Why is Carpet Cleaning So Important?
Just take a moment to think about all the things that hide deep down in the fiber of your carpet: dust, dirt, allergens, bacteria, pet and human hair, grime, and whatever else makes its way via the occupants of your home. So why is it important to regularly clean your carpet? Read below to find the benefits of regularly cleaning your carpets.
Save Money
Carpets are expensive! Regularly cleaning your carpet helps to keep it in good condition, protecting the money you spent on it. This is especially important if your carpet is brand new or if you’re planning to sell your home soon. Its much easier to spend some money on a carpet cleaning service rather than replacing the entire area.
Maintain the Look
A home and/or office simply cannot look clean if the carpets in it are not actually clean. Vacuuming regularly is a great way to remove dirt and debris that ends up in the carpet. However, a regular deep clean is also needed to get some tougher stains out. You’ll appreciate the look and feel of the carpets much more and you will be happy to show off your place to guests/visitors.
Improve The Smell Of Your Carpet
Another obvious reason to clean your carpet is to improve (or maintain) its smell. This is especially true for homes with pets, and children who often produce vomit and/or urine which may leave an unfortunate smell. Routine cleanings are important, and an occasional steam clean is a great option if you want a fresh smelling carpet.
Prevent the Spread of Allergens/Bacteria
Regular carpet cleaning can prevent your carpets from harming your health. They are a perfect breeding ground for allergens and bacteria, and they can expose you and your family to dangerous pollutants. Especially if you have young children or pets, or if someone in the home has allergies, regular carpet cleaning is essential.
Should You Vacuum Your Carpets After Getting Them Cleaned
We often get asked if it is wise to vacuum your carpets after getting them cleaned. This question is usually based around when to vacuum the carpets, and not if they should every be vacuumed again.
So the simple answer is YES! You should vacuum your carpets after getting them cleaned, but only if the carpet is 100% dry. And we mean DRY.
What Are The Benefits Of Vacuuming Your Carpets After Cleaning?
To be quite honest the benefits of vacuuming your carpets after you clean them (a bad idea for YOU to clean them) or after a professional cleans them are pretty small.
But after having said that, there are a couple of benefits that to vacuuming after carpet cleaning.
- You will get out some additional cleaning residue. If your carpets were cleaned the right way there should be very little cleaning residue left in your carpet to begin with. But in many cases poor carpet cleaning (especially when you do it yourself) leads to too much cleaning residue being left in your carpet and this is not a good thing.
When this cleaning residue dries, in many cases, there is a powdery flaky substance in your carpet; and by vacuuming your carpets after they have been cleaned you can get a lot of this residue out of your carpet. And getting out carpet cleaning chemical residue is always a good thing.
There is a carpet cleaning method called Encapsulation Cleaning that basically leaves EVERYTHING in your carpet, dirt and cleaning agent. This method relies on soil “extraction” to come during the vacuuming process. This is the only time when leaving cleaning agent in your carpet is accepted and even then this type of cleaning is NOT recommended for residential environments.
- Gives The Carpet a More Uniform Appearance. While the vacuum itself can lead to “vacuum patterns” in your carpet (depending on the type of carpet) the cleaning patterns many carpet cleaning machines leave (including those of professionals) in your carpet are NOT wanted.
By vacuuming your carpet after it has been cleaned you will get rid of most, if not all, of these carpet cleaning marks a carpet machine or wand make.
On a side note: Many carpet cleaners purposely leave patterns in your carpet from their cleaning. And this is NOT good. Many professional carpet cleaners leave these patterns because they cover up dirty traffic areas and spots or stains they did not get out or clean properly. The pattern is put there to trick the eye into not seeing these problems. This is a very poor practice by many carpet cleaners and you should not allow this. Make sure you have your carpet cleaner brush or rake the carpet after they have cleaned it. It allows you to REALLY see how the carpet looks and the carpet will also dry faster.
In the end run vacuuming your carpets after they have been cleaned is a good idea but ONLY IF THE CARPET IS 100% DRY!
If you vacuum your carpets before they are dry there is a very good chance you are going to transfer soil from the vacuum cleaner, especially the brushes, onto the carpet you just had cleaned. Obviously this not good.
At Linton’s Carpet Cleaning we usually get very fast dry times so you can usually vacuum your carpets the same day, or early the next morning.
And speaking of dry carpet. In our next article the subject will be CARPET CLEANING DRY TIMES.
5 Tips For Using A Shampooer To Clean Your Carpet
Using a carpet shampooer keeps your carpet fresh and clean. These cleaners resemble a vacuum cleaner but with a hot water extractor that produces warm, sudsy water to clean the carpet. The shampooing machine has a solution tank and cleaning attachment with a nylon brush. The brush spins and releases the cleaning solution into the carpeting, which creates foam. Moving in a circular fashion, the brush scrubs the carpeting. It uses suction to remove the water and then sends the water to a dirty water reservoir. They’re really not that hard to use, and they can save you an absolute fortune in professional carpet cleaning!
Here are 5 steps to shampoo your carpet to get it clean:
- Prepare your carpet and areas to be shampooed
- If available, review the directions that go with your carpet to ensure that the cleaning solution and shampooer you use are appropriate for the carpet you own.
- Begin by removing furniture from the room and then thoroughly vacuum the carpet preferably with a powerhead vacuum cleaner, before shampooing to remove loose dirt, pet hair and other particles. This should also expose the carpet stains, if there are any.
- Pay attention to high-traffic areas, as well as corners and spaces where the carpet meets the wall. Use an attachment, if necessary, to get suction into spots the vacuum can’t adequately cover.
- When using a carpet shampooer it is wise to perform a spot test on an out of the way portion of the carpet to make sure that no discoloration occurs and the settings are correct before applying it liberally.
- Treat tough areas with a stain remover spray. Spray the cleaner directly on the stain and follow manufacturer instructions for cleaning it up. Some sprays are left on the stain until you vacuum it up while others will be dabbed with a clean cloth. The stain remover works by using chemicals to break the electrical charge between the dirt particles and carpet fibers. This allows the dirt to break free and the solution draws it to the surface of the carpet for removal.
- Removing as many of the allergens, dirt and dust mites as possible with a powerhead vacuum before shampooing will significantly increase the quality of the result.
- Clear the room you will be cleaning. Work in one room at a time and remove as much furniture as you can. If necessary, shift all the furniture to one side of the room so you can clean the other side. This may cause issues however when you have to set the furniture on the damp carpet. This may not allow the carpet to dry properly.
Note: Silk carpet should not be treated with a carpet shampooer.
- Prepare the carpet shampooing machine
- Fill the clean water tank with water and carpet shampoo as directed by manufacturer instructions. Do not use more shampoo than required. Excess shampoo will leave greater residue on the carpet, allowing dirt to cling to the dried residue and making carpets look dirty again.
- It’s important to read the list of ingredients on the shampoo bottle before cleaning. Mix carpet shampoo according to the instructions and add to carpet shampooer.
- When looking for carpet shampooer, be sure that the shampooer is an extractor with a clean water rinse cycle.
- Now you are ready to shampoo your carpet
- Rushing the cleaning job may give poor results so plan to take your time.
- To thoroughly clean the carpet, maneuver the machine across the surface several times. This may include stopping periodically to empty the dirty water from the reservoir and refill it with clean water.
- Use consistent forward and reverse strokes over the carpet surface.
- Clean the entire room by moving in an up and down motion, working from one wall to the other and then back until the waste water being sucked up is clear. Empty the waste water tank and refill the clean water tank with solution, as needed. For harder stains, you may wish to move back and forth over the stain several times until the water is clear.
- Don’t ‘overdose’ the shampoo solution, it is better to go over a dirty spot twice than put excess shampoo in the carpet
- Removing the soap from your carpet is very important. The amount of water extracted is also very important. If you leave water in the carpet, you’re leaving dirt and the moisture will possibly lead to mold and mildew.
- If too much detergent is used, or if all the detergent is not removed, the carpet will get dirtier sooner. Detergent left in a carpet, serves as a magnet for new dirt.
- When finished shampooing, run a tank of clear water over the heavy cleaned areas (e.g. entrances and walkways). This will help remove excess shampoo and keep those areas cleaner for longer. It also helps to rinse out the shampoo from inside in the machine!
- After shampooing
- Press your hand on the carpet. If your fingers have residual moisture, it’s important to extract the remnants of water/shampoo from the fibers by suctioning the carpet further. Do this until the process of pressing your hand to the rug no longer produces much residue. Carpet care needs patience, and it is not a minor task.
- Wipe cleaning solution from woodwork and wood furniture immediately to prevent damage to the wood or upholstery.
- Allow ample time for the area to dry before putting furniture back on it. This could take overnight. For smaller areas, it can be dry in as little as 2 hours. Larger rooms may take 1 day for everything to be completely dry. Opening windows and turning on fans can help it to dry quicker.
- If furniture must be placed back in the room before the carpet is dry, use aluminum foil or plastic under the furniture legs to prevent staining the carpet.
- Use towels or white cloths to step on if you must walk on the area before it is dry. Try to keep children and pets off the carpet until it is completely dry.
- When your carpet is dry, vacuum again to remove any loose particles suspended on top of the carpet before anyone walks on it.
- Cleaning Frequency
- How frequently you should shampoo carpet depends largely on the amount of traffic a carpet receives. A carpet that is walked on daily should be cleaned at least once or twice per year, but carpet in an infrequently used room may need to be shampooed only every 18 months.
Light colored carpeting will show dirt more easily and may need to be cleaned more often.
How to Clean Brown Stains After Carpet Cleaning
You may notice brown stains on your carpet after a thorough carpet cleaning. These stains occur if there is too much cleaning solution and water used during the cleaning process. Another reason these brown stains occur is that dirt that is usually deep down in the carpet resurfaces as the carpet dries. This is called wicking. If these problems occur, clean the areas again with as little water as necessary.
Step 1
Purchase a low pH acid cleaner from a janitorial supply store. You need a low pH acid cleaner of about 2.0 to safely remove the brown discoloration from your carpet.
Step 2
Use a wet vacuum to suck up the water and cleaning solution left behind from the previous carpet cleaning. If the spots are dry, skip this step and move on to Step 3.
Step 3
Spray the low pH acid cleaner on the brown spots. Do not over-spray; you do not want to over-wet the affected area again.
Step 4
Scrub the area with a cleaning brush to get the cleaning solution deep down into the carpet fibers.
Step 5
Blot the stain with paper towels to absorb excess cleaning solution on the carpet surface. Repeat this process until you can no longer see the brown stain.
Step 6
Remove any excess moisture using a wet vacuum.
Step 7
Use a box fan to expedite the drying process. Point the fan toward the affected area. The brown stain was due to over-wetting, so thoroughly drying the area is important.
Vacuum Features and Settings for the Best Cleaning Results
Establishing the needs of the facilities you manage is crucial for delivering exceptional cleaning results. Follow these steps to help you determine which vacuum settings you need and how to properly set up the vacuum for your specific job:
Step No. 1: Determine Your Priorities
Tailor your needs based on the industry in which you service and your responsibilities. For example, schools require cleaning each day before the bell rings, so high-performance and power are important. Hotels and restaurants require cleaning several times a day to meet high expectations, so quiet cleaning is necessary. Cleaning large areas is important in offices, so look for reliable machines that cover a lot of ground quickly.
Step No. 2: Choose Key Features
Once you narrow down your industry’s priorities, it’s important to select a vacuum model equipped to meet them. Look for professional-grade features, components, and specifications based on your needs.
- Corded: Vacuums featuring quick-disconnect power cords can help reduce downtime if you damage a cord. An extension cord replacement eliminates time required to replace a permanent cord.
- Cordless: Speed up productivity by eliminating cord changes and the need to search for outlets. For on-the-spot cleaning needs, use models with quick recharge times and long-lasting power.
- Quiet cleaning: If it’s important to clean quietly, consider vacuums with 70 A-weighted decibels (dBA) or less. These vacuums help meet LEED requirements for sound and keep energy costs down.
- Lightweight: Models weighing 16 pounds or less allow for easier maneuverability and comfort.
- Allergen reduction: For allergen reduction and improved air quality, look for vacuums that feature a sealed HEPA system and a HEPA filter on the exhaust.
- Motor life: Models with extended motor life provide years of reliable performance, reducing cost of ownership over time.
- Multisurface cleaning tools: Extension wands are useful for extended-reach cleaning. Crevice tools allow for easy cleaning in tight spots like corners and baseboards. Upholstery tools are ideal for vacuuming stairs and furniture.
Step No. 3: Get Prepped
Once you have a vacuum armed with the features you need, it’s important to adjust a few settings and check some key parts to make sure you’re ready to get the job done:
- Bag: Check that the bag is either new or has enough room for extended cleaning.
- Height settings: Get quick adjustments for multiple floor surface types using the height adjustment knob. Remember: The brushroll must reach the carpet to be effective.
- Filters: Inspect filters for blockage and clean them if necessary.
- Brushroll and belt: Look for damage or tangled debris (such as hair) before each use.
- Tools: Make sure hoses and wands are properly secured, and attachment tools are in the storage position so you can easily access them.
It’s helpful to choose equipment that can be assembled and maintained easily. In addition, don’t forget to take time for daily inspection and maintenance, and follow manufacturer instructions for proper cleaning and safety.
By selecting the right vacuum features and settings for your industry and job, you can efficiently clean every surface, crevice, and corner to deliver exceptional results day in and day out.