frequently asked questionsShould I vacuum before the carpets get cleaned?
Do only your normal vacuuming, but don't do anything to prepare for the cleaning of your carpets. We will come in and prep-vacuum the floor before we start our normal cleaning. The typical process will involve us preconditioning the soiled carpet with an alkaline solution of hot water between 50 and 120 degrees Celsius and that will be followed by a brush that will lightly agitate the surface of the rug. Then the carpet will be cleaned to rinse out the conditioner with a mild acid solution to lower the pH to a neutral state. Then the carpet is dried completely. Although a quick vacuum is recommended, it is in no way required. If you have large pieces of debris in your high-traffic areas, you should consider giving them a quick vacuum prior to our arrival, but again it is not required. Our crew can vacuum the area prior to cleaning it if it really needs it, and it is important to remember that the machines used vacuum as they clean. Although most carpet cleaning services do vacuum your carpets before they clean, it is advisable to vacuum carefully yourself to make it as easy as possible for the carpet cleaner to do the best deep cleaning job possible. If in doubt, ask your carpet cleaning professional when requesting cleaning. If in doubt, ask your carpet cleaning professional when requesting a cleaning. After all, from the day they're installed, carpets take a real beating. Although it may take years to show, dust alone constantly falls and of course lands on the carpet, where the fibers retain it. All sorts of other tin debris, crumbs, peanuts, hairpins, and so on can bury themselves and remain invisible while the surface appears to be reasonably clean. Even if your carpet professional assures you that the carpet will be vacuumed prior to cleaning, you owe it to yourself to vacuum first, just to make it as easy for the carpet cleaner to do a thorough job. It's also important to carefully dust around the baseboards and heating or cooling elements to avoid having more dust accumulate before your carpet even dries. How long does it take to clean my carpet? Different jobs require different times to completely clean the carpet.Sometimes spots have to be removed prior to the total cleaning process. Sometimes carpet that is worn to a frazzle has to have minor repairs. The size of rooms and the number of rooms dictate cleaning times. Furniture has to be moved off of all the carpet that needs cleaning. Drying time will vary with the type of carpet and the thickness of the carpet. The square feet of the carpet will increase the time of application and of the final drying process. The furniture will have to be replaced once the carpet is completely dry. The total time will depend on the combination of all these things. On average, it can take about 20 minutes per room. The overall time, however, is impacted by the size of your rooms, how many we are cleaning, the amount of furniture that needs to be moved, how dirty the carpets are, and what type of carpet you have. You can speed up the process by moving small items from the floor such as floor lamps, dog beds, litter boxes, electronics, etc., so that our crew can move the larger furniture items and get to work right away. Our team is happy to move any furniture to ensure that your carpet gets the best clean. If you have smaller items on the floor such as electronics, baskets, stacks of books, pet supplies (such as a dog bed), or even household plants, we do suggest that you move those items to a higher area or different room before our arrival. This way we can focus on the most important pieces to be moved. After cleaning, we return the furniture to its rightful place while using special objects to protect the carpet. It is important that you do not remove these risers or mats until the carpet is completely dry. The length of time required to properly clean your carpet depends greatly on the size of carpeting to be cleaned, the size and number of difficult stains, and a number of other factors. A carpet approximately four hundred square feet in size may take around an hour to do a proper job. This can vary greatly, of course, depending on many other factors. Heavy stains can prove to be a problem, the number of persons present, and any activity, requiring them to walk across the area to be cleaned can not only slow down the cleaning process but greatly hinder your carpet cleaning professional in the performance of his tasks. Do you move the furniture or do I do that before the cleaning crew arrives? If you would like to move your own furniture, that is your prerogative. Honestly, it will not make a lot of difference in the time for doing the job or in the final price because our crew are professionals and work quickly. You might be better off letting the cleaning crew handle this heavy work to avoid injury to yourself or the furniture. It doesn't matter to us. We will do a professional job of cleaning your carpet and removing and replacing your furniture depending on your desires. If you would like us to clean any of your upholstered furniture, we can do that as well. We are bonded and insured so you don't need to worry about our crew damaging anything if you decide to let them do the rearrangements while cleaning. First, it is important to remove any small and/or fragile items from the room to be cleaned. Any furniture that you can pick up and move about would be greatly appreciated and facilitate your professional carpet cleaner's task. Usually your carpet cleaner will expect to find some larger pieces of furniture, but if at all possible, you should move what you can and be prepared to help move anything too heavy or cumbersome for one person. How long does it take my carpet to dry after your done cleaning? Drying time varies with different types of carpet. Carpets are manufactured in different manners and with differing materials. Humidity in the air will also affect the drying time for carpets. We provide the very best machines for drying the carpet but it will still need time to dry out the moisture that the vacuuming leaves behind. We supply large fans to help speed up the drying process as well. Just cleaned carpet should dry within six to eight hours and shouldn't stay damp for more than 24 hours. We will take extra measures if carpet appears to be taking longer than it should for drying. High-velocity blowers can be brought in for tough drying jobs. Typically, it takes 8-24 hours for your carpet to dry. This can be impacted by the type of carpet, the ventilation available to the room, and the level of humidity in your home. The process can be increased by adding fans to the room and making sure your HVAC or heating system is running (depending on the season) and the vents in the corresponding rooms are opened. If it isn't humid outside, opening the windows in the corresponding rooms may also speed up the drying process. While it doesn't take your professional carpet cleaning expert long to finish the job, the drying time may last as long as six to eight hours, and any furniture with metal feet of any sort can and will probably create rust stains if replaced before the carpet is completely dry. If it is necessary to walk on the carpet, perhaps you can throw down some plastic or other sheeting to cover the pathway, thus permitting foot traffic without soiling the freshly cleaned and sanitized carpet. Will spots reappear after I get my carpet cleaned ? No spots should reappear after cleaning. You will have a one year guaranty that no previous spots will reappear. Our cleaning assures that not even the animals will be able to find their previous spots, so if they make a spot, it will be a new one. The crew will photograph spots before they clean the to make a journal of where extra cleaning had to be done. This will be a permanent record of your old spots, and should anything reappear, your next cleaning won't cost you anything. This has never happened and it probably won't. Most spots are removed in the cleaning process, especially spots that existed before our arrival. Rarely, a spot can be so ingrained in the base of the carpet that cleaning it can bring it more to the surface. If you notice a spot on your carpet after it is completely dry, do not worry. Please give us a call back, and we will do our best to remedy the problem. If spots or stains reappear after the carpet has been professionally cleaned, the reason is almost invariably that the padding underneath the carpet has been badly stained, especially by cat urine, one of the worst offenders, but it could be that of some other pet, or sour milk, or a number of other substances that have soaked through the carpeting to lodge themselves in the padding beneath. Sometimes this problem is so severe that it not only soaks into the padding but sinks below that to soak into a wooden floor. Although it can be expensive and time-consuming, you may find it necessary to have the carpet taken up and have new padding installed after first sanitizing and cleaning the floor beneath your carpet. |
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