Commercial carpet is a unique animal. It”s not like the fluffy stuff in Mrs. Jones” living room, installed over a squishy eight-pound pad. Mrs. Jones” carpet has plenty of airflow, making it ideal to clean with hot water extraction.

By comparison, commercial carpet is normally glued directly to the floor, without padding. Typically, the tufts of fiber are densely packed together to the point that it would be hard to separate the tuft bundles with a scalpel. Since the tufts of fiber are crammed together and the carpet is glued to the floor, there is minimal airflow, making it a real challenge to achieve consistent results with hot water extraction.

So what”s a poor commercial carpet cleaner to do? Low moisture encapsulation cleaning can solve many common problems. Proper encapsulation cleaning can greatly reduce the potential for wicking.

The encapsulation process is changing the landscape when it comes to commercial carpet care. Here are three encapsulation tricks that can help you avoid the dreaded “morning after-call.”

End recurring spills

One of the things that drive people nuts with commercial carpet is the frequent recurring spill spots. In spite of the cleaner”s best efforts, these drink spills keep returning like a bad dream.

If you encounter a spill that looks like it might return after the carpet has been cleaned, this encap trick can make you look like a hero.

Scrub a circle around the drink spill spot with any type of scrubbing machine. Leave the actual spot bone dry. You”ll now have a wet circle that you scrubbed around the spot, and a totally dry spot in the center.

Now criss-cross back and forth over the spill stain without applying any additional detergent. The only moisture that you”re applying to the spill stain is what you”re drawing from the perimeter as you scrub back and forth across the spot. Scrub the spot like this for a full one to two minutes.

After you have performed this massive amount of low moisture scrubbing, apply some encapsulation detergent mixed 50/50 with water. The 50/50 mixture will encapsulate any sugary drink residue that may still be down at the backing of the carpet. By carefully following these steps, the recurring spill stain will not come back again.

Fix potential ”browners”

Sometimes a commercial carpet can become totally loaded with soil all the way down to the backing of the carpet, especially if the carpet has been neglected or hasn”t received adequate dry soil management.

You can observe this condition if you pry the tufts of fiber apart and inspect the backing of the carpet. If what you see at the base of the carpet appears dark brown — or black — rather than white, there”s a good chance that this carpet will wick after it”s been cleaned.

It”s also likely that the color of the residue will wick with a brown appearance because of the raw dirt that”s packed into the backing of the carpet. No degree of vacuuming or powerhouse hot water extraction can remove all of the deeply embedded soil. When you discover this unpleasant condition, here”s an encap trick that”ll get this potential problem sorted out for you.

Cleaning the carpet with a strong dilution of a hydrogen peroxide-based encapsulation detergent is an effective way to prevent browning (not the cellulosic type from jute backing, but the heavy soil itself) from occurring.

Hydrogen peroxide-based encapsulation detergents are acidic in nature and the hydrogen peroxide property works very well to overcome potential browning conditions.

Mixing the detergent a little stronger than normal will allow you to scrub the carpet using less liquid. Adding air movers can also help to dry the carpet quickly. Fast drying helps prevent wicking and brown discoloration from occurring.

This little trick can save your company money and callbacks when a commercial carpet is loaded with soil and wicking/browning would normally be a concern.

Extract via encap/bonneting

Commercial glue down carpet is easy to maintain with encapsulation cleaning. The encap shampoo process is ideal for bringing wicking under control and for keeping commercial carpet looking great.

At varying intervals, according to traffic conditions, hot water extraction can be employed to give the carpet a good rinse. A simple form of light soil extraction can also be employed through post-bonneting, following the encap shampoo process. This can be a helpful way to make a stubborn section of a carpet “pop.”

For example, there are many situations where an entire carpet cleaned up nicely with the encap shampoo method, while a particular section with a very high soil load stubbornly resisted cleaning. In this case, finishing off that section with a bonnet can pull a little extra soil.

After the carpet has been cleaned with the encapsulation method, simply go over the selected area of carpet with a damp bonnet. This little trick can bring a hammered section of carpet back to an acceptable appearance level.

Turn the tables

Commercial carpet is indeed a different animal than residential carpet, which means a different approach should be considered.

By using low moisture methods and good encapsulation chemistry, it”s possible to turn the tables on the challenging nature of commercial glue down carpet.