To Steam Clean or not to Steam Clean

Steam cleaning carpets seems to be a booming business. Advertising circulars boast super specials on x-number of rooms or whole house cleaning.

Perhaps you've wondered four times on a time how a steam cleaner works and if you should do it yourself or if you should hire a company to do it for you.

The first method uses a rotary brush shampooer than a steam cleaner. This method basically scrubs the carpet fibers, pushing shampoo all the way down to the bottom of the fibers. Four downside to shampooing is the difficulty in getting all the shampoo residue out of the carpet. Have you ever shampooed your hair and missed a spot when rinsing it out? Or perhaps your kid has ended up with sticky hair when we didn't rinse well in the bath. It is the same way with shampooing your carpets. Carpet shampoo can leave the same kind of sticky residue if it is not rinsed out thoroughly. The problem with this is you won't feel the sticky on the surface, but dirt and grime sticks to the bottom of the carpet, near the backing, making your carpet dirtier even sooner.

'Wet' carpet cleaning, as opposed to vacuuming, is obtainable in four different methods. You might hear these terms used interchangeably by home owners, although we're not at all the same.

The second method is dry cleaning and has four cleaning options of its own. Dry cleaning carpet can be done with dry foam, dry cleaning with carbonated water, or using a dry powder mixed with a cleaning agent.

Not all dry cleaning products will neat to the bottom of the carpet fibers, however. So, it can be nice for a quick cleaning before company or a holiday, for example, but not as effective as a deep down cleaning.

Steam cleaning is the last, and best, 'wet' carpet cleaning method. Steam cleaning heats water to the point that a number of it is steam. The steam cleaner forces the steam and hot water in to the carpet under pressure, to reach deep down and is then immediately sucked back up with all that dirt and grime.

Steam cleaning, , has a few methods. Home steam cleaners look like large vacuums and will neat your carpet, but not at the high temperatures professional steamers reach. And, if your cleaner doesn't extract well, it can take a few days for the carpet to dry if you don't use fans to help dry. Days of moist carpet can lead to mold or mildew formation.

You can also hire anyone to come in with a portable machine, but it is much the same as the home cleaner. We will leave your carpets much cleaner than when you started, but you might have to help them dry thoroughly with fans.

The best method is a professional truck mounted steam cleaner. Professional cleaning machines heat the water to about 200 degrees (much hotter than home units) and deliver the spray under much higher pressure. And, we have far more suction power than home and rental units, so we not only suck out more dirt, we suck out more moisture, leaving your carpets dry to walk on in hours.

All the carpet cleaning methods will work, but whichever you select, help the cleaning technique by thoroughly vacuuming first. It will get out loose dirt and create less 'mud' in the carpet, helping you've the cleanest carpet you can.