Your carpets are a treasured and beautiful part of your home or business, and you want them to look and feel as good as they can. There is only so much that you can do on your own to keep carpets looking their best, and soon enough you will need to hire a professional carpet cleaning service to help you out.
If you have never hired a carpet cleaner before or you have only done it a few times, there are some things that you can learn in advance to make the process easier so that you can get your carpets cleaned easily and efficiently. No one should have to hire a carpet cleaner alone, so we have made this helpful guide that will make the process go smoothly.
If you hire the right carpet cleaning service, your carpets will look great and they will extend the life of your carpet. Not all carpet cleaners are the same, so you definitely want to know something about what you are doing before you hire someone.
Methods
When you are shopping for a carpet cleaner, you should always ask what sort of methods they use for cleaning carpets. This can tell a lot about the quality of the operation, as the more services they offer the more likely they are to use specialty methods to clean your carpet the right way.
The top-quality cleaning companies will normally use truck-mounted carpet cleaning machines, as these machines are much more powerful and will do a better job of cleaning your carpets.
You might hear about dry carpet cleaning, which is a method where the carpet cleaner will work a special cleaning solution into the carpet before using the carpet cleaning machine to extract it. The special solution will break down all the dirt and oils that are trapped in your carpet, then the carpet cleaner will suck everything up.Â
A dry carpet cleaning is great for spot cleaning, is less expensive, and does not require a long dry time, only about 30 minutes.
Another method of carpet cleaning is steam cleaning. A carpet steam cleaner is seen as a more environmentally friendly option, as it uses only water to clean the carpet. The carpet steam cleaner will leave no odors or residue and will get the carpet super clean.
The steam will kill any bacteria that may be living in a dirty carpet and will lift all the dirt and grease out as well. Steam cleaning will require a longer drying time and will be more expensive because it is a bit more work without the cleaning chemicals. You can expect to wait 24 hours for a steam-cleaned carpet to dry.
Price Per Room vs Price Per Square Foot
Carpet cleaners will usually quote you a price per room or per square foot. You want to be careful of people advertising by room, as there can be different methods of calculating what a room is and you could end up paying more than you were expecting. Normally knowing what the square footage of your carpet is is the best method for estimating the price.
There can be a huge difference in the price that a company charges, but there has not been found to be a relationship between higher cost and higher quality cleaning. You are actually quite likely to find a high-quality cleaning from a low-cost company.
Insurance
You want to make sure that the company you hire to clean your carpets is insured to do the work. Accidents can happen, and you want to know that the company is prepared in case of the worst.Â
A company that does not have the proper insurance may also not have the proper licenses and are probably doing bad work. Having insurance and licenses shows that the company takes its business seriously and wants to do everything it can to do the job right.
Rugs
For the most part, companies will take the rugs to be cleaned somewhere outside of the home. If the company uses a third party to clean rugs, you might be better off going straight to a rug cleaner yourself, as the carpet cleaner may markup the price of the rug cleaning.Â
Rugs can be delicate, and you want to make sure that a competent cleaner will be cleaning them for you.Â
References
Before hiring a cleaner, it is perfectly fine to ask them for some references. If they are not willing to give you references, it could be a sign that they are not very experienced or have not done good work in the past.
If you do not want to ask for references, you can also check online to see some review sites and if the company has earned good reviews. Be sure to read what people say, as sometimes people write bad reviews but they had unrealistic expectations.
One of the best ways to find a great carpet cleaner is to ask friends and neighbors. If they have a good carpet cleaner, you may want to have them clean your carpets too.
Guarantees
You want to get a guarantee that your carpet will be cleaned the way you want it to be. You can negotiate with the carpet cleaner to have them come back and fix anything that you do not feel satisfied with.
Before the carpet cleaning, you will want to go over your carpet with the cleaner and identify all the spots that you want to be taken out. It can be helpful to know what caused a spot, as it may require a special cleaning technique based on what caused it.Â
After the cleaning, you want to inspect the carpet as soon as possible to see if any spots were missed. You may want to take photos of before and after to remember how the spots looked. If you find a mistake, you need to call the carpet cleaner immediately, as the more time that goes by, the more likely they will think that the spot came after the cleaning.
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