Porsche Enthusiasts Club Forum

Hi
Has anyone got any experience of steam cleaning or wet vacuming interior carpets?
I have a '89 944 with linen interior with carpets that need a good clean. I am considering buying a small steam cleaner, but have a number of concerns i.e. getting the carpet too wet and causing shrinking, removing any protection coating on the carpets, damp smells etc.
Any advice would be appreciated. Thanks.

I have Only Steam cleaned the Removable ones on the 944, they have never been too mucky, the fixed ones just used Vacuum.
Not sure if it is practical/advisable to do the fixed carpets with a wet vax as it may leave damp under them??

But had an awfully sinking Sponge Backed Carpet in the Boot of my Discovery soaked in Milky water (leaked from a 4l cracked plastic milk container full of water that hadn't been washed out properly).
Took the carpet out completely & laid it on a plastic sheet on the lawn.
We used Both ie a wet Vax system 1st to get the liquid out of the carpet & sponge, then the steam cleaner to get rid of previous owners doggy smell + ingrained muddy stains. It came up a treat but I don't think it had any protective coating on it (11 years old) so it might be worth doing a small area on yours 1st to check.

I hired a carpet cleaner from one of the local DIY shops.....did the house carpets and the car it worked a treat

I did however remove all the carpets completely and after cleaning I dyed them to bring the colour back to black then a local company stiched new vinyl edging around the carpet as the old ones were a bit cracked carpet dye was £8, cleaner was about £30 and the stiching cost £25

Hi 951Torqing & kongsodoken, thanks for your responses and help.
So far, I have researched 2 options. I can either hire a carpet cleaner with upholstery attachment (Homebase Rug Doctor or HSS) for about £30/40 for a weekend. Or for £50/60 I can buy a small steam cleaner. The advantage of the carpet cleaners is that they extract some (if not all) of the water and should leave less water in the carpet than steam cleaning.
I had planned to remove the seats before cleaning the carpet, however after reading your comments perhaps I need to remove the carpets from the car first. Bigger job than I thought!
Thanks again. Jen

depends on the end result your after No real need to remove them but I was doing other work as well


http://www.detailingworld.co.uk/forum/s ... hp?t=99177

this is a good thread, carpet in place

Hi Jen Just a little addition,
I am cleaning up our Land Rover Discovery (for sale in Sept after caravan holiday) on taking out the LR Rubber Mats found the carpets to be rather grubby.
Have just used the wife's (Jennifer's) VAX Wet/Dry system (took 3 goes with shampoo & vacuum dry ) they have come up a treat. Hardly any dampness on them after the vacuum only to extract the liquid. (I did not remove the carpets).
Clive

Update on cleaning linen carpets in '89 944
I removed the seats and attacked the carpets with a VAX carpet shampoo machine.
After 3 attempts the carpets look better. There are still a few stains I can't get out, but overall an improvement.
I must say I was impressed by how dry the VAX machine left the carpets. The trick is to go over each area twice, once with the water flow turned on and again with just suction to extract the water.
I just need to get the seats back in and my new carpet mats installed and get the car back on the road.
Thanks for the advice.
Jen

I found no vac carpet cleaner linen breeze 290g to be the best solution.

I always prefer steam cleaning. as its warmth can kill small bugs and insects in it.

Hi..this approach worked for me. The black carpets in the cabin of my 944 were really grubby and it seemed that no amount of vacuuming would shift the dirt, so I needed to get a bit more aggressive. Took the seats and carpets out on a sunny day. Then hung the carpets up and carefully pressure washed them. The trick is to not get too close or to use max pressure as you might damage the carpet pile and backing. I was surprised at the amount of 'gunge' that washed out and the amount of foaming product that had historically been used too! Lots of rinsing and gentle brushing later they really looked good. I left them hanging up to drip dry in the sun. When they went back in they looked like new. They have been in for a while now and I have had no traces of dampness or odour at all, so a good result.

Obviously, if your carpet is damaged, or rubber backed I wouldn't use the above technique. Therefore, I have not cleaned the boot carpet in the same way, however, in general Porsche carpets are pretty tough!

I'm a professional carpet and upholstery cleaner so I'll just add my tips:

Hire a professional carpet cleaner to come and clean it for you. It'll be as cheap in the long run and the results can't compare.

The type of machines you can hire yourself ( rug doctor etc ) or the ones you can purchase on the high street or borrow from your aunt ( vax, Bissell etc ) are not really powerful enough to do a decent job.

I think a rug doctor cleans at a max of 27PSI, the machine I use cleans at 500PSI and has 2 x 3 stage vacuum motors that would suck the chrome off a spoon.

Professionally cleaned carpets / upholstery should never be more than damp on completion, a typical drying time for a carpet using my set up is 2 - 3 hours. Remember anything that's wet for a prolonged period is at risk of developing mould, in a confined environment like a car, breathing mould spores isn't going to be healthy.

The main problem with most DIY carpet cleaners is they clean with a shampoo / water mix , which is a bit like washing your hair with shampoo then rinsing it with another shampoo, its always going to leave a sticky shampoo residue in the carpet / upholstery which will then attract dirt like a magnet.

The correct way is to pre-spray the items with a good quality cleaning fluid ( chemspec DFC105 is a good all rounder and you can buy it online ) then let it dwell for 5 - 10 minutes. Now agitate to loosen the dirt using something like a Tampico brush, then extract using clean water only - nothing except clean water ever passes through my extraction machine.

Shrinkage, which is technically expansion, happens when the rear of certain types of carpet backing ( jute, hessian, seagrass ) absorb water and swell, causing the weave and waft ( criss crossed construction ) to expand and distort the face but I'm getting anal now

Some mat edges may contain elastic that can distort too, however given time they normally return to their original shape.

One final tip - if you do decide to hire a pro, make sure to ask a few questions, my trade is full of cowboy splash and dash merchants using something they bought from Argos for £99.00 - it's the one trade where shopping on price alone is false economy. So ask a few questions and you'll avoid the Bissell brigade.

Paul
Porsche 944s2
1991
97K