Should you shampoo your carpet, steam clean it, or just vacuum it? There is a lot of confusion on what 's best for cleaning your carpet. Let's take a look at the terms, and then take a look at what's involved in actually getting your carpet clean again.
Steam cleaning is actually a misnomer. Technically, steam cleaning is really hot water extraction, which is something you can easily do yourself at home. For reasons we'll soon see, you are actually better off doing it yourself.
Carpet cleaning machines can be rented from a rent-it-center, local hardware stores, or sometimes even your local grocery store. You can also buy a home unit from a department store and many on-line stores. The machines come in both a tank and upright models, and both styles work quite well. It is recommended however, that you avoid the models with rotating brushes, as these tend to cause wear of the carpet fibers.
If you have a lot of carpet in your home, owning a carpet shampoo machine may be the best way to go. By owning your own machine, you won't be under time pressure to do all of your house at one time. Another advantage is that if you have pets or do a lot of entertaining at your home, you can take care of any unexpected spills and stains right away before they set up in the carpet fibers.
So what is the actual process? First,you should move as much of the furniture out of the room as possible and then vacuum the room thoroughly. Badly soiled areas should be pretreated with "pre-spray" made by mixing an ounce of the carpet shampoo with five ounces of water. Put this mixture in a spray bottle and mist the soiled area.
Next, fill the machine's reservoir with the hottest water you can get from your sink. After that, add a carpet shampoo that has been formulated to be used with your machine. Initially you will want the shampoo to be low-foaming. By adding the carpet shampoo after the water is in the reservoir, you won't generate suds. Use no more than one third of the recommended amount of shampoo. In other words, ignore the directions on the bottle so that the amount of foaming is minimized. You want to minimize foaming in order to prevent excess foam residue from becoming lodged in the carpet.
Visually divide the room to be cleaned into grids. For example, a 10' x 10' room could be divided into two 5' x 10' areas. Starting at one corner, pull the trigger that allows the cleaning solution to flow onto the carpet. Keep the trigger pulled and take long strokes back and forth across the carpet, covering the room in overlapping strokes. Continue this process until the reservoir is empty.
As the cleaning solution flows into the carpet, it is also being suctioned up into the recovery tank along with whatever dirt is hiding between the fibers. The recovery tank will probably need to be emptied often.
After you've covered the entire area, you'll probably think the carpet is shampooed and clean. This is when commercial carpet cleaners will pack up their gear and leave. In a very short period of time, however, you may discover your carpet is dirty again!
Why? It's because of leftover soap in the carpet which is now attracting more dirt! Think about this for a moment. When you wash your hair, you rinse before toweling dry. When you wash the dishes, you rinse them. Your clothes washer has at least one rinse cycle. The purpose is, of course, to get the soap out!
For similar reasons, you need to rinse your carpet. Rinse the reservoir tank until it contains no more soapy water and then fill it with cold water. Cold water cuts the soap better than hot water. Go over the area that you've shampooed, and do it repeatedly until the recovery tank is no longer picking up soap. Then do it one more time using just the extraction mode. That way you will pick up almost all of the water that's been left in the carpet.
Let the carpet dry thoroughly before walking on it. If you must place furniture on it, put a piece of plastic wrap under the legs of the furniture. Following these steps will keep your carpet cleaner for a much longer period of time.
Every few years a different way of cleaning carpet seems to appear on the market. Most of these methods involve sprinkling a chemically treated sawdust-like material over the carpet and using an applicator to work it into the fibers. After allowing it to penetrate for a specified amount of time, you simply vacuum it up.
Institutional and commercial property owners often use the "bonnet" method. The "bonnet" is a loosely woven yarn pad with an elastic band around the edge. This pad is soaked in a shampoo solution and thoroughly wrung out. It is then placed on the bottom of a buffer machine which moves it in a circular motion over the area to be cleaned. It's an effective quick-fix remedy because it easily removes the surface dirt.
Using carpet shampoo is not something you need to do very often. By vacuuming regularly, you will pull up a lot of the dirt and minimize the need to use shampoo. Shampooing and rinsing using the extraction method is really accomplishing the same thing as vacuuming.
Using carpet shampoo [http://www.carpetshampooworld.com] and hot water extraction will not hurt your carpet. On the contrary, it will keep your carpet looking new longer.
Carpeting a room or a whole house is a major investment. Give it the care it deserves.
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