How To Identify Carpet Fibers

Do you offer carpet cleaning as a service in your house cleaning business? Then you should know how to identify carpet fibers so that you know what to use to clean the carpet. For example, if you have a nylon fiber carpet, you don't want to use a chemical that exceeds 10.5 pH, or you can void the warranty.

There are three ways to identify carpet fibers:

Visual Identification - least accurate
Burn Testing - more accurate than visual and most commonly used.
Chemical Testing - most accurate, but not practical

Visual Identification:

• Natural Fibers
  - Cotton - found in the backing of woven carpets
  - Jute - found in carpet backing
  - Wool - dull appearance, cut pile, appears in woven goods
  - Silk - found in expensive oriental rugs
  
• Synthetic Fibers
  - Nylon - most carpets are nylon
  - Polyester - found in pastels
  - Olefin - if it looks like astro turf or indoor/outdoor carpet it may be olefin
  - Acrylic - may look like wool, but less resilient

Burn Testing:

• Technique: burn the yarn sample and observe the following:
  - flame color and action
  - smoke
  - action of burning sample
  - odor
  - ash shape, color, luster, and consistency

Chemical Testing:

• Cotton - dissolves in strong acids
• Wool - dissolves in chlorine bleach
• Nylon - dissolves in formic acid
• Olefin - floats on water

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Steve Hanson has been a building service contractor for more than 20 years and now uses his knowledge to help owners of residential cleaning companies build a more profitable and successful cleaning business at MyHouseCleaningBiz.com. Read inspirational cleaning success stories at //www.cleaning-success.com/" target=_blank>http://www.cleaning-success.com, and sign up for House Cleaning Profit Tips at //www.myhousecleaningbiz.com.