|
The following instructions are applicable whether you're renting a machine or you have a consumer upright (shown to the right), a professional portable (see first picture below), a professional self-contained unit (second photo below) or a "spotter" (a little portable extractor such as the EDIC Bravo shown in the third photo below), and whether your machine offers heat or not. Many users simply apply their DooDoo Voodoo by pouring, wiping or spraying, then they let it air dry and they're finished. In many cases, this is all that's required, which is why we years ago came up with the slogan "Pour it...leave it...LOVE it!"™ Some of us, though, have urine and other problems that are more in-depth or widespread and that may benefit from a little extra work with a carpet cleaning machine.
(Our phenomenal EDIC Galaxy2000SX extractor is shown to the upper left. We're factory-authorized distributors of EDIC carpet cleaning equipment. Learn more about the EDIC equipment we use and sell here. Click on the thumbnail photos to see larger versions.) Two Options
(Our EDIC FiveStar self-contained carpet cleaning machine is shown to the above right. Our EDIC Bravo portable extractor is shown below left. Learn more about the EDIC equipment we use and sell here.)
Tips On Applying DooDoo Voodoo Now, if you only have isolated spots where an animal has urinated, or if you're concerned about protecting your subfloor, or if you're above the ground floor and are concerned about seepage through the subfloor, this method may not be for you. In addition, you also may not need to soak the area quite as much as we do when we employ this method. In those cases, we recommend simply using your DooDoo Voodoo spray bottle or using a pump-up sprayer, not the method I'll explain next. We'll leave it up to you to determine if the following method is appropriate for your situation and environment and can assume no liability for your methodology. Bucket Brigade
We fill the bucket with hot water almost to the top, then add DooDoo Voodoo Concentrate at a rate of up to two ounces per gallon of water. In this example, we added 10 ounces of DooDoo Voodoo Concentrate to our almost-full 5-gallon bucket 'cause we were dealing with extreme pee in carpet, pad and subfloor, but you can likely use a weaker mixture, especially if you're doing subsurface extraction. If you use this method, you'll find that if you fill the bucket with water first, then add your DooDoo Voodoo Concentrate, you'll get a lot less foaming than you would if you put your DooDoo Voodoo Concentrate in the bucket first, then added the hot water. Stir the mixture to evenly distribute the DooDoo Voodoo Concentrate. Pour your bucket's contents in the sprinkling can or dip the plastic measuring cup in the 5-gallon bucket, then use the vessel to pour the DooDoo Voodoo on the areas of your carpet that need spot treatment. Be sure to fully saturate the areas, then tamp them down with your shoe 'til they squish and foam forms on the surface of your carpet (more on this in a minute). By pouring the DooDoo Voodoo in this way, you get a lot less aerosolization than you would if you sprayed it...plus, it would take a LOT of spraying to fully wet the carpet, pad and subfloor to the degree that pouring does. It's simply a lot quicker to pour the DooDoo Voodoo on the affected areas. You can also pour directly from the 5-gallon bucket. If you think the pour-from-the-bucket-or-measuring-cup method is too aggressive for you, you can also pretty easily, but not as extensively, soak an area by spraying DooDoo Voodoo with a pump sprayer. We've used 1-gallon and 2.5-gallon units, with the 1-gallon units being lighter, but needing to be refilled more often. Be sure to use a sprayer with chemical-resistant Viton seals (o-rings), which are more sturdy and impervious to chemicals. Our favorite is the Smith Contractor 190216 model, available on Amazon. Our House Was A Stinky House --- But
Not Anymore!
Do A Little Dance...Get
[Deep] Down Tonight I either wear synthetic tennis shoes for this tamping or I put on blue, disposable shoe covers, such as we include with some DooDoo Voodoo products. Here's a wide shot of the same two areas shown above after I tamped them with my sneaker. Lying on the back of the couch and supervising my work is Georgette, one of the two guilty parties. The red machine is a commercial-grade portable carpet "spotter" extractor I used before I fell in love with EDIC equipment, which we've been using for years, own a bunch of and are now distributors for:
Once you've tamped the areas down with your foot, let the DooDoo Voodoo dwell (remain) on the areas for up to a half hour before extracting the areas with your carpet cleaning machine. When you do your extraction, it is a good practice to extract the areas at least a couple times in alternating directions, which more thoroughly cleans the fibers. For instance, first extract parallel to the wall, then extract perpendicular to the wall, then do a final extraction parallel to the wall again. Here's a picture I shot while I was doing my second pass with the 4" extraction wand. You can see that my first pass was parallel to the wall, and that my second pass is perpendicular to the wall.
After you do your final extraction pass, spray the areas with enough DooDoo Voodoo to pretty thoroughly wet the areas you just cleaned. Here's a picture after I did my final extraction pass (which you can see was parallel to the wall) and sprayed the areas (including the walls up to about 18") with DooDoo Voodoo:
While I was in the process of putting this webpage together, I walked to the living room to see how the areas were drying and there was no urine odor present at all...just a really faint scent of DooDoo Voodoo. Going Even Deeper Here are examples of what subsurface extraction can pull out. There's no reason for you and your pets to breathe this contamination any longer. Extract it for as little as $47.99 (with free shipping to all 50 states).
Dry As A
Bone...Soon
What If... If you flood the area in this way and you have light-colored carpet like we do, you may notice some yellowing of the carpet over the next week or two. This isn’t DooDoo Voodoo discoloring your carpet; it’s wicking (surfacing from below) of the organic material that was deep down in your carpet pad or, more likely, subflooring. If this occurs, you can treat the surface of your carpet with DooDoo Voodoo, then re-extract the area with your carpet cleaning machine, which is what we did a couple weeks after the pictures were shot. There was no odor left in the area; just a bit of yellowing due to wicking from our subfloor ('cause I didn't do subsurface extraction). Learn more about subsurface extraction tools and tips here. Lather, Rinse...Relax! Done! Notes: 1. Leaving an area dark and moist for too long can encourage mold growth, so use plenty of ventilation and light. Air movers, box fans, open windows, exhaust fans, HVAC and ceiling fans are helpful in this regard. Use good judgment and common sense, as our company assumes no liability. If you're concerned about this issue, you might be best served to, instead of doing the job yourself, find a local carpet cleaning company that uses the Water Claw. It is designed to remove over 90% of moisture from carpet, pad and subfloor, thus leaving areas a lot drier after cleaning. The manufacturer of the Water Claw has a webpage where you can look up carpet cleaning equipment & supply (wholesale only) distributors in your area. By contacting the one closest to you, you stand a good chance of their being able to refer you to a carpet cleaning company that is equipped with the Water Claw. We use multiple Water Claws and have found them to work INCREDIBLY well with DooDoo Voodoo. A Water Claw gets out WAY more contaminants than a conventional "wand-type" cleaning ever will. If your urine problems are more than you can handle by yourself, we highly recommend that you locate a cleaner who uses Water Claws. You'll be amazed at the results attained as compared to what a regular carpet cleaning would yield. You can a distributor on their website here. Here are two pictures of what a Water Claw can remove from carpet, pad and subfloor...and the carpet this came out of wasn't even that dirty to the naked eye. And it was only 34 square feet of carpet.
2. If you desire to, you can agitate the areas by hand once you've applied the DooDoo Voodoo. We use (softer than normal) plastic scrub brushes and horsehair brushes that are designed specifically for carpet cleaners. If you don't have these or want to spend the money on them, you can also use a basic plastic scrub brush such as is shown below, but be careful not to damage your carpet fibers. These brushes are typically pretty stiff, so be careful.
3. Some manufacturers of consumer-grade carpet cleaning machines are now putting out disclaimers urging people not to use any other brand of cleaning solution but the manufactures' due to the possibility of damage to the carpet cleaning machines. We think that the potential for damage to a machine would be lessened if you only used the machine to extract DooDoo Voodoo you applied manually (by pouring or spraying) versus using the machine's solution tank to squirt DooDoo Voodoo into your carpet. All machines have rubber seals to keep the solutions and waste water (extracted liquid) from leaking, so we assume that the manufacturers are concerned about other solutions drying out the rubber seals and causing them to fail. We have no way of knowing whether this is a legitimate concern or whether the manufacturers are simply trying to increase sales of their own brands of cleaning solutions, so we leave it up to you to decide whether DooDoo Voodoo and your carpet cleaning machine will work well together. We have used DooDoo Voodoo with our Hoover FloorMate hard-surface cleaning machine and our professional machines for years and haven't had any problems, but you can decide for yourself. 4. We own both professional and consumer carpet extractors, including "spotters" (lightweight portables such as the Bravo and red units shown above). We have a couple spotters that are sold to the janitorial and hotel industry for use by housekeepers, but we find them to be virtually useless, as they don't develop enough suction. The EDICBravo and red unit shown above do provide enough suction to do a decent job. Don't waste your money on other less powerful units. Click to learn more about the EDIC Bravo and the other EDIC equipment we distribute and use ourselves. 5. As the user of DooDoo Voodoo, you assume liability, including but not limited to damage to carpet cleaning machinery, personnel and personal property. We are not there to supervise your job or inspect your machinery, nor to supervise your application of liquid, so we assume no liability for direct or consequential damages. You as the user determine suitability of DooDoo Voodoo and methods described as being appropriate for any particular situation.
|
Instructions
For Using DooDoo Voodoo
