Three Options for Cleaning Your Home's Carpets

Stains on carpets can really mar a home's décor, as can ground in dirt after years of use. Buying new carpet sometimes seems like the only option, but in a lousy economy cleaning your carpet may be a better bet. Following are three options for cleaning your home's carpet and a comparison of them.

The first carpet cleaning method is carpet shampooing. In this method, the contractor basically applies shampoo to the carpet, makes it foam by applying a rotary brush to it, and then removes it by wetting the carpet. This method has some distinct disadvantages. The chemicals in the shampoo can cause allergic reactions in some homeowners, wetting the rug can damage it severely, the drying process takes some time, and the wet method sometimes causes dirt to resettle into the carpet, making it an unreliable method for carpet cleaning.

The second common carpet cleaning method is called dry cleaning. The contractor applies dry absorbent in a powder form to the carpet with a machine, which then works it into the carpet to get up dirt. Once this has been done, the powder is vacuumed up and the dirt is removed with it.

This method is preferable to shampooing for a couple of reasons. The absorbent is usually organic, which means the cleaning product is not as irritating as shampoo, and since it's already dry, there's no downtime where you have to stay off the carpets. However, there are still a few issues that make this method imperfect. For one thing, it's very easy to over-apply the absorbent, and if this is done, the dust that rises is a lung irritant. In addition, if a carpet has been dry cleaned and later is cleaned using a wet method, the residue of the absorbent can appear in the form of a fine white powder on the surface of the carpet, which is usually a hassle to clean up. Finally, this method is incapable of deeply penetrating the carpet, which means it may appear clean on the surface and still be soiled underneath.

The final method for home carpet cleaning is known as steam-cleaning. In this method, a fine spray of water mixed with detergent is pressure-sprayed onto the carpet in order to deep clean it, and then vacuumed up. This is the method most commonly recommended by carpet manufacturers as being the least harmful to the pile. This method is also the most powerful cleaning method, and though there is some drying time due to the use of water, this is minimal compared to shampooing the carpet. In addition, if your contractor uses a truck-mounted cleaning system, the vacuumed residue is expelled outside so there are fewer environmental problems caused by this method as well.