What Goes Into Steam Cleaning?
The average household with a steady amount of traffic should have their carpet steam cleaned about twice a year. Yes, vacuuming does clean up the noticeable dirt, but it doesn’t remove everything, even after vacuuming, there can still be dirt and dust trapped inside your carpet. Every home has a different amount of activity and collects dust and more or less dirt at different rates. For some, twice a year may be too much, and for others, twice a year may not be enough. It’s important to be able to know the signs of your carpet needing attention by either professionals or yourself. A couple of signs for you to look out for are stains that keep reappearing, your carpet has lost its fluffy look you loved so much, your carpet has an unappealing odor, and they aren’t looking as good as they were before.
Dry Cleaning Or Steam Cleaning?
Steam cleaning is a great practice to remove dirt and debris that are stuck deep in your carpet fibers. If you plan to steam clean your carpet yourself, you will need a steam cleaning machine with soap and water. Make sure you thoroughly vacuum your carpet and that your room is cleared out before you start. The best time for you to successfully steam clean, make sure you do it at a time when there will not be a lot of foot traffic in and out of your house. The weather should be warm, so you can open up your doors and windows so you can air dry and have fans going. There are different benefits from both dry cleaning and steam cleaning, and that choice is for you to decide how you want your carpets cleaned. Steam cleaning uses hot water extraction so all of the soils and spills can be removed out of your carpet, and your carpet will be able to last longer. Almost any type of carpet reacts well to steam cleaning, even wool. Professionals will vacuum, apply the chemical spray, and inject water at a high pressure into your carpet. They will also use a special vacuum to remove all of the water. Dry cleaning uses powder chemicals and uses a much less amount of water than steam cleaning. Professional carpet cleaners in Melbourne will vacuum your carpet and sometimes might pretreat the stains. There will be chemical dry powder, detergent, and solvent applied. Then your carpet will be vacuumed again to remove all of the chemicals and water.
Benefits From Steam Cleaning
There are some great benefits from having your carpet steam cleaned. All of the stains, dirt, and grime will be removed. Steam cleaning will kill all of the bacteria, and all of the dust mites, allergens, mold, pet scents, and more will be removed. There won’t be any left over residue, and steam cleaning often works better than other methods with no harsh chemicals to be used.
Setbacks Of Steam Cleaning
Even though there are some great benefits from steam cleaning, there are a couple of setbacks. Your carpet will be wetter from steam cleaning and usually takes about 24 hours to dry and have furniture back on your carpet.
Benefits From Dry Cleaning
Dry cleaning has a shorter dry time than steam cleaning does. If your home has people constantly coming in and out at all hours of the day, dry cleaning is perfect for cleaning your carpet. If your carpet has a lot of spots and stains in stubborn areas that seem impossible for you to get out, dry cleaning can be great to have those removed.
Setbacks From Dry Cleaning
Just like steam cleaning, there are some great benefits and also some setbacks from dry cleaning. Dry cleaning can build-up residues that break down fibers of your carpet, and you may not have as good of a deep clean as you would from having your carpet steam cleaned.
What Happens If You Don’t Have Your Carpets Regularly Cleaned By Professionals?
You can vacuum and spot clean your home every day, multiple times a day, but that isn’t deep cleaning and getting all of the dirt and debris out. Something for you to think about, there are a lot of gross bacteria and mold spores that can continue to linger in your carpet fibers. There has been research conducted by Philip Tierno, JR., Ph.D., a microbiologist at the New York University Langone Medical Center. He has proved that your carpet could still have as many as 200,000 bacteria per square inch. That shows how much bacteria really does stay in our carpet that we can’t even see or that we didn’t know about. Having your carpets professionally cleaned is your best option for clean carpets and for them to last as long as possible.