Radiant heat and filtration lines

Den,

I have cleaned several areas like that with white carpet and black line…hands and knees, Ninja, black line cleaner, spray, scrub, suck….6″-12″ at a time and repeat often….mostly comes out. May be a light gray here and there…but looks thousands of times better. Should blend in well with regular carpet cleaning.

At the end, you probably did not charge enough…whatever you charged.

Hope this helps.

Dave

Den,
I also see the lines in some homes. They can be along the baseboards, and under doors that are kept closed most of the time.

Filtration lines are a result of air pressure wanting to equalize. Some examples:

– You have a master bedroom with a couple of air vents coming into it, those vents bring air into the room and increase air pressure in that room. If there is a closet that does not have an air vent and the closet door is kept closed, you may see a line under the door where the air flows under in order to equalize pressure between the bedroom and the closet.

– You have a guest bedroom that you never use and a pet you don’t want going into that room, so you leave that door closed all the time. Air coming into the guest bedroom wants to flow back to the return air and all of it must flow under the door rather than through the open doorway. You may see a filtration line under the door.

– Baseboards. Most people have never seen a home under construction. Sheetrock walls normally are not flush with the floor. And there is usually empty space between walls. So air flowing into any room wants to flow into the empty space between the walls in order to equalize pressure. The only way in is under the baseboards. Although the carpet is tucked into the baseboard, it is not airtight. Lines form over time.

– Return air location. Sometimes the return air is in a room immediately behind a door. There is so much air going into that room back to the return air that the air gets sucked under that door as it flows in. This can create a line under the door even if the door is kept open when the return air location is right behind the door.

Basically, all of these situations result in a contrated air flow over a small/narrow area of carpet. It is sort of like sand-blasting. The fine and minute dust in the air blasts away at the carpet and becomes embedded more than normal dirt.

Contributing factors:

Heating & A/C design. The amount of ductwork in a home for airflow and the size of heating & A/C units is not all just a random decision. The amount of cubic feet in a home, the amount of insulation, climate, and other factors are taken into consideration when specifications are determined. The people making those decisions don’t always get it exactly right. Sometimes the air systems are putting out a bit too much air and this can increase the likelihood of filtration lines forming.

Air system filter. Changing the air filter monthly as recommended can help reduce the amount of fine dust floating around in the home, which will lessen the chance of filtration lines forming.

Insulation. Sometimes walls that are against the outside of a home are a bit cooler than the room temperature, depending on how well the home is insulated. Floating dust may settle onto that wall, then drift down, and be blasted into the carpet down near the baseboard.

Candles/incense burning. Burning anything adds a lot of fine dust in the home’s air, which means there is more of it to be blasted into the carpet areas that are potential places to have filtration lines.

Vacuuming. Frequent edge vacuuming can help pick up the dust at these baseboards that is sitting there getting blasted into the carpet. Better to get it up (or some it) before it gets embedded.

As you can see, there are multiple variables that play into this. Some of these variables are out of the homeowner’s control or would cost many thousands of dollars to remedy. If all or most of the factors come together in a bad way, a house is just very likely to have filtration lines.

In most cases where conditions are right for filtration lines to form, it still can take years to see them. It is a long slow process. If someone starts to see the lines, it is already too late. They need you to clean them and then they will need to be diligent to prevent them from forming again.

Dave’s comments are dead on. If you didn’t charge extra specifically for those lines, then you charged too little. The amount of effort is so much that there is no way you could build that into your normal pricing. Your pricing would be way to high for the 90% of homeowners who don’t have filtration lines.

I always point out filtration lines around baseboards to the homeowner and let them know that our standard cleaning will not get rid of them. Other filtration lines, such as under doors are short and I usually do my best to get rid of them without charging extra.

I have used our filtration line cleaner and it works well. However, you will go through a lot of it to clean a house with lines at the baseboards. I decided to try FAE due to the cost of the filtration line cleaner. I tried FAE two ways:

1. It tried using it as we normally do (pre-spray, let soak, spray 101, buff) and it didn’t do very well. This was for lines under doors. You couldn’t try this along baseboards.

2. I used it as the manual says to use the filtration line cleaner (Read Dave’s comment again! -apply, scrub, extract, repeat as necessary, ugh!) – apply, let soak a few minutes, scrub with a brush, let soak a few more minutes, extract, spray 101, extract thoroughly. It worked well. I did this in a home that had bad filtration lines. I asked my customer if I could do a test and come back the next day to verify results. I did side by side sections with FAE and filtration line cleaner. Both worked well.

I believe that filtration lines may have a slight tendency to come back some in the way that coffee does. I am not convinced of this, but it seems that the line can look better and then come back later. I noticed this when I tested using our spotter a couple times. It appeared to be getting it. I later noticed the line coming back as I was finishing up the rest of the normal cleaning in the home.

Cautionary note. Although I’ve had some filtration line jobs, my experience is still limited, as most customers decline to pay extra for the lines being cleaned. I would urge caution counting on the FAE. While I had good experience with it, my results have not been repeated much. If I used a lot of FAE for a large filtration line job, I would be inclined to do a couple of test sections on one day and then return the next day to be sure the lines remain gone. The first trip would only take 30 minutes or so. Then I would complete the job. I would hate to clean 200 linear feet of filtration line with FAE only to see it return or partially return the next day. There is probably a good reason Cody developed the filtration line cleaner.

Concerning radiant heat, it would seem that there would be less chance of having filtration lines with radiant heat as there is not the same amount of airflow (if I understand correctly what radiant heat is). However, it would still be possible, obviously as they have the lines. Do they ever burn candles? How is the water heated that flows through the radiant system? Do they burn wood or something else that can add dust to the homes air? Do they have any air vents for A/C?

Did I tell you more than you wanted to hear?

I would charge no less than $1.50 per linear foot. You will be on your hands and knees scrubbing, extracting, etc. – a LOT! As I mentioned above, I would probably not charge any if the customer has a line or two under a couple of doors. However, you could be looking at 50, 100, or perhaps several hundred linear feet of lines along baseboards. Because I’ve still had limited filtration line jobs using FAE, I would factor in the cost of filtration line cleaner, just in case.

You don’t see these lines too often, but they are difficult. I was actually glad when I had my first large filtration line job because I wanted to practice more and try the FAE as I mentioned. You know how you priced this job and what you said to the customer. You may feel stuck without being able to charge extra for the lines. Putting money aside, it will be good experience for you.

Please let us know how this job turns out.

Good luck!

Mike

I had one job that had what I thought was from the air moving around it cleaned up nicely with 101 and a bbc that alowed me to get right up to the baseboards. when the home owner came home we talked about she said it showed up a day or 2 after the last time it was cleaned (flood and suck), I figured it was wicking but ??????????????

Den,
We’re all glad to help.

That’s interesting about lines at the skirting. I’ll bet they have a lot of dust floating around in their home. Dave mentioned seeing that before. I’ve only seen it a couple of times.

Good luck again on the job!

Mike

Just a side note. If they have a forced air system, I ask them to check their filter more often. I once assisted an 89 yr old in changing her filter. It had, I kid you not, 3″ of build up. The filter was changed and a year later she died. Go figure.