse, Caress, Lisse' and other "softer" nylons hold up as well as the "regular" nylon fibers do?"


This is an excellent question. From my experience, I have found that the "soft" nylon fibers are not quite as resilient as a standard denier nylon fiber. The higher the denier, the heavier the filament. The way they make a standard nylon fiber softer is to make the strand thinner. By doing so, I believe that some of the resiliency is lost. This thinner strand creates a carpet that is softer to the touch but may be more susceptible to matting and crushing. Don't take this the wrong way, I'm not steering you away from buying a soft nylon, but if you want to have the absolute most durable and most resilient nylon for the money, I suggest you buy a carpet made with a standard nylon denier fiber.

What is fiber denier?
Note: Fiber denier is easiest understood if you have ever gone fishing and used a nylon filament fishing line. The thicker the line is, the stronger it is. When fishing for Trout most fishermen use a thin 6-pound test line. For bigger fish like Steelhead or Salmon, a thicker 10 or 12-pound nylon test line may be selected. Some carpet fibers are manufactured thinner to make a carpet that feels softer to the touch, but in doing so some of the strength, durability or resiliency may be sacrificed. Therefore I believe a carpet made with a standard Denier Nylon fiber will be more durable and more resilient than a carpet made with a thinner strand as used in today's branded "Soft Nylons"


Sorona® PTT (AKA Smartstrand® by Mohawk)
If you want a carpet that is durable, soft and resist stains, Sorona® may be the fiber you are looking for.  Sorona has permanent stain resistance that is engineered into the fiber and will never wear or wash off. But remember, no carpet is completely stain proof. 

Sorona® also known as Triexta or PTT was developed by DuPont. It is a polymer derived from corn. It is said to have the best anti-stain properties and cleans easier than any other fiber. They also say it is very durable. Sorona is clearly more durable than PET or Polyester, but is it as durable as Nylon? I do believe that Sorona resists stains and cleans easier than Nylon, but the durability and resiliency of Nylon is hard to beat. Either way, Sorona may be the fiber you need for your busy home and lifestyle.

Sorona® is not a new fiber, it was invented back in the 1940's and was deemed too expensive to manufacture at that time to be able to compete with other carpet fibers like Nylon. Carpet prices have increased enough over the past 10 years to allow Sorona to be manufactured at a comparable cost. 

Mohawk has a line of carpet styles using the Sorona fiber and they have branded it and call it Smartstrand®TM. 

Dupont™ and Sorona® are a trademark and a registered trademark of E.I. DuPont de Nemours and Company.  
 
__________________________________________________________


Sorona / Smartstrand UPDATE January 2013

My Latest Opinion Regarding Sorona® (Smartstrand by Mohawk)


Dear Alan,  
Sorona has been around for about 10 years now, do you think it is as good a fiber as they claim it is? -Tom
Hi Tom,

What I have come to believe at this point is that Sorona IS a durable fiber, it also cleans easily and resists stains better than Nylon. However, it is imperative that you choose the right quality or grade in order to be satisfied with the overall performance. This is true with any carpet no matter what fiber it is made of. This means having enough face weight, high pile density and adequate tuft twist to meet or exceed your needs, goals and lifestyle. It is also important to keep the pile height below 3/4 of an inch or risk potential matting and crushing.

Knowing what grade of carpet to buy is the key and many folks end up buying a carpet that is incapable of tolerating their level of foot traffic. This always ends in disaster and makes for an unhappy customer. That's why I created a simple Carpet foot traffic test so folks would have some idea about where they stand and what grade of carpet to consider buying.

This is my take so far and I still believe that Nylon is more durable and has better resiliency than Sorona, but Sorona does seem to clean easier and resist stains better than nylon.

Thanks for your question I will post this information (and date it) so everyone can be updated on this subject. Most of the information about Sorona (on the internet) is written by the manufacturer or the authorized Sorona dealers. You just don't get the whole story from those sources.
____________________________________________________

Polyester or PET Polyester
Polyester is one of the least expensive fibers to manufacture. A thick polyester carpet may feel nice and soft, but it is not a resilient fiber, and it does not a make a long-lasting carpet. Polyester carpets mat down in a hurry, and that has always been the problem with carpets made from this fiber. When you walk on a carpet, with every footstep you bend and compress the fibers and soon they begin to fall over. Once polyester fibers are crushed, they won't spring back to their original position. This is why warranties for polyester carpets do not cover claims against matting or crushing. 
Don’t be fooled by salespeople who recommend carpets made with polyester. It may be acceptable to buy a carpet made with polyester as long as you know what to expect and don’t pay a lot of money for it. I wouldn't expect to get a life span of more than 5 years on a polyester carpet, regardless of its tuft twist, density rating or warranty claims. I might consider choosing a carpet made of polyester if I wanted to spend as little as possible on a carpet that looks nice for a very short amount of time. How much does carpet cost?


Fiber Blends
Some carpets are made with a blend of polyester and nylon. Usually a small amount of nylon is added to the mix. They do this to try to make a polyester carpet a little bit more resilient and durable. While this may have a benefit in some situations, I personally do not believe it makes a worthwhile or more valuable product. It's like putting a Mercedes hood ornament on a Ford Fiesta. It doesn't make much sense to me. But carpet makers have long tried to come up with a way to make polyester more durable because it is so cheap to make. 
Olefin (also called polypropylene)
Olefin is a very strong fiber. It is often used to make Berber carpets, commercial carpets and outdoor grass carpets. Olefin wears well and has good stain resistance when anti-stain treatment is applied. Olefin also has good anti-static properties. However, Olefin is not easy to keep clean and tends to look dingy when soiled. It has poor resiliency so smaller looped Berber styles wear better than do larger looped styles. 
Commercial looped carpets wear very well, as the loops tend to be very small which leaves little room for the loops to become matted or crushed. Wheelchairs roll easily over commercial level loop Olefin carpets that are glued-down without padding and may be a good choice for handicapped areas, hospitals and retirement home applications. When comparing Berber carpets made of Olefin smaller loops, in a tighter weave will yield a longer wearing carpet. 
All about Carpet Comparison



Wool and Wool Blends

Some carpets are offered with a blend of nylon and wool in varying amounts. Usually I see 20% nylon and 80% wool. This gives wool some of the characteristics of nylon like increased resiliency and durability as well as lower cost. This can be a very good blend to consider having. 

Wool carpets are considered the most elite of fibers and are the most expensive of all carpet fibers. Wool is a natural fiber and is very soft. It has excellent insulating qualities and is naturally fire resistant. However, wool carpets must be professionally cleaned by specialized carpet cleaning methods and is more expensive to maintain and install than synthetic carpet styles. 


Comparing wool carpets based on price and quality can be more difficult because well known brand names can increase the cost dramatically and the quality may be more difficult to determine. If you can afford wool carpets it would be an excellent choice for most people. However, children and pets can be very hard on any carpet so careful consideration should be taken if you have small children or pets prone to having accidents.

Carpet and Rug Cleaning - What is the correct method for modern Rugs and carpets Designer or Persian Style



 
Short shag - It is Silk look made from New synthetic fibres. Will these be better than Nylon ?

Cherly Simons reports as follows:
Triexta is the newest fiber in the carpeting industry. If you are out shopping for carpet, chances are you will hear about triexta. What is it, exactly, and how well does it perform?

Triexta Invented

Triexta is the product of DuPont – the same company responsible for the invention of nylon. Triexta -- polytrimethylene terephthalate (PTT) -- is a polymer comprised of several monomers, including 1,3 propanediol (PDO). It is produced by DuPont under the brand name Sorona.
PTT was first discovered in the early 1940s, however was too costly to produce. After much further research, DuPont was able to considerably reduce the production cost in the 1990s by using biotechnology, which also contributes to triexta’s eco-friendliness.

FTC Classification

Because PTT and polyester (polyethylene terephthalate – PET) have the same general chemical composition, PTT was originally defined as a polyester. However, it differs so significantly from polyester that DuPont, along with Mohawk Industries, lobbied to have the differences recognized by approving a new generic name for PTT. In 2009, the U.S. Federal Trade Commission(FTC) officially recognized triexta as a new generic name for PTT, a subclass of polyester.
Basically, that means that the chemical structure of the two fibers is similar enough that triexta could not become an entire new classification of fiber (in the way that polyester or nylon is), but that PTT and PET are different enough that PTT could not simply be lumped in with PET.
According to DuPont, "The FTC based its generic name decision on test results of residential carpets, which demonstrated that triexta significantly outperforms carpets made from polyester in resilience and durability."

Characteristics of Triexta

There are several reasons why triexta stands out from polyester. The first is that triexta is recognized as being more durable and resilient than conventional polyester. In fact, to test and ultimately prove just how durable triexta is, Mohawk took its brand of triexta –SmartStrand – and created the SmartStrand Challenge. SmartStrand triexta was installed in the rhino enclosure at the Birmingham Zoo for two weeks, after which it was steam cleaned – and returned to its original appearance. Mohawk then took it a step further and installed another piece of SmartStrand in the elephant, camel and rhino habitats at the Dallas Zoo, and wound up with the same result.
The idea, of course, is that if the carpet can stand up to six elephants, averaging 7500 pounds each, then it can certainly stand up to everyday household traffic. Being that the carpet did indeed withstand the challenge, it makes sense that it would perform well even in busy households.

Appearance

Triexta and polyester differ also in appearance. The appearance of triexta is more similar to nylon than to polyester. Triexta lacks polyester’s high lustre, and more closely resembles nylon’s matte finish. Obviously, it is a matter of personal preference which look you prefer.

Stain Resistance

As proven in the SmartStrand challenge, triexta is incredibly stain resistant. With simple vacuuming and ordinary hot water extraction, the carpets in the animal enclosures were restored to their original appearance.
The primary reason for triexta’s high level of stain resistance is that the fiber is solution dyed. That means that the color is added right into the fiber (as opposed to the fiber being dyed post-production) so there are no open dye sites for stains to attach themselves to.
Being solution dyed also means that triexta is fade-resistant, so it is a good choice for areas that receive high amounts of sunlight. Also, it means the fiber is impervious to bleach and other substances that could strip the color.

Softness

Yet another advantage to triexta is that it is significantly softer than both polyester and nylon. Its softness is due in part to the fact that it does not have topically-applied chemicals for stain protection. Even the looped berber styles, which can have a tendency to feel rough when made of nylon or olefin, feel soft to the touch and very comfortable underfoot.

Eco-friendliness

One of the most appealing aspects of triexta is that it is predominantly available in an environmentally-friendly version. In attempting to lower the cost of producing PDO, DuPont began using biotechnology based on fermentation of corn glucose. This replaces the use of petroleum in the production of the fiber, up to 37% in DuPont Sorona. As a renewable resource, corn glucose is much more sustainable than petroleum.
Additionally, replacing petroleum with corn glucose means that fewer chemicals are put into the fiber, which in turn means that fewer chemicals will come out of the fiber in the form ofVOCs (off-gassing). This could be especially beneficial to those with environmental sensitivities and conditions such as asthma and allergies.
Some statistics from Mohawk regarding Mohawk’s SmartStrand made with DuPont Sorona:
  • The production of Sorona requires 30% less energy than the production of an equal amount of nylon
  • The production of Sorona emits 63% less greenhouse gas than the production of nylon 6
  • The production of seven square yards of Sorona saves the equivalent of one gallon of gasoline

Cost

The cost of production of triexta is lower than that of nylon, so triexta, generally speaking, is very competitively priced. It is priced more on par with polyester, although some of the top end lines of triexta can be more expensive.
Triexta, like all fibers, is available in various qualities and price points. However, even the entry-level qualities of triexta feature impressive warranties from the manufacturer, so overall triexta offers good value for the money.

Disadvantages of Triexta

Currently, the biggest drawback to triexta is its lack of history to substantiate manufacturers’ claims of its features. As a new fiber, it doesn’t have the long-standing track record of nylon, and hasn’t really been around long enough to have lived through a full "life-cycle" (10-15 years for an average carpet) so it’s difficult to accurately compare its performance to that of other fibers.

Triexta for the Future

Despite being relatively new in the carpet fiber world, triexta is becoming enormously popular. Provided that the next 10 years or so verify that the fiber can do all that DuPont and Mohawk claim it can, it is definitely foreseeable that triexta, as a soft and durable fiber that is more sustainable than other fiber types, could be the fiber of the future.

How to Care for Smart Strand from Karastand : 

Thursday, April 03, 2014

Tile Cleaning - Steam cleaning of Tiles - Grout Cleaning

To properly clean your tiles, you should steam them with commercial cleaning equipment. Hotter water and higher pressure will blast the scum, grease and dirt from you tiles, then extract outside into the waste tank.


The difference is amazing !!





We recommend cleaning every 3-4years

Call able carpet care now