From a carpet cleaning job in Ontario, CA.
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.
=> 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.
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.
I admit it! I'm a horrible game player!
I’m NOT talking about games like Uno or checkers- I’m marginally okay at those; I’m talking about games played in business- specifically the carpet cleaning business. My wife tells me all the time that I’m too black and white about things. I understand that in the business world (and in politics) it sometimes standard operating procedure to hold back information, don’t lie but also don’t disclose the whole truth, to “play the game”. I have trouble doing that, thus my business sometimes suffers.
It seems there has always been this “game” in carpet cleaning of advertising low prices to get customers to call and schedule a cleaning and then when the technicians get to the job they find all sorts of reasons to up-charge the customer, resulting in a much higher bill than what was quoted over the phone. There have been several TV investigative undercover reports on this subject. You can see them anytime you want on Youtube. While these reports might have gotten rid of the companies caught in the report you can certainly find many other “bait and switcher” carpet cleaners still advertising today. The PennySaver is full of them; Craigslist is full of them too.
I’ve been in the carpet cleaning business for 17 years. I know what it takes, material wise and labor-time wise to do a good job cleaning carpets. When I see a carpet cleaning company advertising that they will clean your whole house for $50.00 or some other ridiculously low price I know beyond a shadow of a doubt 2 things are going to happen.
1. They intend to get to your house and find every reason in the book to raise the final bill up dramatically. It could be thru telling you that the price quoted was for basic cleaning and your carpet is too dirty for the basic cleaning to work. Or they might claim they need to put a pre-spotter on the carpet (which isn’t included in the basic cleaning price) to do a good job so they need to charge more. This is just 2 of many things they will try.
2. You can hold your ground and refuse to pay more. After they try to explain to you again (sometime bordering on intimidation) and if you still refuse, IF they actually agree to do it for the original quoted cost you will get a quick, barely worked upon, carpet cleaning job which you will NOT be happy with. What if you refuse to pay and you end up kicking them out of the house without cleaning? Well you wasted a day, probably moved furniture that you now have to move back, and raised your blood pressure several points! And you still have dirty carpets! How do I know all of this? I’ve talked to my customers who have experienced this very thing, along with talking to former carpet cleaners who worked for companies that followed this very procedure.
3.
4. The bottom line for those carpet cleaning techs is that if they don’t get customers to agree to the higher charges, those employees will eventually get fired.
If you own a 3,000 sq/ft house that has 2,000 sq/ft of carpet and you think you will get a decent job of carpet cleaning for $50.00 I have some swamp land to sell you in Florida.
So this is the part of the game I am lousy at. I am not the cheapest carpet cleaner. I’m also not the most expensive. After 17 years I price my carpet cleaning at a fair price for both the homeowner AND myself. I don’t advertise one price for “basic” cleaning and then also have a “deeper” cleaning at a higher price. I don’t get why anyone would even begin to deal with a company that says “we’ll charge you X amount to clean your carpets, but if you want a really good job done then we’ll charge you X+Y.” I’ve ALWAYS operated with the business mindset of trying to do the best job, with the best equipment I own, for the price I quoted, - at every job, every time. No bait and switch, no quoting low on the phone to get the job, no games.
Don't fall victim to the "game". Be realistic in that you get what you pay for. Your never going to get the new 2011 Mercedes Benz automobile for the 1999 Volkswagen price!
Hemet California -Quick Dry Carpet Cleaning Customer Testimonial
Another happy carpet cleaning customer from Hemet California
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