Can't Afford New Carpet, Clean Them Yourself. You May be in for a Surprise

Have you gotten tired of your carpeting?. For years you may have been saying that you will get them replaced. You're tired of dealing with the stains, spills and the expense of maintaining it. Now, you may be finding yourself in a financial crunch and it's definitely not the time to invest in new flooring, so what can you do.

Have your carpets cleaned either by a qualified professional or if you're courageous and have some time on your hands try cleaning them yourself. Before we give you some tips we think it's important that you should know why diy carpet cleaning attempts often produce inferior results.

Just because they look clean doen't mean the job is done right
What in the world does that statement mean?. You went out and rented a machine, followed directions and now your carpets look great. "Is this guy crazy or what, of course I did a great job and I did it right, so there".

Carefully follow these simple tips and you'll have the best succes when doing your own carpet cleaning.

Fact and Tip #1
Vacuum before you start
Do not skip this step. Chances are you'll be renting a carpet cleaning machine or you may already have one of your own. Either way these units are underpowered compared to a professional carpet cleaning unit. You need all the help you can get in getting all the loose soils out before you throw a bunch of water in your carpet. It's easier to vacuum loose soils then it is for your carpet cleaning machine to pick up mud. Go slow when you vacuum and make sure the bag is less then half full and the vacuum is working properly.

Fact and Tip #2
The deal with residue
One of the main reasons carpet resoils quickly after a cleaning attempt is due to the residue which you may have left. A soapy residue will attract dirt. Chances are that you've read this all over the internet but don't make light of this statement. It's worth mentioning again "Soapy residue will attract dirt and make your carpets resoil faster then need be". Here's a simple metaphor. Wash your clothes and before the rinse cycle, turn off the washer, air dry the clothes and wear them. You'll have some sticky clothes  and a miserable day to boot.

We highly recommend that whatever carpet cleaning agent you bought that you do not put in your machine. Do what some professional cleaners do. Put the cleaner in a 2 gallon spray container. You can buy these in box stores and they are usually under the gardening section. Spray the solution on your carpets after they have been thoughroughly vacuumed. Let the cleaner dwell and if you have some kind of brush to agitate use that.

Fill the carpet cleaning machine with plain water only. Unless you went nuts on the pre-spray and mixed it way over dilution ratios it says in the bottle then you should have a pretty good chance of getting all the residue out. Hence a carpet that will stay cleaner longer.

Fact and Tip#3
Clean it up, get it dry ASAP
Think about the dirt in your carpet and how you'll be getting that dirt out. Depending on how soiled and how long the fibers are, chances are that even in your best attempt you will not get all the soil out. Wicking will most likely occur specially if you leave the carpet too wet.

Wicking is the process of dirt comming back up through the fibers as they dry. The faster the carpet is dried the better chance that wicking will beminimized. You may have seen how kids put a few drops of water in a wrapper of a straw. The water will wick to the top of the straw. Imagine the water having some dirt as they may after a carpet cleaning. This dirt will wick up to the top of the carpet fibers. To minimize wicking run your machine a few times to throughly rinse your pre-spray. Then make a few slow dry passes. Do this in small sections. Rinse, rinse, dry , dry, dry. If you have a fan put it down asap. Small fans will most likely not make much of a dent in the drying process so the bigger the better. Turn the heater on your house up a few notches and crack a couple of windows.

In closing
Follow these few simple steps and your chances of having clean carpet that will stay clean longer will be much greater. The only negative about this is that you may no longer need a new floor and decide to keep your carpet because they are now beautiful. Unfortunately now you may not have a fighting chance with your spouse in justifying a new floor purchase. Of course to do a real bad job just reverse all the tips above "see honey, I told you we need new flooring".

Take care,
Albert Lazo