A Guide to Do-It-Yourself Carpet Cleaning
Tips on How to Clean Carpet
Nothing spruces up a room like clean carpets. But when you have food, kids, and pets all over the house, keeping your carpet flooring spotless is nearly impossible. Have no fear, though; today’s carpet-cleaning technology is state of the art, and learning how to rent the equipment and restore your own carpets will slice the price of a professional carpet-cleaning in half. In fact, 42% of carpet-cleaning is done with do-it-yourself methods, and the most popular of these is the hot water extraction method, or steam cleaning. Top brand steam cleaners like Rug Doctor, Hoover, and Bissell are available at many local retail stores—King Soopers, Safeway, Albertson’s, Home Depot, Ace Hardware—for around $25 a day, and if properly used, they can remove up to 99% of carpet contaminants. Here’s how.
First, verify that your cleaning method will not dye or damage your carpet. Find out the flooring material from the carpet store you got it from (or just ask Sloane’s), ask what chemicals or detergents work best, and then test these products on a discreet patch of carpet. If it does not get the results you are looking for, never increase or decrease the concentration; find a different product. Acclaimed cleaning products include Grease Eater, Bissell Ultra Professional Deep Cleaning Formula, and Nature’s Miracle Cleaning Carpet Shampoo, as well as other green, non-toxic products that you can buy or even make yourself.
Now we know you can’t wait to start steam cleaning, but there are a few more things to do before you start. Move all furniture off the carpet; vacuum the whole carpet thoroughly; and spot-treat visible stains with detergent and scrubbing. Some cleaning apparatus also recommend spraying a pre-treatment conditioner on the carpet and waiting 10-20 minutes, so read your cleaner’s instructions carefully.
Now comes the fun part: fill your steam cleaner with the appropriate mixture of water and chemicals, plug it in, and begin! The cleaner’s hot water sprayer is located behind its water extraction vacuum, so by moving the machine backward about one foot per second, you spray the carpet with water and remove it a split second later. This will remove most of your carpet’s contaminants, but feel to go back over particularly dirty spots once or twice. You will need to empty the machine’s dirty water and refill it with clean water and chemicals a few times. Do not walk on the carpet or replace the furniture while it dries; drying should never take more than 12 hours, so try speeding it up with fans, AC, or ventilation. Once dry, vacuum it one more time, and your carpets will look brand new!
How to use this Information
Sloane’s cares about the quality of your carpet and the efficiency of your spending. With Sloane’s full service discount carpets, not only will you save hundreds or thousands of dollars on name brand carpet flooring, but you will go home with quality carpet and carpet padding designed to ease cleaning and increase longevity.
Please share with us any stories or pictures of how your do-it-yourself carpet cleaning went, or how well you discount rug from Sloane’s Carpet Secret is holding up!