Carpet Cleaners

Misconception # 1 You must wait as long as possible before cleaning your carpet.

No. Dirt is an abrasive - sandpaper etc. Every time you step onto the carpet, you grind dirt into your carpet fibers. This reduces your carpet, just as if you had used a knife, causing more rapid wear. A dirty carpet will not last nearly as long as a carpet. And while vacuuming helps - by itself, it is not enough. Then, the longer you wait to have your carpets cleaned, the more damage you do to your carpet and the faster it wears out.

Misconception No. 2: The only reason to clean carpets is to remove dirt.

No. As you probably know, outdoor air contains pollens, molds, bacteria, air pollution, cigarette smoke, exhaust - and hundreds of other chemicals. When you and your family enter your home, you carry pollens, bacteria and chemicals in your hair and skin, clothing and shoes. No wonder, all those chemicals, pollens and bacteria wind up - you guessed it - in your carpet.

If you have allergies, asthma, emphysema or other respiratory problems - a major source of your problem could be the pollens, fungus and chemicals in your carpet.

In addition, as you may know, tobacco smoke contains over 4,000 different chemical compounds, of which 43 cause cancer. And even if you do not smoke, those chemicals get on your shoes, you find them in your home and you leave them in your carpet.

If you're sensitive to cigarette smoke, you may find that you breath easier after you hire a company to get those harmful chemicals from your carpet.

So, besides getting rid of dirt, another important reason to clean your carpet is to get rid of pollens, fungi, bacteria, chemicals and the tars and residue from tobacco smoke.

Misperception # 3: One method of carpet cleaning is as good as another.

No, you can choose between two primary methods: Dry cleaning or hot water extraction.

First, I'll explain dry cleaning. Many people believe that dry cleaning your carpet is like dry cleaning your clothes. This is not true. All carpet cleaning methods use water in one or the other. Here are three methods of cleaning carpets dry.

When using a carpet cleaner dry foam, it applies to shampoo your carpet, let dry, then sucks the dry shampoo in a vacuum. Can you imagine applying shampoo to hair, let dry and remove the shampoo from your head with a vacuum cleaner? This method can leave a residue on your carpet, which is one reason dry foam is not very effective.

Chem-Dry method is similar to dry foam. The major difference is that when dry-Chem is used, the company is a large cotton bonnet on your carpet. The aid of a machine, the cover rotates from side to side, absorbing the dirt in the carpet. After the bonnet is saturated with dirt, another cotton bonnet is applied. Bonnet cleaning is like trying to use a large towel to rub the dirt from your carpet. Like dry foam, it is not very effective.

The dry compound method spreads an absorbent mixture resembling wet sawdust all over the carpet. Then the machine brushes the mixture into the carpet, which in theory causes dirt to absorb into the mixture. When the mixture is dry, vacuum cleaner sucks the material of the carpet. Because the carpet is not rinsed in any way, this method is not very effective.

The second carpet cleaning method is called hot water extraction. This is a fancy way of saying that a cleaning solution of hot water under high pressure is forced into the carpet and then sucked out of the carpet. This method is also known as steam cleaning even though steam is not used.

Shaw Industries, a leading manufacturer of carpet, recommends hot water extraction.