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 and your lungs.

Recent findings by independent research laboratories have made some interesting discoveries concerning indoor air quality, and how different types of floor coverings, and how you clean them, can affect your health.

Have you noticed how many more people are affected by allergies or asthma problems than there used to be 30-40 years ago? One reason is the way we live our lives. It has been found that people now spend up to 90% of their time indoors. We now go from inside the car, to inside the car, to inside the indoor mall to shop, to working indoors at our office. Thus the indoor air quality issue is becoming more important to our good health.

In recent years the trend toward hard surface floor coverings, (tile, hardwood floors) has increased in homes. While the durability of some of these products is mostly good, tests have found that in regards to indoor healthy quality, carpet is by far the best choice. Inside your home, allergens, dust mites, mold spores and other items affect our health. When we breathe these things into our lungs, we run the chance of getting sick. Laboratory tests have shown the “breathing zone” is healthier and cleaner in homes that have carpet for floor coverings. It has been found that carpet acts as a “trap” to hold these ill-health producing germs. You can then remove them from your indoor environment by frequent vacuuming and cleaning of the carpet. With hard surface flooring, (tile, hardwood floors) the “breathing zone” contains more of the contaminates. They have no place to be contained, and will float and drift with air currents as you move around the house. Sweeping, mopping and cleaning these hard surfaces, cleans the surface but is ineffective at trapping and removing these “bad boys”.

The method of cleaning carpets has also been revealed as an important indoor healthy issue. The American Lung Association now recommends that your carpets be cleaned at least every 6 months to decrease the unhealthy pollutants in your home. It is also important that your carpets be cleaned with a process that dries in less than 12 hours. After 12 hours the molds and mildew spores grow at a tremendous rate. These spores will cause the unhealthy conditions mentioned above, in additions to possible unpleasant odors in your home.

Make sure you are using a professional carpet cleaning service when cleaning your carpets. Remember that just because someone calls themselves a professional, doesn’t mean they really are a professional. Ask questions and feel comfortable with who you choose to clean your carpets. Your health can depend on it.

At Quick Dry Carpet Cleaning our process dries in 1-2 hours. Be healthy and have clean carpets by calling our office to schedule your cleaning appointment.