Carpets are something we take for granted. We literally walk all over them! And I have to say that it’s an awful lot nicer walking on carpets than it is on bare boards or tiles. Carpets are so much more inviting to sit on, walk on, exercise on, play with the kids on, etc.

Well, at least they’re inviting if they’re in good condition. However, if they’re a bit mucky, they’re not so inviting. Back in my student days, I always found that the best way to motivate myself to get out the vacuum cleaner was to do a few press-ups and prone holds on the carpet. Seeing the carpet close up like that usually revealed how bad it was getting. You may well have noticed the same: a carpet that’s full of weird gunk and pet hair.

Then you’ve got the smell problem. As carpets are really absorbent, they pick up liquids and condensation, and they start to smell. Sometimes, this smell is because of the liquid that got on them: old coffee, cat pee or sweat. Sometimes, the smell is caused by the bacteria living on the combination of random dirt and liquid and developing quite a happy little colony – thank you! Not what I want in my home – or in my office, for that matter.

Why You Need More Than Vacuuming

Regular vacuuming is a real must for taking care of your carpets – no question about that. In fact, this is your first line of defence against all the nasties that can live in your carpet. On top of that, vacuuming regularly is one thing that you can do to give your home or office an instant lift and freshen-up. However, even the very best vacuum on the market can’t do everything.

You see, vacuum cleaners can only really extract what’s on the top of the carpet fibres. They can’t get rid of anything that’s deep down inside at the bottom where the backing meets the pile. This is where the really tough dirt can lurk. The bad news about this deep-down dirt is that even though you can’t see it, it’s still there and its not just feeding bacteria and the asthma-triggering dust mites. A lot of the dirt and grit that gets down into the carpets is quite hard and harsh, like sand grains. Sand grains will do to your carpet fibres what sandpaper will do to wood, and it will do it every time you walk on the carpets. If those little particles aren’t removed, then they will wear away your carpet and shorten its life dramatically.

Vacuuming also can’t remove traces of liquids as mentioned above. Anything that clings to the pile just won’t come away with vacuuming action and some form of cleansing liquid is usually needed to get rid of this sort of discolouration and staining.

The Different Methods Of Cleaning Carpets

There are a number of different ways that can be used to clean carpets – and the carpet care technicians working for Carpet Cleaning 1 are able to use them all. All the methods involve some sort of water but some use more water than others. The main carpet cleaning techniques are:

• Steam cleaning, also known as hot water extraction or carpet shampooing
• Bonnet buffing (sometimes called just plain buffing)
• Dry cleaning for carpets

Some people get a little alarmed when they hear about dry cleaning for carpets, having read all those horror stories about what chemicals get used for dry cleaning, say, clothes. However, the technology we use is completely different and doesn’t use those vicious toxic chemicals. Instead, we use a system that involves tiny plant-based sponges that subtly release miniscule amounts of water – just enough to loosen the dirt from the carpet fibres and get them clean. It’s non-toxic and environmentally friendly, and it’s suitable for areas where children and animals go. This means that if your carpets are of the type for which dry cleaning is most appropriate, you and your family will be safe.

What if you don’t know if your carpets are the sort that need dry cleaning or not? Well, don’t worry. Even if you aren’t sure, our carpet care technicians are trained in this sort of thing. Before we start cleaning your carpets, we’ll take a look at them and determine whether they need gentle treatment or not. A lot of carpets can stand the heat and moisture of steam cleaning, but not all of them. You can leave this to us – and we’ll let you know about the costs involved up front.

Why Choose A Professional Carpet Cleaner?

If you already know that your carpet is suitable for steam cleaning, then you might be tempted to try doing it yourself with one of those little hired machines. Well, what you might not know is that these machines aren’t anything like what the team here at Carpet Cleaning 1 uses and there are several reasons why what we do as professional carpet cleaners is a lot better and easier.

First of all, there’s the whole time factor. If you want to do your own carpets, then you have to put in the hard work and effort, not just of clearing your floor prior to deep cleaning but also getting the machine, washing the carpets, dealing with the dirty water, returning the machine to the hiring company on time and then waiting for ages while the carpet dries. If you call in Carpet Cleaning 1, however, things get a whole lot easier: you just have to let us know when you want us to come, get the big heavies out of the way and give the room a quick vacuum, then get out of the house for the afternoon to have a bit of fun. We’re the ones who do the hard work.

What’s more, as we’re professional carpet cleaners, our team members all have truck-mounted vacuum systems. These beauties are what makes our way of doing things a lot better than any hired machine. These powerful vacuums remove a lot of dirty liquid from the carpet fibres once the cleaning has been done. This means that when we have finished the actual work of shampooing the carpets, there’s less water left behind in the fibres and in the backing (natural jute fibres can be a real beast to dry as they are super-absorbent). Less water means a shorter drying time, which means that you can get your house back in order more quickly. Drying time will vary depending on the weather conditions and the type of carpet, but a couple of hours should do the trick – and that’s a lot quicker than what happens with those little hired machines. With those machines, there’s a lot of water left behind because their vacuums are puny, so you have to wait for about half a day until the carpets dry properly.

Our Carpet Cleaning Services

Steam cleaning and other types of general carpet cleaning are only the start of what we do here at Carpet Cleaning 1. We can also offer you the full suite of carpet care services, whether you’re a domestic customer or one of our business and commercial customers:

• Steam cleaning
• Bonnet buffing
• Dry carpet cleaning
• Stain removal, including emergency stain treatment
• Scotchgard stain protection
• Mat and rug cleaning
• Upholstery cleaning

We’ll give you more details about these services on our services page, and we invite you to spend a bit of time browsing our site to find out more about who we are and what we do.

However, if you know what you need or want for your home or business and you just want to get on with it so you can have soft, fresh and fluffy carpets in your home or office, then please feel free to get in touch with our customer services team and make a booking and get your questions answered.