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Color Loss from Mop

This report was written for an insurance company.

THE CLAIM STATISTICS

INSPECTOR WAS CONTACTED ON: 10/7/96

INSPECTOR WAS RETAINED ON: 10/7/96

DATE INSPECTED: 11/9/96

DATE WRITTEN: 12/19/96

PROBLEM REPORTED: Color Loss

PERSONS PRESENT: Inspector & Claimant

THE CARPET

MANUFACTURER: Mannington Carpets, Inc.

STYLE NAME: Fresco

COLOR NAME: Sequoia

FIBER PROTECTANTS Duratech®

FIBER MANUFACTURER: Dupont

FIBER NAME: Antron® Legacy

FIBER/ ID METHOD: Nylon-Chemical

COLOR: Multi-Colored

CONSTRUCTION: Tufted Looped

STYLE: Level Looped

SQUARE YARDAGE: 3,333

BACK SYSTEM: Conventional Tufted

PRIMARY BACKING: Polypropylene

SECONDARY BACKING: Ultrabuc Plus®

THE INSTALLATION

TYPE OF SITE: Commercial

TYPE OF BUSINESS: Retail Store

DATE INSTALLED: 1994

METHOD: Direct Glue Down

SUBFLOOR: Concrete

AREA INSTALLED: Showroom & Offices

USE & MAINTENANCE INFORMATION AT THE TIME OF INSPECTION

LITERATURE RECEIVED WITH PURCHASE: Not Determined

NUMBER OF EMPLOYEES 25

TEMPERATURE: 73.9°F - 23.2° C

RELATIVE HUMIDITY: 37%

VACUUM TYPE: Upright

FREQUENCY: Daily

ENTRY MATS: Yes

CONDITION of THE CARPET: See Report

SOIL: Slightly Soiled

HEATING TYPE: Central Force Air Gas

COOLING TYPE: Central - Electric

CLEANING: Professional

METHOD: Truckmount Steam

TYPE OF CHEMICAL: PC3 by Kleen Rite

DATE LAST CLEANED: 9/26/96

TREATMENTS APPLIED: None Reported

REASON FOR COMMISSION

The carpet has reportedly discolored.

Site Conditions and Geographical Information

The carpet was installed in a single-story commercial building in a strip mall and was open for business at the time of the inspection. This building was located just off the I-5 Freeway, seven and a half miles from the Pacific Ocean. The condition and maintenance of the property was good.

BACKGROUND INFORMATION MADE TO THE INSPECTOR

The carpet has been cleaned before by the same company without problems. During the last cleaning though, problems from the equipment prolonged the completion of the job to three days. The day after the job was finished, the claimant noticed spots throughout the installation. No corrective service has been attempted by the cleaner.

According to Kelly Parker of the technical department of Mannington Carpets, Inc. the Ultrabuc Plus® secondary backing is a Unitary Backing and the face yarn is Spaced Dyed and in part cationic dyed.

DESCRIPTION OF PROBLEM AREA BY THIS INSPECTOR

The spots were noticed immediately after arriving at this facility. They did not change in appearance when viewed from different directions. They were globular in shape with defined edges, varying between six inches to two feet in diameter. All spots were located in trafficked areas.

All except one of the spots had a yellow hue, and appeared lighter than the surrounding carpet. One spot had a red hue.

The spots numbered between 60 to 70 and were primarily located in the front of the store although some were located in a children's section in the back right side of the store. The front entrance and coffee bar to the left of the entrance were tiled areas.

ON-LOCATION FIELD TESTING

An ultra-violet light was shone throughout the installation. This tool draws a yellow reflection from most urine stains and a blue or lavender reflection from detergents with optical brightening agents. The result of this test revealed that there were no reflections.

Numerous moisture tests were performed using a Delmhorst Moisture Sensor. Any recent previous over-wetting of the carpet could also be found in the latex backing of a carpet with this device. The results of these tests revealed that there were no moisture readings.

Numerous pH tests were taken using a digital type pH meter and a special low moisture probe that made direct contact with the face yarns. This device is accurate to ± 0.1 and was calibrated with a laboratory testing solution immediately before these tests were made. All tests were made using distilled water with a pH of 7.0. The tests were taken on 11/9/96 and the results were as follows:

A bleach test was performed using a test kit from COLOR MATCH SYSTEMS and revealed that there were no bleaching agents in the light spot.

On December 12, 1996, more tests were performed that included the following:

A tannin spotter from The Ramsey Chemical line was applied to the affected area. This product is a professional, acidic, spotting agent and with a ready to use pH of less than one. Its primary use is for removing coffee, teas and urine stains.

If the problem reported was created by an acid, then it might become more severe with this test. If the problem was created by alkalinity, then it might reverse its severity. In addition, the presence of pH indicator dyes can be determined with this method. If a pH indicator dye were present, it would likely turn red.

This product was applied to a towel and the towel was blotted on to several yellow spots. The result of this test revealed that the spots disappeared.

A 7% ammonium hydroxide solution was applied to the affected area. This product is a professional, alkaline, spotting agent and with a ready to use pH of more than ten. This product was applied to a towel and the towel was blotted on to the affected area. The result of the testing with the ammonium hydroxide solution revealed that other spots disappeared.

A chloride test strip test by Quantab® was made in two different yellow spotted areas and in unaffected areas adjacent to the spots. The result of these test revealed higher chloride levels in the spotted areas.

THE ISSUE OF THIS REPORT

The question that I have been asked to address is what has caused the spots.

GUIDELINES FOR EVALUATING THE ISSUE

Spots can occur when:

1. Foreign substances have been split onto the carpet

2. Substances from manufacturing or installation wick from underneath the yarn

3. Lighting conditions create shadows on the carpet

DEFINITIONS OF TERMS

According to the FLOORCOVERING DICTIONARY is says this about SPACE DYEING --

SPACE DYEING -This method of dying is used to produce a large percentage of continuos filament nylon commercial caring, generally level loop texture. Using a special dyeing machine, two or three deferent colors or shades are placed side by side on the same piece of yarn creating a random colored or mottled effect.

According to the FLOOR COVERING DICTIONARY the following definitions are given for cationic dyes:

BASIC DYES - A class of positive-ionic-carrying dyes known for their brilliant hues. Basic dyes are composed of large-molecule, water-soluble salts that have a direct affinity for wool and silk and can be applied to cotton with a mordant. The fastness of the basic dyes on these fiber is very poor. Basic dyes are also used on basic-dyeable acrylics, modacrylics, nylons, and polyesters, on which they exhibit reasonably good fastness.

• The moisture test revealed that there was no severe over wetting of the carpet.
• The ultra-violet light test indicates that other chemicals such as industrial strength detergents were not present.
• The pH tests indicate that the spots were slightly more alkaline than the surrounding carpet. The pH of the carpet over all was consistent.
• The bleach test indicates that the light spot had a chlorine ion, but is inconclusive since the test was not specifically designed for finding chloride ions.
• The ammonium hydroxide chemical test indicates that if the problem were created by alkalinity, then it might become more severe with this test. If the problem was created by acids, then it might reverse its severity. In addition, the presence of pH indicator dyes can be determined with this method. Ammonium hydroxide is volatile and does not leave any residue. Thus, since some of the stain disappeared after the ammonium hydroxide was applied, some of the stains were likely created by acids.
• The chloride strip test indicates that the chemical that caused some of these spots contained some type of chloride salt or acid compound. A likely candidate from a cleaning agent would be hydrochloric acid from a tile cleaner. Most food and beverage spills would also contain sodium chloride salt as well.

Globular spots that are primarily located in the trafficked areas are indicative of common spills and accidents and not the precondition or other usage performed during professional carpet cleaning. In this case, an exact cause cannot be determined, but three things are significant to the spots and the carpet.

1. Most or all of the yellow spots that represented all but one were removable. A puzzling aspect of their removal was that they were affected by chemical opposites such as ammonium hydroxide and acid or tannin spotter.
2. A common link to most of these spots was the higher than normal presence of chloride. This would indicate a common link to most of the spots. Since all of the carpet was cleaned and chloride would not be common to the cleaner’s chemicals, the cleaning of the carpet revealed the presence of a prior spill. Chloride in salt or acid form would have been tied to a tile cleaner such as would be common to the types that could have been used on the tile area surrounding the carpet in the coffee area. The likely culprit could have been a mop.
3. Finally, cationic dyes are very rare in nylon carpet. As such they present problems that are not common to most cleaning situations. Among these are dye bleeding problems. This is the likely condition of the red spot. Testing on other cationic dyed nylons revealed this when the laboratory detergent testing revealed a failure.

CONCLUSION

Most of the spots in question are the result of deposit from chloride in salt or acid form, based upon the pH and bleach test.