Different Methods Of Carpet Cleaning

We all love our carpets. We all buy elegant expensive carpets for decorating our homes. They just look beautiful and we love to walk on them barefooted. But over the time carpets tend to get dirty, if these dirty carpets are not cleaned properly, they can even become a health hazard. People who have allergies must take special care to clean them before they start posing a problem. However, the task of carpet cleaning is not a very easy one. If done the wrong way, you can very well end up damaging your carpet. The carpet industry also warns about some potentially harmful methods of carpet cleaning. Employing the right method will not only keep your carpet clean and beautiful, it will also increase its lifetime. In this article we will discuss some of the very common but effective ways of carpet cleaning.

• Hot water extraction method:

People sometimes confuse the hot water method extraction method with that of steam cleaning. These two are very different methods, while hot water extraction system is suitable for cleaning a carpet at home; the steam cleaning process is an industrial method for carpet cleaning. In the hot water extraction method the dirty carpet is sprayed with hot water and any dislodged dirt is vacuumed simultaneously. The simultaneous vacuuming of dislodged dirt is important to prevent it from staining the carpet further. Steam must never be used while cleaning a carpet at home as it can damage the carpet fibers and can also shrink them considerably. This shrink is most noticeable in case of carpets made of woolen fibers.

• Dry carpet cleaning:

Dry carpet cleaning is the professional way of cleaning a carpet. It requires setting up of specialized machinery that involves VLM (Very low moisture) systems. Dry carpet cleaning is perhaps the most effective method of cleaning a carpet but of course it costs more than your home based hot water extraction method. Heavily soiled carpets usually require pretreatment before they can be subjected to the dry cleaning process. Pretreatment method involves both manual spotting as well chemical applications. While manual spotting may prove enough in cases of less dirty carpets, other heavily soiled carpets require the application of pre-conditioners or traffic lane cleaners. These pre-conditioners are emulsifiers that help in breaking the binding between the carpet fibers and dirt. The chemicals used in the dry cleaning process are usually petroleum byproducts and butyl agents. Dry cleaning methods have gained popularity as professional methods of carpet cleaning because they involve less manual labor and are more effective.

• Other home based methods:

It has been noted that the longer the stain material remains lodged in a carpet, the higher the possibility of a permanent color change. Hence, it’s in your best interest to remove the stain and clean your carpet as soon as possible. There are many home based remedies for cleaning a carpet, for example lemon in combination with oxalic acid works well for removing ink stains on a carpet, while pipe clay has been used effectively for removal of oil stains.