A Healthy HomeHealthy Carpet Healthy Air Healthy Home

     There are so many carpet cleaning companies out there making carpets dirtier faster. If you go to Google maps and search for carpet cleaning in your town you will find hundreds and maybe thousands in big metropolitan areas. More than half of these companies are not really companies. They are one to two men shows working out of their house. Many of them purchased a used portable from ebay or their local pawn shop.

     These machines are usually four to six years old. They do suck but not literally. They have most likely lost a lot of vacuum power and leave lots of dirty water back in the carpet. This means after getting your carpets cleaned your rugs have soapy residue and dirty water deep down inside. Therefore, stains will come back within two days to a week and they will have a constant stickiness to them which will grab on to every bit of dirt that passes over them making them dirtier than before they were cleaned.

     I know you must be asking what do I do to get my rugs cleaned properly to avoid these problems. The good news is there is a solution. The only way to get the soapy residue, dirt, dust and grime out is to have your carpets cleaned with a truck mounted cleaning company that understands the chemistry of carpet cleaning. There is chemistry to the cleaning solution. Many carpet cleaners are totally unaware of this. They use the cheapest cleaner they can find in Home Depot. A professional carpet cleaner would not buy their cleaners at Home Depot.

     The ph of a chemical is key to cleaning properly. Just like cleaning your hair you must first clean with an alkaline because this will attract the acidic dirt out. Then you must rinse with an acid rinse like a conditioner. This will leave the carpet soft and ph balanced close to neutral. If the carpets are not ph balanced they will continue to pull dust up from the pad. This is called “wicking.” If you have ever had your carpets or rugs cleaned and a spot came back it was probably caused by wicking and or over-wetting.

     Finally, another way to prevent re-soiling quickly or spots coming back is to have the rugs dry within two to three hours after having them cleaned. That will not happen with a portable cleaning. A powerful truck mount system with 300 to 400 cfm will leave the rugs dry within 2 to 3 hours. So, as you can see the only way to get your carpets cleaned and prevent quick re-soiling or re-spotting is to use a company that is trained in the chemistry of carpet cleaning and who use a professional truck mounted system.

By Steve Hunter

Astrobrite Carpet Cleaning

http://www.astrobrite.net