Tips for Area Rug Owners who have accident-prone Pets!

These tips were written by Lisa Wagner, an owner of a area rug cleaning factory.  Although these tips were written for area rug owners, these tips can also be adapted for regular installed carpeting. 
=> You need to own rugs that can be WASHED, so look for woven rugs instead of tufted ones. If price is an issue, look for machine woven rugs, or perhaps synthetic rugs. Synthetic fibers tend to be less expensive than natural fibers (they also are not as nice, because the best fiber for rugs is wool… but if your pets will be puddling often, you might as well have them do it on an inexpensive machine made synthetic rug).
=> Pick a rug with a BUSY design so yellow stains will not be obvious. Rug Cleaners can wash the odor out of woven rugs, but stains will likely be permanent.
=> Use a pad under the rug even if it does not slide or buckle on you, because this will help create a barrier between your rug and your floor. If pet urine penetrates the rug and gets into your flooring, you will have a much larger odor removal problem on your hands, especially if you have specialty hardwood floors. It may not be possible to remove the odor short of replacing the floor, so a pad can help protect you from the worst case scenario… or at least delay the inevitable if your puppies aren’t trained quickly.
If you have any questions about carpet cleaning give me a call anytime at 951-805-2909.

Carpet Cleaning Dilemma: Is it a spot or a stain?

Carpet Cleaning Dilemma: Is It A Spot Or Is It A Stain?

Sometimes it is easy to forget that the carpet in your home is a textile much like a white T-shirt. Both need to be taking care of to stay looking nice and fresh. Spill a glass of red punch and ice cream on a white T-shirt and even if you immediately throw it in the washing machine, when it comes out, it will be clean, with the “spot” of all the ice cream removed, but it will still be “stained” red from the punch.

A “spot” usually adds substance or texture of fibers making them sticky, crusty, slick, greasy or stiff. Spots are more easily removed with general spot  carpet cleaning techniques and chemicals.

Stains are a “horse of a different color.” Stains add color to fibers and sometimes may be “set” by cleaning chemicals or heat. Red wine, coffee, ink, mustard, vomit, furniture stain, copier toner and certain medicines all cause stains that even professional carpet cleaners can have trouble removing. These coloring materials contain dyes or pigments that are transferred to fibers when contact is made. Dyes are typically soluble coloring materials and pigments are insoluble. In other words dyes are like watercolors and pigments are like oil-based paint. Dyes are transparent, you can see thru them, pigments you can’t. With either, once they become fixed on the carpet fibers, they are no longer affected by the medium in which they were suspended (usually water). Similarly, when dry deposits of substances, such as furniture stain, carbon, graphite or copier toner become wet, they may be infinitely more difficult to remove.

Carpet Protector can help strengthen and re-new the invisible barrier that your carpet was purchased with. This barrier will help give you a “window of opportunity” to clean up and remove the material spilled on the carpet. However it is impossible to “bullet-proof” your carpets from all permanent stains. Your care to not spill and abuse your carpet is the best carpet protector available.

Another Before& After Picture

From a carpet cleaning job in Corona California.