Carpets and rugs do not only provide added aesthetic value to your homes but will also provide added comfort to your feet. This is especially true in the winter when everything is frozen and cold. But, having carpets at home takes a lot of cleaning and maintenance. It calls for attention and regular care for them to last as long as they should. Vacuuming on a regular basis will help, but you will need to do more than just that. It is for this reason that you should consider having your carpet cleaned by professionals to give it the proper cleaning and maintenance that it should receive.
When it comes to carpet cleaning, you can either have it done in either light surface cleaning or deep cleaning. Here are the differences:
Light Surface Cleaning
- Carpet Wet Shampooing. Wet shampooing is one type of light surface cleaning that can be done on your carpets. Professional carpet cleaners will apply a shampoo with the use of a buffer to help clean your carpet. Buffering your carpet should be done in a gentle manner to avoid damaging the fibers of the rug. Once shampooing is done, your carpet will be left to dry for several hours. Your carpet will then be vacuumed to remove residue as much as possible. The disadvantage of having this procedure done is the long wait before your carpet will be totally dry. In addition, not all of the residual dirt will be removed during the process.
- Carpet Dry Cleaning. This is the second type of light surface cleaning that can be done to your carpet. This method can be done using different solutions, which can be completely dry or needs a little bit of water but will dry the quickest time possible.
- Dry cleaning with absorbent powder. This cleaning solution involved spreading a carpet solvent, which will be left to set for few minutes. After this, the absorbent powder will be sprinkled all over the carpet using a buffer machine. After the powder is spread all over, you can expect the cleaner to vacuum as much residue as possible off the carpet. There is no waiting time for the vacuuming process to commence. But, just like wet shampooing, you can expect some residue to be left on the carpet.
- Dry cleaning with bonnet. This carpet cleaning process involves using a bonnet that is attached to the buffer. The bonnet is dipped into a cleaning solution, which usually contains carbonated water, that will help absorb the dirt as the buffer works its way around the carpet. Expect several bonnets to be used in this process as the bonnet can’t be reused once it is saturated with dirt.
- Dry cleaning with dry foam. This process is similar to wet shampooing, except it uses a dry foam instead of a shampoo. The obvious advantage of using a dry foam rather than a shampoo is that you won’t have to wait for your carpet to dry. Dirt and residue can then be vacuumed after the dry foam is applied to your carpet.
Deep Surface Cleaning
This method is popularly known as steam cleaning. This is recommended to be done once every 12 or 18 months. Doing this process will help remove all residue on your carpet as the process will deep clean every inch of it. Though called steam cleaning, no steam really comes out during the cleaning process. Hot water, combined with a cleaning solution, is used to extract all the dirt off your carpet. The carpet cleaning solution is shoot out on the carpet with a floor wand and then vacuumed immediately to a holding tank leaving a deep-cleaned carpet on its track. So far, this method of cleaning is the safest, the most thorough, and the most popular carpet cleaning process.
Knowing the different methods of carpet cleaning will help you determine which one is best for your carpet and for your budget. Once you have decided which cleaning process to go with, you can then compare and contrast the prices from different carpet cleaning companies.