vacuuming carpets

[SprintKing]

Ive vacuumed a few different vehicles of late and found there is usually a few splinters of wood etc trapped into the carpet. My dads for example has lots of them in the boot. Ive literally had to pick dozens of them out by hand. I'm curious to know what you guys do? is there a tool to loosen so that i can get these out more easily or am i approaching this all wrong?

[Mike Phillips]

Re: vacuuming carpets

Originally posted by SprintKing
Ive vacuumed a few different vehicles of late and found there is usually a few splinters of wood etc trapped into the carpet. My dads for example has lots of them in the boot. Ive literally had to pick dozens of them out by hand. I'm curious to know what you guys do? is there a tool to loosen so that i can get these out more easily or am i approaching this all wrong?

Hi SprintKing,

Wood splinters are a tough one because they catch in the fibers of the carpet. The only think I can think of is using a nylon brush like the one that often comes as an attachment for the end of the vacuum hose.

Best of luck!

Mike

[SprintKing]

ok Mike thx.

I'm getting right into this car cleaning stuff. Ive even got a couple of favorite tools that i like to use now one of them is a nylon brush and the other is a long narrow attatchment i like to use cos it seems to increase the amount of suction i get and allows me to get right into those hard to get areas

perhaps i can convince dad to take his shoes off when he drives?

on a side note - i had a chat to our state rep a few days ago about doing a meguiars day course on paint analysis / maintenance etc... Although its $500 for the day and requires me to fly to Melbourne im gonna give it a whirl. Is this something you have the pleasure of teaching over there?

[SprintKing]

thought i'd add a little extra in here ...
i love vacuuming interiors - a standard sedan takes me roughtly 1 hour to vacuum properly, and i was curious how long it takes for others do do a thorough vacuum? I always vacuum directionally so that the nap of the carpet is darker ... i think this makes sense ... i've noticed that in many before and after pics many people vacuum the nap to a lighter shade rather than the darker side.

[Lt1Corvette]

Wow, an hour to vacuum the interior. What do you do if you encounter an SUV? Maybe I am just being lazy but I can vacuum my car in about five minutes. The joy of never allowing food in your car

[travisdecpn]

I think I'm somewhere between that 1 hour and 5 minute marks. It usually depends on how dirty it the car is, but on average I'd say it takes me about 30 minutes. I've been trying my hand at making carpet lines, but that is really an art.

[orange monkeyee]

My method of carpet cleaning:

1. Move the seats all the way back or forward depending on what carpet you're doing.
2. Check under the seats for stuff that the vaccuum might eat and clean any large stuff off of the carpet.
3. If you're using a shopvaccuum you can **** up anything that fits down the hose... so the actual vacuuming process of the carpet takes about 5 minutes per section.
4. Take a stiff bristled brush and brush the carpet and watch how much crud comes up out of the carpet. If much comes up... vaccuum the loose dirt, scrub again, and repeat until loose junk doesn't come up ( or is "good enough for your liking")
5. Spray the spots with Meguiar's Carpet cleaner, and give the whole carpet a general misting.,
6. Scrub the spots with the nylon brush and then blot them with a clean towel or paper towel ( so as not to stain good cotton towels or MF towels).
7. Scrub the whole carpet with another paper towel or two or three (Depending on how bad the carpet is).
8. Check to see that the spots are all gone, if not, reapply step 5-6.
9. Give another quick spray over the whole carpet and scrub with another towel to give it that "shampooed" look.


I use this method on my parent's and friend's cars and it really makes the carpet look brand new. It takes about 10 minutes per section of car with a shopvac, towels, stiff nylon brush, and the carpet cleaner.

hope this helped

[orange monkeyee]

I forgot to add ... don't forget to vaccuum all your seats ;top, bottom, all angles possible. And definitely don't forget to **** the crud out of the inbetween seat sections and under seats and floormats.

I guess coming to think of it... the carpet alone takes about 45 minutes to do on a normal sedan... plus another half hour to do inbewteen the seats and around all the little crevices...

[cheapthrills]

I vacuum interior top to bottom, Dash, Console, doors, Seats, then carpet. I bought a little vacuum attachment kit at Loews, 5-6 pieces, that are made for the shop vacs, and for use on electronics. These attachments make life easy. Tough spots like vents, or stereo knobs, ac controls, cracks, between seats and center consoles are so easy to get to and clean with these attachments.

Vacuuming could take me anywhere from 15-45, it all depends on what it looks like, and how large the vehicle is.

Here is a pic of what the attachments look like, they are using a small hose in the pic, but the kit from Loew's comes with a cone shape piece that will attach these mini pieces to your standard vacuum hose.



I Notice some carpets and the way they are knapped or woven could be annoying. You could try using a lint roller, or rapping 3m tape around your four fingers and dabbing the area.