Avoid These three carpet cleaning mistakes
No one likes seeing dirt tracking in your carpet let alone the nasty stains. Especially the spots by the front door where everyone who comes over can see them. It feels like there’s a sign, overhead, that says “I never clean my house”. Regular deep carpet cleaning can extend the life of your carpet for years and avoid the embarrassment of a dirty carpet.
Your carpet is lovely and warm and how wonderful it is to walk barefoot when it is clean and fresh. Oh, but those times when you can feel the matted fiber filled with dirt and sand creepy crawlies isn’t enough to describe the feeling. Get your surgical foot covers ready! We all know we should keep our carpets clean, but life easily gets in the way and rules for not wearing shoes in the house evaporate as quickly as the morning fog. The worst feeling has to be walking into your living room in socks and stepping flat-footed into a wet spot left by Randy the golden labradoodle. Every once in a while we get an itch to deep clean our carpets, but don’t fall these three easily avoidable carpet cleaning mistakes.
three things to avoid when cleaning your carpet.
1. Rent a Carpet Cleaning Machine
When it comes to cleaning carpets the first thing that comes to mind is a carpet shampooer. Renting a carpet cleaning machine locally seems like the way to go, but can be the worst mistake you make for your dirty carpet. Carpet cleaning machines use too much water and can take twelve plus hours to dry. Don’t forget to stay off the carpet until it dries! Machines sell you a good idea, but in reality, can cause you more problems than if you hired a professional carpet cleaner. Renting the machine for a day takes time away from your already busy life. You have to find a machine available and pick it up. Don’t forget the attachments, that cost extra, and the cleaning solutions. Then you have to clean the carpets costing you hours of your quickly disappearing weekend.
Renting a carpet cleaning machine may seem cost effective saving you money over hiring a professional carpet cleaner, at first, but many times it ends up costing you more in the long run. The amount of water used by the machine saturates your carpet requiring a long time to dry. It can be deceiving how clean your carpets look at first, but with saturated carpets and the type of soaps used in these machines often cause stains to return or become worse over time. What causes this? Wicking. Have you noticed when you spill water on your carpet that spot turns brown over time? That’s the wicking effect. Water pulls up the dirt that is hiding in your carpet into the fibers turning them disgustingly brown. Imagine what happens when you spread water over your entire carpet.
Most chemicals used in rental machines contain soap. Soap is good for washing dishes or your hands, but is bad for your carpet. These chemicals leave a residue that attracts dirt and will make your carpet look worse soon after cleaning. The sticky soap attaches to your carpet fibers causing issues even when you use a carpet protector after cleaning.
Over-shampooing is when too much carpet shampoo is applied or your carpet is not rinsed adequately. This is inevitable with most wet do-it-yourself approaches leaving soap build up that is virtually impossible to remove without a professional carpet cleaner.
Your furniture can cause more problems when using a rental machine. Over-wetting and over-shampooing can cause furniture to stain your carpets as dyes in the feet of your furniture can leak into the carpet fibers when wet. The chemicals in carpet shampoo can increase these chances. Many pieces of furniture have feet that are at least partially metal. The metal can rust, leaving a stain in the carpet.
Blue Bear Carpet Care uses very low moisture method to clean our carpets. That means using very little water reducing the chance of wicking greatly. Our innovative carpet cleaning solutions leave no residue and actually continue to trap dirt after the initial cleaning. Our carpet cleaning process reduces the dry time significantly which means you can get back to life with your clean carpets in one to two hours.
Your furniture is safe with the cleaning solution we use. We’ll take the extra step of giving you foot protectors to place under your furniture until your carpet completely dries.
2. Using a spot-bot
You love your dog and children, that goes without argument, but they can be the biggest enemies to your carpets right next to mother nature. A toddler stumbling and bumbling with a glass of juice leaves drips and drops up and down your beautiful carpet. Pets, well, they have a mind of their own and when they gotta go messes happen. Companies have made a killing by marketing to families who suffer from littles attacking their carpets. It’s a multi-billion dollar a year market for those messy four-legged members of the family. Please welcome the spot cleaning machine!
Spot cleaning machines are basically a smaller version of the big carpet cleaning machines. They depend on water and soapy chemicals promising ultimate stain removal for carpets and area rugs. Sometimes they are branded for pet messes and stains. The marketing makes them look effective, but they rarely work to permanently to remove stains. They leave the spot soaked and susceptible to wicking which is a major cause for your carpet looking dirty. If the machine works it leaves a strange clean circle making the carpet color look uneven since the rest of the carpet is filled with dirt and other contaminates.
Blue Bear Carpet Care uses state-of-the art stain spotters that does not require much water and no rinsing to remove residual chemicals permanently. While it’s necessary to clean up stains, regularly cleaning your carpet removes dirt, pet dander, and dust that contaminate the air in your home. Blue Bear can remove the stains while cleaning your entire carpet to give you a fresh start. We use brushes to agitate dirt out of the carpet and our bonnets pick up the dirt that is encapsulated leaving your carpets fresh and clean.
3. Not Vacuuming Enough
You know that you should vacuum. I don’t know many people who have a passion for vacuuming their carpets though. Dirt is constantly being tracked into your carpet even if you stand by the front door and make people take their shoes off. Dirt hides under the fibers of your carpet and builds up over time. Those dark traffic lanes in your carpet testify that dirt still gets in your house no matter what precautions you put in place.
Dust is always in the air. Did you know your carpet acts as an air filter in house? Dust settles into your carpet and is trapped until it is pulled out. Take a look at the edges of your carpet against your base boards. There’s probably a line of dust that your vacuum has a hard time picking up. If your carpet is saturated with dirt and dust, you’re breathing much of it as you walk on your carpet.
Pet dander and dead skin cells are hiding deep in your carpet. Pets are always shedding fur and dander which settles into your carpet cannot be removed without vacuuming. Don’t forget about the humans. We shed skin cells all over the place and it finds its way down into your carpet. If you aren’t vacuuming regularly that dander sticks to the carpet fibers and can be a major allergy issue.
Your carpet does a great job of hiding the dirt, dander, and dust. Our experts recommend vacuuming at least once a week. Make sure your vacuum is in good working order by regularly checking the vacuum lines for clogs and the brush for tangled hair. Don’t vacuum with dirt already in the canister or if you have a bag vacuum replace it regularly. You’ll notice the difference if you set a regular routine for vacuuming your carpet especially in high traffic areas. If you have pets, children, or wear shoes on your carpet, vacuuming more often can help slow the discoloration of your carpet.
Take your time vacuuming. If you’re speeding through vacuuming your carpet you can miss a lot of contaminates. Your vacuum needs time to agitate the carpet and pull up what is deep under the fibers. When there are so many other chores and duties requiring your time, it can be very tempting to move the vacuum as quickly as you can, to speed up the process. Don’t fall into this habit. You will get the best results with your vacuum if you take your time and actually run the vacuum over your carpet twice. Vacuum your carpet in one direction and then go over it again in the opposite direction. This will increase what is picked up.
Blue Bear Carpet Care always starts a cleaning job with a thorough vacuuming. This is essential to a great clean. We take our vacuuming seriously and we won’t just rush through the process. We pay attention to his traffic areas and the edges of your carpet to clean filter lines which is dust trapped where your carpet meets your walls.
A DIY approach to carpet cleaning can leave your carpet in worse shape than it was beforehand. Hiring a professional carpet cleaner who has the tools, knowledge, and ability to clean your carpet is the genius approach. It’s not as expensive as you think and can save you money in the long run by extending the life of your carpet. Call or text Blue Bear Carpet Care because we have the tools, knowledge, and ability to clean your carpets the right way.
