Cleaning Carpet

[jesutton3]

I need to clean the carpet in my boat and wanted some recomendations for what works best. What type of cleaner works best for the carpet? And did you use a brush and hose or pressurewasher? Any little tricks to make this faster and clean better?

[smedman]

The guys that come and clean your home carpets do a good job!

I've also just bought some carpet cleaner soap at HD (don't remember the brand) -- with a bucket of it in warm water, a good scrubbing brush, and a wet/dry vac you can do wonders.

Hard to get it back to that new plush look though. Pressurewasher might work well, but be very careful not to put it on too high a setting.

[DIE2SURF]

The guys that come and clean your home carpets do a good job!

I've also just bought some carpet cleaner soap at HD (don't remember the brand) -- with a bucket of it in warm water, a good scrubbing brush, and a wet/dry vac you can do wonders.

Hard to get it back to that new plush look though. Pressurewasher might work well, but be very careful not to put it on too high a setting.

Probably "ZEP" brand. I use it in my 'bu and it works wonders...also use it in my truck.

[BlastRlxi]

No soap or chemicals at all. Use a pressure washer and then suck out the water with a good shop vac and it'll look good as new.

[DIE2SURF]

No soap or chemicals at all. Use a pressure washer and then suck out the water with a good shop vac and it'll look good as new.

Not questioning a pressure washer (works great on my farm equipment)...but is there any potential for blasting/bubbling/tearing up the carpet with it. I guess low setting wouldn't be bad. Are chemicals (e.g ZEP) bad for the carpet?

Probably a million threads on this

[95echelon]

No soap or chemicals at all. Use a pressure washer and then suck out the water with a good shop vac and it'll look good as new.

That's pretty good advice. I actually detailed as a source of income for a while and i can tell you that the number one mistake that people make is too much "product". A great carpet cleaner available at lowes that is used by many detailers is folex. Use very little, always vaccum and brush while dry first, then apply some folex and water and brush that, then rinse REALLY well, then the shop vac as posted. To Blasts point, most of the time unless the carpet is stained or smells, you won't need any product at all. Pressure washer is fine, be careful of carpet edges and seams more than overall pressure though.

The number one ATTRACTANT of dirt and grime in cars and boats alike is leftover cleaning products in the materials. IE if you don't get all of your cleaner out, it will attract junk.

[Arkid]

The number one ATTRACTANT of dirt and grime in cars and boats alike is leftover cleaning products in the materials. IE if you don't get all of your cleaner out, it will attract junk.

I also did detailing for a few years and that's exactly right, Most detailers/car washes that shampoo your carpets leave so much in there they end up worse than when you started. I would take peoples car mats out and literally spend half an hour just hosing out old shampoo.

[txwakejunkie]

I clean ours in the driveway with a water hose (with a spray nozzel) and a scrub brush. Vaccume the carpet, get it wet, scrub, scrub, rince till clean water is flowing into the access door in the floor. Then I use a spot-bot to pull the water out, but a shop vac will work. Let it dry in the sun and it will look almost new.

If we have stains from the river water or something, i will use a very small amount of house hold carpet cleaner but make sure to get it all out! If not the carpet tends to smell and be really stiff till it gets wet again.

good luck.

Edited August 4, 2008 by txwakejunkie

[FarmerZ]

I just cleaned mine yesterday. Dry vac'd it first then pressure washed it with no product. It looks great, even got out the ground in goldfish crackers that had turned to mortar. I'm not sure I like the idea of using cleaner unless it's an oil stain or something the washer can't touch. I then wet vac'd the carpet and threw it back in the garage under the fan. Looks way better than before.

[madaboutbu]

My boat is four years old and twice a year gets the carpets pressure washed and then vacuum up with wet/dry shop vac. i also dry vac before using the pressure washer and do not use any soap. It is 30 degC (86 degf) during the day and dries by the end of the day. As mentioned in a previous post don't get aggressive near the seams of the carpet and use a nozzle on the pressure washer that has a wide spray pattern.

[NvBoarder]

Little green machine, a little slow but it works great.

[Tracktor]

For an quick initial clean I use a high pressure air nozzle. It pops the nap up and gets out all the stuff buried in the carpet. The vac up the crap and you're good to go...................