Carpet Cleaning Intervals and Recommended Cleaning Cycles

ENVIRONMENT	NORMAL	SPECIAL CONDITION	CLEANING
Office building	6-12 months	Ground level	3-6 months
Family residence	6-12 months	Children & pets Smoking	3-6 months 4-6 months
Commercial	3-6 months	Dusty outside High humidity	1 month 2 months
Schools	3-6 months	Dusty outside	1-2 months
Restaurants	1 months	Dusty outside High humidity	1 week 2 weeks
Nursing homes	1 month	High humidity	1 week
Day care	1 week	Epidemic	daily

PROCEDURE	FREQUENCY	EQUIPMENT	METHOD
Vacuuming	Daily	Dual motor upright vacuum with disposable filter bags	Maintenance
Vacuuming	Daily	Backpack vacuum with disposable filter bags	Maintenance
Spotting	Daily	Removal of visible sports and stains	Maintenance
Encapsulating Cleaning	1-2 months	Encapsulating detergent with cleaning pads	Maintenance
Hot Water Extraction	Twice yearly	Hot water carpet extraction	Restoration

 

Vacuuming and Extraction: Once its fibers are damaged, the rug or carpet cannot be restored to its original appearance. But it is the soil we don’t see that does the damage. By the time soil is visible, the carpet fibers have almost certainly been damaged. This is especially true for wool carpet, because wool fibers naturally hide destructive soil.

 

The Cure is Prevention: Use a good vacuum cleaner often, daily on high traffic areas. Carpets need regular, professional deep-extraction cleaning. Hot water extraction is very effective. Every 6 months is best for rooms with normal use. Look for a firm that uses a truck-mounted system, or invest in one. High-rise buildings often require portable systems. These non-abrasive systems don’t scratch carpet fibers. And the best ones leave no sticky detergent residues to attract soil particles.

Overwetting: Cleaning can damage flooring and furnishings, and also leave a most unpleasant “souring” odor. Dry carpet as soon as possible after cleaning. Bacteria that cause odor and other problems begin to grow within hours. If water damage occurs, call a professional restorer immediately to ensure that proper disinfecting and drying techniques are employed. Prompt action can save thousands of dollars in further cleaning costs or even replacement costs.

Residue: Detergent residue resulting from improper use or poor quality of cleaning agents can lead to a myriad of problems. It can cause the carpet to re-soil at an accelerated rate. This condition would cause the carpet to require a re-clean.

Hot Water Extraction is the carpet cleaning method recommended by most carpet fiber manufacturers and carpet mills. Recommendations include periodic thorough cleaning of carpets performed by well-trained and experienced carpet cleaning personnel. Hot water extraction is the method of deep rinse cleaning the entire carpet. Hot water extraction has also been called “steam cleaning,” but actual steam is not employed in the cleaning process. Hot water extraction is a deep cleaning process that removes embedded soils that have been carried or blown into the carpet.

A hot water carpet extractor, whether portable or truck mounted, has a pump that dispenses water, under pressure, through spray nozzles into the carpet and a high powered vacuum system that vacuums the dirty water into a recovery tank within the carpet extractor.

1. Pre-vacuum the entire carpet area with a high quality dual motor vacuum or backpack vacuum with no less than 105 CFM vacuum motor.

2. Pre-spray carpeted area with a pre-treat and traffic lane cleaner, one that is not too strong (or too alkaline). They may damage the carpet. A ph of 10 or less is preferred for most carpets. Traffic lane pre-spotter for heavily soiled areas is recommended. Wait the recommended time before beginning the cleaning process.

3. A complete rinse with hot water is used. This is accomplished by adding an acid/neutralizer to the solution tank of the carpet extractor. No other cleaner/detergent is used for this process. The clean, softened, hot water is sprayed into the carpet fibers through spray nozzles. The spray rinses all added chemicals, cleaners, and dirt into an attached high powered vacuum shoe that sucks the dirty solution back into a holding tank on the extraction unit. The removed soil is held in the tank until it may be disposed of later in a sanitary drain, toilet, or proper waste facility. Solutions should not be dumped onto the ground outside, in storm sewers, or in the streets. EVER!

When carpet is extracted using the hot water extraction method, we recommend you follow these important procedures:

A. Vacuum the area to be extracted thoroughly, before using the extraction equipment. A cleaning solution will only carry a certain amount of soil so this procedure (often overlooked) is extremely important to get the most out of your extraction process.

B. Apply a traffic lane pre-spotter on heavily soiled areas prior to extraction and repeat pre-spray and rinse after first pass if needed. Wait the recommended time before beginning the cleaning process to let the chemical do the work.

C. Avoid over wetting the carpet. Two vacuum passes for every wet pass is desirable. More is not always better. Proper procedure goes farther than more water and more chemical. A trained technician knows the limits of their equipment and cleaning chemicals.

D. Dry the carpets as quickly as possible. Speed drying is aided by using carpet drying fans to move air across the carpeting. This can reduce the overall drying time by as much as 40%.

E. With fine wool carpets and upholstery, care must be taken to not over wet the carpet and upholstery fiber and cause browning and shrinkage. A de-browning rinse procedure may be used to prevent such occurrences on light colored fibers.