Carpet Cleaning
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After carpet and upholstery cleaning
After years of cleaning carpets and upholstery, little is ever mentioned (or known) about what happens when the job is done, here is an experience I had today with a regular customer of ours.
We clean many properties, domestic homes, pubs, hotels, nursing homes, hospitals and many more, today I found myself cleaning carpets at a private hospital, an unfortunate client of theirs had seriously cut their foot. We were called in to deal with a large blood spillage.
On first inspection, it was quite clear that the patient hadn’t realised initially that she had cut herself, there were dark red footprints all over the carpet.
We applied our cleaning solution to the affected area, using our contra rotating brush machine to agitate the areas affected. After this, we extracted the area using cold water (using cold water on bloodstains is very important) we repeated this process until all traces of blood had vanished. The housekeeper was extremely pleased and relieved that the situation was over, this was true, but unfortunately my day was not to end for at least another hour.
When arriving back to our premises, on went my rubber gloves and plastic apron, the cleaning of my equipment was about to start.
Firstly I had to remove the brushes on our brush machine, carefully placing them in a sanitising solution. After this, my vacuum pipe is connected to our machine, more water and disinfecting solution is sucked into the machine, flooding into our recovery chamber, this process is repeated for several minutes. After this, the suction pipe is removed, I then jet wash our the recovery tank wearing protective goggles.
If we clean carpets, rugs or upholstery when hazardous spillages have occur ed, this is the cleaning regime we need to employ when we return to base, our customers never see this, these are the safe procedures that HAVE to be followed.
Carpet and Upholstery cleaning – Our solutions.
Safe and consistent carpet and upholstery cleaning solutions, some information on a solution we use for cleaning-
M-Power® Carpet and Upholstery Cleaner, is:- Derived from renewable/sustainable sources
- Fully Biodegradable
- Exhibits anti-bacterial & anti-viral properties thanks to its unique natural-molecular cleaning action.
- Non-toxic to humans and pets
- Non-toxic to aquatic life
- Non-reactive with chemicals, such as chlorine bleach
- Non-caustic
- Non-combustible
- Non-corrosive
- Non-flammable
- Non-fuming,
- Non-hazardous
- Non-polluting
M-Power® Carpet and Upholstery Cleaner contains:- NO ammonia
- NO animal products
- NO Bacteria or Enzymes
- NO artificial ingredients
- NO isopropyl alcohol
- NO phosphates
- NO solvents (apart from water)
- NO synthetic chemicals
- NO harmful ingredients
- NO Soap or detergents
This product works particularly well when cleaning natural fibre carpets or upholstery, a good dwell time is recommended, we usually let the product work for twenty minutes.
Payment before service?
After cleaning carpets and upholstery for many years we have seen many questionable practices, we recently have visited a website offering carpet cleaning services in this area, when clicking on the ‘get quote’ button I was asked to make sure my credit card was to hand! Stop! We believe this is the correct procedure to follow:
A customer calls or makes an e mail enquiry -
We respond with by offering to visit and conduct a survey, or by sending an e mail costing (this is free of charge)
If the quotation is acceptable -
We will call in, phone or e mail suggesting some times that may be suitable to our customers. (again free of charge)
On the day we arrive, we will execute our three stage cleaning process and only then, will we present our invoice, we expect no pre-payments or deposits, we are confident that you will be pleased with our standards of work.
We are NCCA (National Carpet Cleaners Association) members and follow a strict code of conduct, giving our customers peace of mind.
UV Damage – Carpets and Rugs
Every week we see serious Ultra Violet or sun bleaching damage to carpets, soft furnishings, rugs, textiles and leather furniture. As people tend to move items of furniture and rugs infrequently, dramatic colour change is seen, very regularly.
But what can you do?
On hot summer days, closing blinds or curtains can help protect your personal items, particularly between 12-3.30 pm, leather furniture dries, carpets and rugs fade, pictures also fade, a consequence can be, brittle carpet and rug fibres, cracked or split leather, damaged soft furnishing fibres can lead to balding. One clever solution is employing a company to fix apply a virtually invisible filter to the inside panes of glass, after rigorous cleaning, these UV filters screen out most of the harmful rays damaging your possessions.
Even in winter months, gradual damage still occurs. As we protect our skin with sun screen, this will be a bigger consideration as the problem of global warming increases as the years roll by.
Bed bugs in Brighton? How to deal with them.
Bed bugs are tiny wingless insects, they feed on the blood of warm blooded animals and humans. These little bloodsuckers and their relatives have evolved as nest parasites. Some live in bird nests or even bat roosts, waiting for the unsuspecting animal to return home. Infant bugs are about the size of a poppy seed, growing up to 10mm in length as adults, they have a fairly flat body with an oval shape, colours range from white to dark brown, if you look closely after the bug has been feeding, you can actually see the victims blood in the insects body.
Bed bug activity - When we are sleeping, they become active, looking for people or animals. They will sip our blood without us realising, whilst they are doing this, small amounts of the bugs saliva will be injected into our skin. Over a period of several weeks exposure to bed bugs, we can become sensitized to the saliva, sometimes leading to allergic responses. The marks on our skin resemble those left behind by fleas and mosquitoes.
Where do they come from? Bed bugs hide in small cracks and crevices, they can be found in furniture, pillows, boxes, luggage. Purchasing used furniture or mattresses can prove an excellent way of these creatures gaining entry into your home. Bed bugs can survive for several weeks without feeding, they can also travel between walls and regularly move from house to house in search of new food sources.
Looking for bed bugs Inspect your furniture or mattress closely, used skins and tiny blood spots can be an indication of infestation at some stage in the furniture’s life. Don’t forget that bed bug larvae can be the same size as a grain of rice.
Our safe and non toxic solutions can eliminate bed bugs, please feel free to contact us for a non obligatory treatment cost.
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The importance of the vacuum cleaner.
Much has been written about ‘indoor air quality’, homeowners and carpet cleaners alike sometimes don’t spend enough time using their vacuum cleaner, on rugs, carpets and upholstery.
Vacuuming is the first and MOST important part of the cleaning process, so why would we encourage our customers to use their vacuum cleaner more often? without regular and thorough vacuuming, over the months, large quantities of loose particulate soil gather behind the pile and backing that could actually weigh more than the carpet itself!
As cleaning techicians, this information gives us every reason to give your carpet a detailed and comprehensive vacuum before we start our cleaning process, with over 80% of the soil in your carpet being lose, its well worth doing properly. If a carpet cleaning operator turns up a tries to convince you that a good vacuum isn’t necessary, don’t use him, lose soil will instantly turn into mud/sludge, which will be nearly impossible to remove.
We recommend a quality upright cleaner, we like SEBO vacuum cleaners, a strong vacuum motor in conjunction with an effective beater bar/brush will enable you to remove much of the dry soil in your carpet, its also good exercise!
SEBO Dart Upright Vacuum Cleaner
Stain cleaning using the supermarket spotter.
Ahh….. a stain on your new carpet! However careful we are, sooner or later, a nasty looking stain will be staring back at you, the most common reaction is to purchase a bottle of spotter from the local supermarket.
Damage, colour loss and stains can easily occur on upholstery, rugs and carpets if ‘oxy’ type solutions are incorrectly used, these products contain oxidizing containing sodium percarbonate, hydrogen peroxide and sodium perborate. Medical and cosmetic products containing benzoyl peroxide will also leave you with permanent colour loss and bleach damage.
This type of product should not be used on:
SILK (including rugs containing silk)
Leather
Wool
Wool blend - rugs and carpets
Often people call us after using these products (or a cocktail of solutions) after failing to remove stains, often the instructions on the bottle are ignored, more and more solution is sprayed onto the stain, this will often lead to dye bleed, permanent staining and colour loss ( particularly on upholstery)
We will often need to see the product actually used, and on some occasions be unable to clean the area affected, if the stain had been worked on several weeks or months previous to our visit, the stain damage can be masked by soiling.
The best advice we can offer when using these products would be to always read the data sheets or instructions and use the correct dilution rates without ‘scrubbing’ the fibres.
Carpet cleaning, the five steps.
The days of wheeling an old carpet cleaning machine into a house or office and starting to clean are long gone (although you will find some people still doing this) maximum soil removal will be achieved using the following principles.
Dry Soil Removal.
This is without doubt the most important part of the carpet cleaning process. Dry soil or particulate matter
will increase carpet fibre wear, which actually scratches and abrades fibres. Using the correct vacuum cleaner for individual pile type is also important, a powerful upright cleaner is an excellent choice when vacuuming tufted carpets, but not so good with woolen loop pile, which will felt up, we recommend a tub or cylinder type cleaner. Also make sure you change your vacuum bag when it is 3/4 full, reduced vacuum is seen after this point, which reduces soil removal.
Industry figures suggest 80% of the dry soil is removable by effective dry vacuuming. True carpet cleaning professionals will have powerful equipment able to remove dry soils along with knowledge of how to remove the maximum levels of soils by employing the techniques they have learnt.
The Suspension of Soil.
The solution pie, a combination of the following fundamentals need to followed to achieve the best results.
1- Agitation of the pile
2-Time
3- Temperature
4- Solution action
5- Cleaning with TACT
Grooming and pile setting.
A carpet that has not been groomed in high traffic areas often causes customers to show concern regarding the carpets performance. Grooming after cleaning is particularly important if the carpet has rotary cleaning marks or swirls or straight forward ‘wand’ marks from extraction cleaning. Grooming also helps with the application of protective or odour treatments and more importantly in carpet drying times.
The principle of drying.
With modern carpet cleaning equipment, drying should now be between one and four hours. Good ventilation (open windows and doors) will make a huge difference, airflow helps to realise the moisture in carpet fibres. Other considerations that relate to drying also need to be taken into consideration, for example fibre type and construction and the level of soiling. Air moving equipemt can also speed up drying times, particularly if hot water extraction has been used in the cleaning process. If drying times are of great concern to the customer, low moisture cleaning and dry cleaning methods can also be used.
Dust mites……sleepless nights.
We do have an allergy section on our main website with lots of useful information, although we came across this link that was an clip from the BBC ‘one show’, if you have someone that suffers from Asthma or perhaps a person in you home that is showing signs of Asthma, taking time to look at this clip may be five minutes well spent! Click on the link below.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/theoneshow/consumer/2008/09/24/sleep-watch-do-you-have-dustmi.html
This is a very similar sytem to our Dust Mite treatments.
Carpet & Upholstery Cleaning – avoid the cowboys!
There are many companies offering carpet, rug, upholstery and leather cleaning services throughout East Sussex, but how can you make sure that the person invited into your home or office is a honest and capable?
With more than 25 years in the carpet cleaning business, we have seen some innocent people get completely ‘ripped off’ by so called carpet cleaners, some of the problems range from, shrinkage, discolouration, carpet bleaching, damaged property and more.
Here’s a check-list that contains some of the most important information that will help you to stay away from unscrupulous trades people.
Find out if they are members of organisations such as Trading Standards Buy With Confidence Scheme or The N.C.C.A (National Carpet Cleaners Association) these memberships are earned, and not just purchased.
Avoid trades people that advertise with card or leaflets that contain just a mobile number or have no address or website address.
Don’t be taken in by ‘too good to be true’ offers, this is know as ‘bait and switch’ in our industry, once in your home, the operator starts adding on extra charges for; stain treatment, moving furniture, vacuuming and just about any reason they can think of.
Ask for references or the details of people or businesses in your area they have worked for, a true professional will have absolutely no objection to this request.
Do not do business with anyone that asks for money up front!
I would also avoid anyone that simply telephones you, this may seem a little extreme, but you really do not know who you are talking to, often the caller will try to pressure you into making a decision, this is unacceptable.
Try to use a local business with a good reputation rather than a National company or franchise, you will probably get more value for money and also an experienced carpet cleaning tec.
We hope this helps!