When it comes to carpet/rug cleaning, you want a reliable company that has years of experience in cleaning. You want a company that can offer many areas of cleaning, as the subject area can get a bit hazy for those who don’t know much about it.
And that’s the problem right there!
So many people think they know about carpet cleaning that they sure, what is actually misnomers about carpet cleaning. If you want to find a reputable carpet/rug and upholstery company, you need to know the facts to make a smart decision.
6 Common Misnomers People Have About The Carpet Cleaning Process
1. You Can Wait However Long You Want To Clean Your Carpet
When it comes to dirt and your carpet, you certainly don’t want to waste any time at all in getting it cleaned. How come? Each time you step on your carpet, the dirt is ground into the carpet fibers. Dirt is similar to sandpaper in that it’s abrasive. Each time you walk on it, the dirt is cutting into the fibers, destroying them. This wears out the carpet even faster.
A dirty carpet will not have as long of a lifespan as a carpet that is cleaned regularly. Yes, vacuuming can help, but it’s just not enough. The longer it takes you to clean the carpet, the more damage that’s done to the carpet. The more damage, the quicker it’s going to wear out.
Even if you cleaned your carpets, you might find that it’s getting dirtier even faster. That’s because it wasn’t cleaned properly for the first time around and dirt and allergens were left behind, causing the carpet to become damaged.
2. Dirt Is The Only Reason To Clean Your Carpets
No, no, no! Dirt isn’t the only reason to clean your carpets. There are so many allergens ruining your carpet – from pollen to bacteria to fungus to air pollution to cigarette smoke, etc. When you walk into your home with shoes on, everything you had on your shoes is coming inside the home. Read that again! EVERYTHING you came into contact with outside your home has now made it inside the home.
Should you suffer from asthma, allergies or any multitude of breathing problems, then it could be the carpets in your home.
Cigarette smoke is another issue that needs addressing. There are more than 4,000 chemical compounds in cigarettes, and 43 of them can cause cancer. Even if you’re not a smoker, the chemicals get on your shoes and are brought into your home and ground into your carpet. If you have a sensitivity to cigarettes and cigarette smoke, you may want to hire a reputable carpet cleaning company to eliminate these contaminants that have accumulated.
As you see, it’s not just dirt, but everything else destroying your carpet too.
3. Any Carpet Cleaning Method Will Do
Absolutely not!
There are two key methods in which to cleaning carpets. You can dry clean, or you can hot water extricate. Most people have heard of dry cleaning but don’t understand the process. The majority of people assume that dry cleaning a carpet is like dry-cleaning clothes, but it’s not. Every carpet cleaning method will use water – somehow, someway. And, with dry cleaning, there are three methods you can do:
Dry Foam – With this method, you apply shampoo to your carpet, allow some time for it to dry and use a vacuum cleaner to suck it up. While this method is often used, it’s not the best method. Think about it. You’re leaving residue in the carpet, which causes the carpet to re-soil easily.
Dry-Chem – This method is not too different from dry foam, but the difference is that the company will use a large cotton bonnet on the carpet. With the machine, the bonnet will spin from one side to another, soaking up some of the dirt in the carpet. The keyword here is “some.” Once the bonnet is saturated with the dirt, a second bonnet will be used. Think of this bonnet cleaning method as like using a towel to take dirt out of the carpet. Similar to the dry foam method, it will also leave residue behind.
Dry-Compound – An absorbent mixture (identical to wet sawdust) is applied to the carpet. A machine will brush the mixture into it, which, based on the theory, means the dirt will bind to it. Once dried, a vacuum cleaner can be used to suck up the material. However, there is no rinsing, which means it’s another ineffective method for cleaning carpets.
With Hot Water Extraction, you’re using a hot water cleaning solution that’s been forced at a high rate into the carpet that’s then sucked up out of it. Most people recognize this method like steam cleaning, even if steam isn’t being used.
This is one of the most recommended methods to clean carpets, as it uses a pre-treatment solution that will blend with the dirt and is agitated to ensure the most penetration possible. A heated rinse solution is then used to shot into the carpet at a high rate of speed that will break the dirt, pollen and bacteria up even more. From there, a high amount of suction is used to remove the dirt from the carpet.
It’s the surefire method in which to clean carpets, and it’s the only one that is known to remove all the allergens that have accumulated in it effectively.
You can always find carpet cleaners to rent, but these machines don’t tend to heat water up. Machine that uses cold or lukewarm water will often leave behind dirt and other allergens.
There is another misnomer that hot water will damage the carpet, but this is a fallacy. Hot water, even up to 150 degrees Fahrenheit, does not damage the carpet. When you use hot water to wash and rinse your carpet, you can clean it more effectively. Think of it as you taking a hot shower and rinsing off – much the same way and same premise.
4. A Company Just Needs The Right Equipment To Effectively Clean Carpets.
Wrong! Although carpet cleaning companies do use hot water machines, it’s the employees’ lack of knowledge of how to use them that keeps the carpets from looking and smelling their best after a clean.
It’s like buying a new computer but never really learning how it works until months down the road. A company may have the right equipment, but if the people who own it don’t know how to use it effectively, what good is it?
Carpet cleaners are powerful pieces of equipment, and if the user doesn’t understand how it works, it could become a catastrophe.
Consider looking for companies that are certified in the field from such as the Institute of Inspection, Cleaning and Restoration Certification or something similar. Certified cleaners have a degree in carpet cleaning.
5. You Should Always Hire The Cheapest Carpet Cleaning Company
While you should entertain the lowest quote, it’s not always the best for you. Consider the two important points here:
The price offered may not be for what you need done. Before you choose a company, you need to know what you’re trying to accomplish. If you just want to remove dirt out of your carpet, you have your pick of the litter, so to speak. There are numerous companies that offer this service. Or, you can even purchase or rent a machine and do it yourself.
If the goal is to thoroughly clean your carpets, removing the dirt, bacteria, pet stains, tobacco residue and more, then you want to employ the services of a company that will use the Hot-Water Extraction method. This is the best way in which to have healthy, clean carpets.
Price isn’t always indicative of what is being offered in a service, so be aware of this.
The advertised price may not be the actual price you’ll pay. Too often, homeowners learn that the low price they saw being advertised was not the charged amount. How so? If you hire a cheap carpet cleaner, they may do a bait and switch. They may claim that you pay around $4 a room but then charge you more when they come inside. The bait and switch practice is illegal.
Like any industry, there are good carpet cleaning companies and not so good ones. You need to weed them out and determine who is making false promises and using deceptive practices and which companies are legit.
6. Reputable Carpet Cleaners Can Provide Over-The-Phone Quotes
It would be nice if you could call a company up and get a quote over the phone when it comes to household cleaning and repairs. That’s just not how the world works, unfortunately.
A reputable carpet cleaning business will give you a price by the square foot, which means they can only do this by coming into your home and determining how much space needs to be cleaned. If you need additional areas cleaned – landing, stairs, etc. – then this will cost more.
Most people are under the false assumption that when their home is 2,000 square feet, they will be charged for that entire amount. In actuality, the square footage will be a little more than half that. Square footage measurements of a home include the outside of it, which is something a carpet cleaning company takes into consideration. In reality, you’re only going to pay for about 60 percent of a home’s total square footage in a carpet cleaning service.
4 Tips To Helping You Find A Reputable Carpet Cleaning Company
If you do decide hiring a carpet cleaning service is the way to go, keep these tips in mind:
Be committed to getting them cleaned. The longer the dirt stays in, the sooner your carpet is going to wear out. Plus, getting them cleaned early on means no more allergens you’ll be breathing in.
Be mindful of what it is you want from the service. Are you looking to remove just some dirt – something you could easily do yourself? Do you want to eliminate all of it from the carpet – dirt, bacteria, chemicals, etc.? If it’s the second option, then you need to find a company that does the Hot-Water Extraction technique. Now, you could always go with a cheap option, but cheap doesn’t always mean better, so be aware of this as well.
Ask questions of each company you are considering. Ask them what kind of carpet cleaning method they use, what kind of equipment they use in the process, if they are certified and licensed, etc. The more you know about a company, the better off you’re going to be in your decision-making process.
Ask for references and read reviews about the companies. This gives you a great look into the practices these companies use to clean carpets. How satisfied are their customers? Are there any negative reviews? What was said in them? Since online reviews are a matter of public record, search engines are less likely to remove them. This is something you certainly want to be aware of when researching the companies to determine which one is best for you and your home.
The reality is that all the tips will help you to get the information you need to weed the good from the bad companies. If you’re all about quick and cheap, you can do the job yourself by renting a machine. However, if you want a thorough job done, it’s always best to hire a professional to clean your carpets for you.