Learning Guide

Clean carpet

29385 Clean carpet for a client / Level 3 / 5 credits
Name:
Workplace:

Introduction 1

Cleaning carpet 2

Types of carpet 3

Carpet cleaning fundamentals 4

Carpet cleaning schedule 5

How to read a cleaning schedule 6

Standard carpet cleaning schedule 7

Conduct a risk assessment 8

What a risk assessment looks like 9

Assess the condition of the carpet 10

Select and check safety equipment 11

Carpet spotting 12

How to identify stains 12

Removing the spot or stain 13

Carpet vacuuming 16

Floor vacuum cleaner 16

Back pack vacuum 17

Carpet cleaning 18

Prepare the room for cleaning 19

Cleaning chemicals 20

Select and prepare the cleaning solution 21

Apply pre-spray detergent 21

Fill the carpet cleaning machine 22

General cleaning procedure 22

Grooming and drying 23

Completing the job 24

Reporting 24

Caring for Medituft carpet 25

Stain removal chart for Medituft carpet 25

Vacuuming Medituft carpet 28

Restorative, corrective or deep cleaning of Medituft carpet 29

Glossary 30

Clean carpet (US 29385) Learning Guide © Careerforce – Issue 1.0 – June 2016

Introduction

As a cleaner, what you do and how you do it makes a difference to cleanliness and hygiene for people working in, living in, or visiting the place you clean. It also makes a difference to other staff members and even to you. This learning guide gives you information about cleaning carpet. Clean carpet stops dirt and soil tracking further into a building.

How to use your learning guide

This learning guide supports your learning and prepares you for the unit standard assessment. There are activities to do to guide your learning.

This guide relates to the following unit standard:

· 29385 Clean carpet for a client (level 3, 5 credits).

This learning guide is yours to keep. Make it your own by writing notes that help you remember things, or where you need to find more information.

Follow the tips in the notes column.

You may use highlighter pens to show important information and ideas, and think about how this information applies to your work.

You might find it helpful to talk to your workmates or supervisor.

Complete this learning guide before you start the assessment.

What you will learn

This topic will help you to:

· develop a schedule for cleaning carpet.

· do a risk assessment for carpet spotting and cleaning.

· choose the right equipment, products and processes for cleaning carpet.

· vacuum carpet.

· shampoo or steam clean carpet.

· care for speciality carpet.

· report results of carpet care.

Cleaning carpet

Carpet maintenance is done for three main reasons:

1 to ensure that the carpet is hygienic.

2 to retain the original texture and appearance of carpet.

3 to keep the carpet for as long as possible.

This is achieved by keeping the total soil content, including visible stains, to an absolute minimum by cleaning.

Regular vacumming and cleaning of spills and spots will prolong your carpet life.

When cleaning is conducted regularly and efficiently, this will both prolong the life of a carpet and minimize possible health problems due to the build-up of soils and microflora within the carpet.

Whenever people enter a building, they carry a certain amount of soil, mud and grit on their shoes. This soil is deposited on the floor coverings, and eventually works its way down into the carpet pile.

It is not foot traffic alone that wears out carpet, but also soil on and in the carpet from food spills, cooking, atmospheric pollution and pets.

To prolong the life of the carpet, soil should be kept to an absolute minimum. This can be done by regular and systematic cleaning with soil removal equipment.

The importance of regular vacuumcleaning with efficient equipment cannot be overemphasized. As a general rule, vacuum once a week, and more often in high traffic areas. Be thorough – vacuum under furniture, behind curtains and where your carpet meets the wall.

To clean dirt or stains from a carpet, either shampoo or, to remove more stubborn stains and dirt, steam clean the carpet.

Types of carpet

The type of equipment and maintenance program chosen depends upon:

· the style of carpet.

· the carpet fibre type.

· the colour of the carpet and the required appearance.

Carpets may be one of four types.

Tufted carpet

Tufted carpet is made on a giant sewing machine and has the face yarn we walk on, stitched into a primary backing and glued to a secondary backing. Tufted carpet is very common and 90% of residential carpet is tufted. Tufted carpet may be cut-pile or loop-pile. They may delaminate and cellulosic browning may occur during cleaning.

/ Delamination
An example of delamination is when the primary and secondary backing fabric separate.

Woven carpet

Woven carpet is made on a weaving loom and the face yarn (usually 80% wool and 20% nylon) also has warp and weft yarns which make up the base of the woven carpet. Woven carpets are usually cut-pile eg Wilton, Westminster. They are mainly used for high end commercial or residential carpet. Problems with cleaning are shrinkage and unravelling.

Fusion bonded carpet

Fusion bonded carpet has a nylon face yarn glued to a backing material. For example, Flotex, Medituft, common in rest homes, hospitals and malls. Nylon is strong but it can yellow with oxidation and UV damage.

Needle punched carpet

Needle punched carpet is a cheaper carpet found in cars and boats eg Autex. They are polypropylene, punched into a single backing material. They will wick soil to the surface if not pre-vacuumed thoroughly.

Carpet cleaning fundamentals

A way to remember the four fundamentals of carpet cleaning is CHAT

1 Chemical – what soil may be present is removed by using chemicals.

2 Heat – decreases drying time and increases chemical activity and cleaning efficiency.

3 Agitation – achieved with use of rake, wand jet pressure, brush etc.
It reduces the dwell time, but can distort the pile of the carpet.

4 Time – is the amount of time for the chemical to work or ‘dwell’.

Changing any one of these four fundamentals affects the others.

Carpet cleaning steps

There are five basic steps.

1 Pre-inspection.

2 Pre-vacuum to remove dry soil. Most soil is dry so remove it dry.

3 Pre-spray to put wet soil into suspension.

4 Extraction of the soil, which may include rinse or neutralisation.
Only clean areas which need cleaning.

5 Groom and dry.

6 Protectors – recommending these is an optional step.

Where any doubt exists as to the best method of cleaning a carpet, expert advice should be sought before cleaning is attempted.

The Australian and New Zealand standard sets out the cleaning and maintence recommendations for carpets. AS/NZS 3733:1995 Cleaning and maintenance of residential and commercial carpet.

Carpet cleaning schedule

A cleaning schedule is like an agreement between the client and your organisation about all the different cleaning jobs to be done at a workplace. A cleaning schedule includes the following information.

Where to clean – all the different areas to be cleaned. For example, reception, hallways, offices.

What to clean – all the different cleaning tasks to be done in each area.

When each cleaning task must be done – this is sometimes called the frequency. This could be daily, weekly, as required, every 2 hours.

How each cleaning task must be done – this includes instructions. Not all cleaning schedules will include detailed instructions.

Usually recommended carpet maintenance is regular vacuuming daily or every second day. Attention will also be given to walk-off mats, spills, and picking up loose litter.

Corrective cleaning will occur less frequently.

The frequency of carpet cleaning depends on:

· the location of the area to be cleaned.

· the degree and nature of the soiling.

· the amount of foot traffic, which is divided into:

· high traffic areas, where people walk most often and the carpet gets dirty more quickly.

· medium traffic area, where people sometimes walk and the carpet does not get very dirty.

· low traffic areas, where people don’t often walk and the carpet does not need to be cleaned very often.

Key words
high traffic areas / where people walk most often and the carpet gets dirty more quickly
medium traffic areas / where people sometimes walk and the carpet does not get very dirty
low traffic areas / where people don’t often walk and the carpet does not need to be cleaned very often

How to read a cleaning schedule

The top rows of the table give the headings. To find the area you want, read down the column eg reception.

Area / Frequency
Mon / Tues / Wed / Thurs / Fri / Sat
Reception
Dust front desk
Mop floors
Vacuum carpet
Remove rubbish / ü
ü
ü
ü / ü
ü
ü
ü / ü
ü
ü
ü / ü
ü
ü
ü / ü
ü
ü
ü
Vacuum visitors chairs / ü

To find out how often to do each cleaning task, read across each row.

Tip: Look for a tick ü beside each day of the week.

Write

How often do you have to vacuum the carpet in reception?

Answer: You have to vacuum the carpet on Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday and Friday (but not Saturday). The building is not cleaned on a Sunday.

How often do you have to vacuum the visitor chairs?

Answer:

Standard carpet cleaning schedule

Reproduction of Table from AS/NZS 3733:1995
Suggested maintenance program
Location / Usual Traffic Volume / Suggested Maintenance Program / Suggested Frequency / Minimum Frequency
Domestic / Light / Full vacuum / 2 times per week / Weekly
Spot & stain removal / Daily – ASAP / Daily – ASAP
Surface clean / Every 6 months / Yearly
Corrective or restorative clean / Yearly / Every 2 years
Executive Offices / Light / Vacuum traffic areas / 3 times per week / 4 times per week
Full vacuum / 2 times per week / Weekly
Spot & stain removal / Daily – ASAP / Daily – ASAP
Surface clean / Every 9 months / Every 18 months
Corrective or restorative clean / Every 18 months / Every 36 months
Clerical offices, hospital wards and hotel bedrooms / Medium / Vacuum traffic areas / 2 times per week / 3 times per week
Full vacuum / 3 times per week / 2 times per week
Spot & stain removal / Daily – ASAP / Daily – ASAP
Surface clean / Every 6 months / Yearly
Corrective or restorative clean / Yearly / Every 2 years
Corridors and foyers, ground floor shops, hotel lounges, kindergartens and school classrooms / Heavy / Vacuum traffic areas / Daily / 2 times per week
Full vacuum / Daily / 3 times per week
Spot & stain removal / Daily – ASAP / Daily – ASAP
Surface clean / Every 3 months / Every 6 months
Corrective or restorative clean / Every 6 months / Yearly
Restaurants, school corridors and hospital public areas / Very heavy / Full vacuum / Daily / Daily
Spot & stain removal / Daily – ASAP / Daily – ASAP
Surface clean / Monthly / Every 2 months
Corrective or restorative clean / Every 3 months / Every 6 months
Notes:
1 This is a guide to cleaning maintenance. The frequency of carrying out the methods nominated depends on the assessment of the traffic rating, carpet construction and health considerations.
2 The traffic volumes of light / medium / heavy / very heavy for cleaning purposes refers to the number of people using an area and contributing to light soiling, medium soiling, heavy soiling and very heavy soiling.

Conduct a risk assessment

You must do a risk assessment before you begin every stain removal or carpet cleaning job. Your safety depends on identifying hazards and controlling the risk as much as possible.

Hazards and risks go together. A hazard is anything that could cause harm. Risk is the chance of something happening.

A risk assessment is an organised way of looking at the work task to see how safe it is. You need to write down every hazard and think about what could be done to mitigate it (reduce the hazard).

For example, watch out for curling mat edges which are slip, trip and fall hazards. Long electrical leads can also be trip and fall hazards.

Check for any power hazards before you switch on any electrical equipment. Electric shock is a low risk hazard which can occur when power leads/equipment are on damp surfaces.

For each hazard identified, rate it on how likely it is that this risk would occur: rare, unlikely, likely, almost certain. You must state what can be done to control this risk and who is responsible for doing this.

You may also be asked how bad it will be if it does go wrong (the severity).

You may have both primary and secondary risks. A primary risk is the first result of the risk eg a person could fall on a curled mat edge. A secondary risk occurs as a result of the primary risk eg the person may get an injury from falling.

Key words
hazard / anything that could cause harm.
risk / the chance of something happening.
mitigate / reduce the hazard