The 3 General Principles of Carpet Cleaning and Maintenance

Carpeting is soft, versatile, beautiful, and inexpensive when compared to most flooring options, but it has a few drawbacks. One major downside is that it requires a lot of maintenance and care. While your carpets won't last as long as hard surface floors in even the best of conditions, properly maintaining them may extend their lifetime by as much as 5 to 10 years. Each carpet fibre, padding and design has its own quirks, but there are a few general principles you should know about cleaning and maintaining a carpet.

Regular Cleaning and Maintenance

Many residents think that diligently vacuuming their carpet is enough to protect it and keep it clean for years. Even if your carpet looks clean, this simply isn't the case. The carpeting industry recommends you have your carpets deep cleaned, either by specialized dry methods or steam cleaning, every 6 to 12 months. The reality is that on average most homeowners clean their carpets once every 7 years.

Advantages of Professional Carpet Cleaning Techniques

There are two types of carpet cleaning. General cleaning that helps remove the microscopic dust and grime, lingering deep within your carpet fibres. Specialized cleaning that helps fight stains and odours that you may have trouble removing on your own. You need to be very careful when trying to remove stains by yourself. The wrong cleaning detergent or technique may do nothing more than spread the stain and make it impossible to remove. Odours need special consideration too. If you get your carpet too wet, you may further increase the bad odours in your house.

Every professional carpet cleaner is experienced in general cleaning as well as removing all kinds of stains and odours the proper way. Though you can certainly go to the local home improvement centre and rent a steam cleaning machine, the hassle of transporting it around town, the expense of purchasing the right cleaning solutions, and the less-than-professional results most of us get by doing the job ourselves, all make a good case for hiring a pro. Also, add the fact that most carpet cleaning contractors are able to perform minor carpet repairs like burn removal, stretching and patching, and the only reason left to DIY is just the price.

Quality Carpet Cleaning Rates

Costs will certainly vary, depending on the size of the job and the additional services that may be included in your package. Keep in mind that much of the cost for hiring licensed carpet cleaners is actually for transporting the equipment and for their time. This means that you can even get a discount for larger jobs or if you order more services with one visit.