Maintenance
How often should you clean your carpet and upholstery?
If you laid a white sheet over your carpet and upholstery, how often would you have to wash it? In some house holds every day - in others once a week, if you're really lucky, once a month. So wouldn't it make sense to have your carpets and upholstery cleaned at least every 6 months? Colours and patterns on carpet and upholstery hide the dirt but remember, just because you can't see it, doesn't mean it's not there!
Regular, professional carpet cleaning not only keeps your carpet clean and looking like new, it actually extends the life of your carpet. The reason for this is grime, sand and dirt beyond the reach of your domestic vacuum cleaner can over time cut at the pile increasing the rate of wear and tear and in the end, costing you a lot of money. Start saving today!
Cheaper is not always best! The supermarket offers an array of inexpensive carpet and furniture cleaners and read the label - they contain a lot of chemicals. You need to be careful what you use and what you use it on. There could be a chemical still in the area you are trying to clean that could react with a new chemical that you apply. Also, some contain harsh chemicals that can bleach the carpet and upholstery, set the stain or worse yet, do both leaving you with a bleached AND stained carpet! Remember, if it sounds too good to be true - it probably is! Call in the experts - in the long run it's the less expensive option.
Spill Cleaning Tip
Rule Number 1: Clean it immediately. If you catch the spill while it's fresh, you have a good chance of totally removing it.
1. Blot or scrape the area before applying any cleaning solution.
Remove as much of the spill as possible.
2. Before using any cleaning solution, test your carpet in an
inconspicuous area to make sure the cleaner won't damage or
discolor it. The best idea is buy a stain remover and have it on
hand BEFORE you need it. Test it on your carpet and
store, then it's ready for when you need it.
3. Do not rub the spill -- that might spread the problem to a larger
area.
4. When you apply a stain remover, start cleaning from the outside of
the stain working towards the inside to avoid spreading the stain.
After applying a cleaning solution, blot out any moisture.
5. A clean white towel is unsurpassed for drying carpet and brushing
the pile back up to a standing position. When blotting, it can also
be a good colour indicator as to how much of the spill you have
removed. Keep blotting until no more of the spill
colour appears on the towel.
6. If you feel that there is still too much moisture after blotting the
carpet, place a folded white towel over the spot and weigh down
with a heavy object.
Pet Accidents
To clean carpeted areas and upholstery For "new" stains (those that are still wet):
- Soak up as much of the urine as possible with a combination of newspaper and paper towels. The more fresh urine you can remove before it dries, especially from carpet, the easier it will be to remove the odor. Place a thick layer of paper towels on the wet spot, and cover that with a thick layer of newspaper. If possible, put newspaper under the soiled area as well. Stand on this padding for about a minute. Remove the padding, and repeat the process until the area is barely damp.
- If possible, put the fresh, urine-soaked paper towel in the area where it belongs—your cat's litter box or your dog's designated outdoor "bathroom area." This will help remind your pet that eliminating isn't a "bad" behavior as long as it's done in the right place.
- Rinse the "accident zone" thoroughly with clean, cool water. After rinsing, remove as much of the water as possible by blotting or by using a wet vac.
For stains that have already set:
- Consider renting an extractor or wet vac to remove all traces of heavy stains in carpeting (get one from a local hardware store). This machine works much like a vacuum cleaner and is efficient and economical. Extracting/wet vac machines do the best job of forcing clean water through your carpet and then forcing the dirty water back out. When you use these machines or cleaners, carefully follow the instructions. Don't use any chemicals with these machines; they work much better with plain water.
- Use a high-quality pet odor neutralizer once the area is really clean (available at pet supply stores). Be sure to read and follow the cleaner's directions for use, including testing the cleaner on a small, hidden portion of fabric first to be sure it doesn't stain.
- Try any good carpet stain remover if the area still looks stained after it's completely dry from extracting and neutralizing.
- Avoid using steam cleaners to clean urine odors from carpet or upholstery. The heat will permanently set the stain and the odor by bonding the protein into any man-made fibers.
- Avoid using cleaning chemicals, especially those with strong odors such as ammonia or vinegar. From your pet's perspective, these don't effectively eliminate or cover the urine odor and may actually encourage your pet to reinforce the urine scent mark in that area.
- Neutralizing cleaners won't work until you've rinsed every trace of the old cleaner from the carpet if you've previously used cleaners or chemicals of any kind on the area. Even if you haven't used chemicals recently, any trace of a non-protein-based substance will weaken the effect of the enzymatic cleaner. The cleaner will use up its "energy" on the old cleaners, instead of on the protein stains you want removed.
- Your job will be more difficult if urine has soaked down into the padding underneath your carpet. In some cases, you may need to take the drastic step of removing and replacing that portion of the carpet and padding.
