Cleaning carpets

There are two large (4 x 6m) Calder carpets in Brisbane, made with
New Wool 11 years ago by Tai Ping Hong Kong. They hang in the
central lobby of a large office block with floor to ceiling glass in
all directions. The air conditioning runs from 6am to 8pm.

The pigmented wools have faded enormously. There was a huge build up
of surface dirt and sweeping black stains visible in the lighter
areas of wool (i.e. cream, yellow and orange).  Surface vacuuming was
undertaken and local stain reduction was done in the stained areas
only on a very limited basis with water and Lissapol 5% (non ionic
detergent). There was some improvement of stain reduction of the
black stains but not total reduction which was the client's wish. We
didn't want to be left with either water halos around the cleaned
areas or have to strip the wool, etc.

Would anyone have any further suggestions of treatments which could
be undertaken for further stain removal ? If so, it would be greatly
appreciated. Thank you,

Caroline O'Rorke
Paper Conservator
International Conservation Services Pty Ltd

                                  ***
                  Conservation DistList Instance 11:46
               Distributed: Wednesday, November 19, 1997
                       Message Id: cdl-11-46-015
                                  ***