Concerns with Home Cleaning Equipment

    If you have ever purchased or rented a residential carpet cleaning machine, this article is for you. This equipment can be of a benefit for interim spot cleaning between professional cleanings. However, if you are not careful, the Do-It-Yourself machines can do more harm to your carpets than good.

If the machine’s directions have you adding a shampoo to your water tank, we suggest not using it. The shampoo residue left on your carpets acts as a big magnet pulling dirt from the bottom of your shoes. The result is you will have clean shoes and even dirtier carpets. Straight water is a good cleaning agent and should be used without any shampoo. However, if you feel you need the shampoo, after shampooing, fill your machine up with water and try and rinse the shampoo out. Also, be aware that the suction on these machines are not very strong and will probably not get all the shampoo out of the carpet.

    Over wetting of carpets is another potential problem. Therefore, go sparingly with the water and use the vacuum portion multiple times to remove as much of the liquid as possible. The problems resulting from over wetting the carpet can be subfloor damage (especially if it is hardwood). Also, carpet pads can prematurely fail due to getting wet and the carpet itself can be damaged and fail prematurely due to over wetting. The impact of over wetting does not show up immediately. It becomes apparent at a later time by reducing the life of the carpets or seeing the damage to the sub floor when you replace the carpets. Also, if it takes more than 24 hours for the carpet to dry, then the possibility for mold and/or mildew to begin greatly increases.

For more information, please visit my website, www.graysoncleans.com