Essential Vacuum Carpet Cleaning

Whenever we have new carpet installed we begin with the hope that it will continue to look just like it does now. And the best time to start making sure that hope turns into reality is now. The following are some carpet cleaning essentials that every new carpet owner needs to abide by if they want to extend the life of their carpet and have it look as fresh as the day it was put in. First and foremost before your children even play on the carpet buy a soil retardant. You can apply these when your carpet is new or newly cleaned. Remember to pay attention to the instructions printed on the label by the manufacturer. Use only the techniques outlined with the proper equipment.

Let us start with a very basic rule in carpet cleaning and that is vacuuming. You don’t vacuum carpets only when they are already filthy. Make sure that you have a schedule of vacuuming the carpet regularly. Experts recommend that this should be done at least once a week. You may have to vacuum more frequently on occasion if there has been more activity than normal for a particular week. Preventing grime build up is important because the particles can damage the fibers. Twice a month endeavor to meticulously clean your carpet by using the specific vacuum attachment that comes with the equipment. These help you clean hard to reach places. The reason you have to schedule this chore is that you need to take time and not hurry. A hurried vacuuming session is not enough to take out embedded dirt. Make sure you pass through the sections several times. Also spend more time vacuuming high traffic areas as dirt would have pushed deeper into the carpet.

Carpet Cleaning Telemarketers Cause a Stir

Great thing on Lee.org. Apparently some crazy carpet cleaning company had been harassing Lee with phone calls for 2 years, basically trying to sell their services to him. Telemarketing. Such a dirty word. Here’s the real ha-ha. Lee doesn’t have carpet in his home. Ha ha. So after trying to get off their calling list, registering for the Do Not Call Registry, and repeatedly telling the telemarketer he isn’t interested, Lee decides to set up an appointment. The carpet cleaner shows up and Lee takes photos and video of the incident, all of which can be seen on his blog. Basically the carpet cleaner gets really angry about being photographed and taped. And since nobody got hurt I can say it’s actually a pretty funny incident.

But for me this brings up the old question “how much is too much”? I understand that telemarketing exists. It’s one of those crap situations that we sometimes have to deal with. I hate it as much as the other person but what can you do? I do believe there should be some regulations regarding telemarketing. These people shouldn’t be able to harass us constantly. But as of now there is nothing.

Now I know that this incident involved a carpet cleaning company, and that sucks. All it takes is one moron to make the rest of us look bad. It’s the guilt by association mentality. But please do not confuse this one idiotic company with the rest of them. Not all carpet cleaning companies even do telemarketing. Mine doesn’t. So keep in mind all the carpet cleaners out there that only want to help you.

Avert a Carpet Cleaning Crisis

The cost of good carpeting can definitely set a family back hundreds if not thousands of dollars depending on how big the area is. This is why it is infinitely wise to be aware of the steps one can take in order to prolong the life of your carpet. One of the must “dos” in carpet cleaning and care is using professional carpet cleaning services. It may cost a pretty penny but it is definitely worth it. This needs to be done at least once every 12 months minimum. A lighter color of carpet may need more frequent cleaning.

Another way in which you can keep your carpets looking new is routine care. Carpet cleaning is not just the responsibility of professional cleaners but yours as well. In general one must vacuum their carpets at least twice a week, if the house has many occupants or visitors’ then additional vacuum cleaning will be needed. Do not under estimate the effectiveness of a vacuum cleaner in delaying carpet aging; it takes out dirt that dulls the carpet fiber’s color and makes the carpet look older. The best type of vacuum cleaner is one that has a carpet brush which loosens dirt. A strong suction is also recommended. Be sure to purchase a good quality vacuum because effective carpet cleaning depends on it.

Next, always have a carpet cleaning kit within easy reach. The kit should be composed of white lint-free cloths, a small container of liquid as well as dry carpet cleaner, a small plastic scraper and a soft bristle brush so you can brush the carpet into shape. Remember that liquids as well as solid ingredients that may stain the carpet must be cleaned as quickly as possible.

A very useful tip in maintaining a clean carpet is to have people take their shoes off. As shoes are carriers of a thousand and one things we would rather not mention, putting a place mat at the door is a definite plus to carpet longevity. Take that one step further and have slippers handy for people to use in your carpeted rooms.

Last but not the least, as we all know the sun ages not just our skin but fabric, furniture and carpets as well. This effect is brought about by the UV rays fading the color of threads of which fabrics and carpets are made of. A remedy for this is to shut drapes or blinds whenever sunlight is not needed in the room.

The Cheapest Carpet Cleaning Company Isn’t Always the Best One

There are many horror stories about hiring the wrong cleaning company. One that comes to mind was cleaning for a lady who lived at a fairly nice house with yellow stains all over her carpet. She called one of the biggest carpet cleaning companies in our area. They had cleaned the carpet, left it soaking wet for four days, and when the carpet dried, big yellow stains appeared. She called the company to return and remove the stains but the company never came to her rescue. They simply ignored her calls. So she was left to live with these big yellow stains in the middle of her living room.
Here’s another horror story. Carpet left soaking wet for five days, but the ironic thing here is the carpet was supposedly dry-cleaned. When the carpet dried, musty odors were all over the entire house. The homeowner had to call another cleaning company to come by because the company that they originally hired refused to come out to take care of the situation.
Another horror story about a bait-and-switch carpet cleaning company involves a company advertising a low price of $89 for the entire house to be cleaned. When they come out to the home they evaluate things and tell the elderly homeowner that the job is going to be $525. When the elderly homeowner asks the cleaning company to leave and tells them that she does not want them to clean her carpet the cleaning company refuses to leave. The elderly woman has to call the police in order to get the cleaning company out of her home.
Yes, many horrible things can happen by hiring the wrong cleaning company. And these usually stem from trying to hire the cheapest company out there. When dealing the cheapest companies, you may encounter bait-and-switch techniques, faulty equipment, the cheapest chemicals, or even worse sometimes, the cheapest labor. Believe it or not, cheap carpet cleaning companies sometimes rarely, if ever, do background checks on their employees. Why? They cannot afford it. How can they afford to do background check on their employees when they are only charging $79 for the entire house to be cleaned? Hiring a cheap carpet cleaning company is not the best in the long run. You are better off doing research, finding a company with a good reputation, checking references and then paying a little bit extra. You are much better off hiring a reputable, solid company who is going to do a really good job for you.

Beware of Bait and Switch Carpet Cleaning

You have probably seen the coupons coming in your mailbox through ValPak, money mailer or even in your newspaper, for really cheap carpet cleaning. Some of them are for as little as $4.99 a room, believe it or not, or often though advertised 5 rooms for $69 and this type of thing.

The thing is these coupons are normally not what the company really charges when they get into your home. So, this is important to realize that this is often times something called “bait and switch”. Now, not all the time! Sometimes, they are sincere, cheap cleaning companies, but what you got to remember is you get what you paid for and if they are giving you cheap cleaning, what you going to get is cheap cleaning with very cheap labor, very cheap chemicals and very cheap equipment.

Back a few years ago, NBC dateline and ABC’s 20/20 did some exposes on “bait-and-switch” carpet cleaning. They actually did behind-the-scene interviews, or they put cameras behind the scenes, and they found out what these companies were really doing, and what happened in pretty much 90% of these situations.

A home owner would call in respond to a $5.99 per room at or a whole house for $69 this type of coupon, and then once they got out to the home, they looked at the carpet and said, “well, this carpet is really soiled. This is not going to be covered under this particular type of plan. What you going to need is our deep scrub system, or you are also going to need a deodorizer or you also going to need this or that.”

And then the price turns from $69 for the whole house into three or four or five hundred dollars; and then once the home owner bonked at the price, then the cleaning company will go “Oh, if you don’t like the $500 price, how about $300?”

They will actually bargain with them, but it will always be a price a lot more than what was actually originally intended to be paid by the home owner; and the other really bad part about this is for the companies that actually did start to do the cleaning at the coupon price, if they did if the home owner just insisted that they clean for the coupon price, some of the cleaning companies would believe in not doing the job at all.

Some of the cleaning companies would stay and do a very poor job on the cleaning. The other wouldn’t use chemicals at all and would admit that they don’t use chemicals at that cheap price. How can you clean a carpet without using any cleaning agents at all? Or they would do with a very cheap grocery store rental type of cleaning equipment. In other words, they would not do a professional job for the price.

What the shows concluded was that the IICRC, the Institute of Inspection, Cleaning and Restoration Certification, which is the largest certification board in the carpet cleaning industry, recommends this for cleaning:

They recommend that the carpet be vacuumed before the cleaning is done. However, any of those companies, if any of them vacuumed on either the ABC or NBC dateline (expose) after that carpet is vacuumed, pre-spotting is supposed to be done, steam cleaning is the most recommended method of carpet cleaning.

But that is not always necessary, although it is highly recommended by most carpet manufacturers, but after steam cleaning, grooming should be done and some things need to be done with air movement, usually the use of turbo air movers to dry the carpet out. This is what the IICRC recommends. None of these bait-and-switch companies, none of these cheap companies, did any of those services except for maybe the bare bones minimum of just steam cleaning and that is all. They didn’t do all of the steps involved to give you a good carpet cleaning.

Yes, you get what you pay for when it comes to hiring a carpet cleaning service. Don’t be fooled by bait and switch.