Carpet inspections I see that boggle my mind
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Comments (2)
I see a lot of carpets. I continue to learn each time I am out there. This one defies logic. I went out to see a carpet that was down in two main panels of a bedroom that had just been renovated. The end user had chosen a white wool wilton weave with a viscose blend. It was 75% wool 25% viscose. The renovation contractor decided to install half the carpet in the bedroom while he continued to demolish the bathroom. He then installed the other panel of carpet and seamed them together. Well needless to say there was a colour difference between the two panels. The carpet that was laid down while construction continued was grayer in colour. The contractor called in a company he uses to clean the carpet. They hot water extracted the carpet twice, once by portable and another time by truckmounted unit. They had no success. I was then called in to inspect. I ended up calling the carpet cleaning company who did the cleaning and quizzed them on how they cleaned the carpet. They told me they presprayed with an enzyme and extracted. I investigated further and found out that this was indeed dry clean only. My conclusion on my report blamed the Contractor and end user for putting the carpet down during construction. I also pointed some blame at the carpet cleaning contractor for improper cleaning. The carpet cleaning company freaked. They stated that they can clean any carpet by hot water extraction. I pointed out it was dry clean only and likely because there was viscose in the pile which shrinks severely. They said they did not know that. When I pointed out that their was not enough emphasis on dry particulate removal by extra careful vacuuming they said that they vacuumed regularly. I pointed out that they used an enzyme on wool they said it was good for wool(?!?).
It was a double header, a contractor who puts an extremely expensive ($25K) bedrooom carpet down and then works in the area adjacent and a carpet cleaner who thinks he can extract any carpet. Even a woven carpet with funny looking yarns in it.
I think that is a ridiculous situation. I cannot believe that the contractors lacked enough common sense and foresight, and actually did something like that. This is a well written article, perhaps a follow up, on what happened after your inspection? Who was held liable for the damaged carpet?
To answer the comment above- I was commissioned to fix the problem and had a date set to do the repair. The problem was that since some of the methods I may have used to repair the situation were not “out of the book” I decided not to perform the correction. The carpet cleaning company involved in the job was raising a fuss and I did not want to do something to the carpet that was “not in the book” and then get blamed for it later.