When faced with a tricky or difficult carpet cleaning job it is always helpful for the professional carpet cleaner to know what type of material the carpet is constructed from.
This will help the professional cleaner determine how the carpet fibres are likely to react to cleaning and release soil, so that a decision can be made about the best way of proceeding.
Obviously the easiest way to check the construction of the carpet is to check the backing or the original receipt or paperwork supplied by the store from which the carpet was purchased.
If this is not available there are two tests which can assist: The Burn Test The burn test involves cutting a small piece of yarn from an inconspicuous area of the carpet and heating or igniting it with a lighter or suitable taper.
All carpet fibres will burn at a certain point if exposed to a sufficient degree of heat and the rate at which the fibre burns, the odour it emits and the characteristics of the ash which is left behind will help the professional cleaner identify the carpet material.
For example wool burns slowly, with a faint odour of burning paper.
Once extinguished, the ash is usually soft in texture and grey in colour.
On the other hand if the fibres burn quickly with a sweetish smell and leave behind black, brittle ash then it is likely that you are dealing with a man-made fibre such as polyester.
From this you will see that if a professional carpet cleaner applies a burn test to an unknown fibre and it produces one of these results, then it is possible to identify with a reasonable degree of certainty what you are dealing with, so that the carpet cleaner can make an informed decision on which products and cleaning technique to use to achieve the best results.
For example the PH value of a cleaning agent may not be suitable for use on wool, but perfectly acceptable for use on polyester, and vice versa.
By matching the correct cleaning agent to the appropriate fibre you can ensure not only that you obtain the best possible cleaning results but, equally importantly, minimise the risk of any damage to the carpet.
The Float Test An additional method of identifying carpeting fibres is to use what is known as the float test.
In simple terms this involves putting a piece of carpet fibre in a small glass or bowl of water.
It is important to make sure you use a clean piece of fibre as otherwise the results may not be reliable.
The fibre is then submerged in the water, making sure any air bubbles which form are squeezed out.
If the piece of fibre floats then it is polypropylene.
If not, then it could be any one of a number of other fibres.
Sometimes it may be necessary to combine both these tests to correctly identify the carpet fibres.
As with many things, experience will bring better results when using these tests, but they play an important part in assisting the professional carpet cleaner to do his job properly.