Why steam carpet cleaning is still the leader?

Protecting the large investment you’ve made in carpeting for your home is motivation enough for wanting to take care of it. Keeping your carpeting fresh, clean and in good repair is a big undertaking.

Not only do you want for it to look good, you want for it to be good for the indoor environment in which your family lives and breathes.

Well known choices are available everywhere

You’re not the only one with these concerns. Carpet steam cleaning has become a major business. The yellow pages are full of service companies waiting to serve you. Equipment and supplies for DIY are right there in your local supermarket, ready to be carried off with your Saturday morning bacon and eggs.

Until alternative cleaning methods came along, steam carpet cleaning was just an automatic maintenance and problem solving procedure that didn’t really merit much thought about how it worked or what it actually achieved. You are one of today’s educated consumers who wants to know more than what time it is. You want to know how the clock works. Thanks to you, that is why this article is here.

How it works

Steam cleaning your carpet has to begin with a very thorough vacuuming of the carpet. Be sure to give lots of attention to this step because leaving less dry soil and contaminants in your carpet means there won’t be as much clean up of the muddy mixture that results from the application of hot water.

When you vacuum, pay particular attention to the carpet nearest to entry doors because this is where the highest concentrations of dirt will be. Be sure to make numerous passes over these areas.

Steam carpet cleaning isn’t really steam cleaning at all. But, that’s OK because study has shown that high temperature moisture has a detrimental effect on the integrity of carpet fiber and the base they have been fixed to.

Steam carpet cleaning is a way of deep cleaning that integrates a hot water cleaning solution mix delivery system with a wet vacuum spent cleaner recovery system. Does that sound sophisticated to you? It isn’t really, but it probably seemed more so years ago at it’s introduction.

What has become sophisticated however, is the cleaning solutions which are available to you to run through the equipment. They are safer re has been major results oriented improvement worthy of your evaluation.

Does it get the job done right

Because the cleaning solutions are fully dissolved in the hot water, two problems are created. The dirty water recovery process cannot pick up all the solution so the carpet fibers, backing, and even the under pad remains damp. Depending on the ambient air humidity levels and the amount of water sprayed on, it can take as much as three or four days for your carpet to dry out. That is sufficient time for odor causing bacteria and unhealthy mildew to begin growing.

The second part of the problem of leaving moisture behind is that dissolved cleaning chemicals are being left on the carpet as well. When they dry, the detergent residue becomes sticky, and sticky carpet fibers will attract dirt and hold on to it. What this means is that you could have a nice clean looking carpet that is going to quickly become dirtier than it was before steam cleaning.

Most of the producers of steam cleaning chemicals and the service companies that use them have been working to develop cleaners with improved rinsing agents to overcome the sticky residue problem. Others look to ways of using less cleaning solution and therefore less moisture to pick up. Short of using trial and error, just who among them has made the greatest strides is difficult to determine.

Turning the job over to experts gets better results

As a DIY project be prepared for some work. The wheel mounted equipment, is a little cumbersome to set up but not too difficult to move around once you’re into the cleaning process. Most steam cleaning equipment consists of two tanks; one being a reservoir of cleaning fluid and fresh, hot water you fill manually from the tap.The other is a manually emptied depository for dirty water being returned from the carpet.

Water is pressure pumped into the carpet through a wand as you move it over the area to be cleaned and almost immediately sucked back up through a wet vac portion of the same cleaning wand. You can and should hold off on the spraying of more cleaning solution while continuing to wet vac until you are satisfied no more moisture can be extracted. You will easily get into a rhythm of switching back and forth.

There are several very good reasons for calling in a steam cleaning company to do your carpets. A considerable amount of carrying is involved filling and emptying tanks. If you’re not careful, it can become sloppy work as well. An experienced operator can also make a better “read” of the situation, knowing when and where to apply more solution. Let the cleaning service decide if any of your carpets are incompatible and which stains might benefit from spot cleaning. They’ll also get the work done much faster, but the best reason has to do with the equipment.

Ask some of the contractors working in your area, and you will probably find they use commercial equipment -some even truck mounted- packing more power than the machines available to you on the rental market. This alone could be enough to make a vital difference to the end result.

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