Household Rug & Floor Cleaning Equipment - Information

Selecting Rug and/or Floor Cleaning Equipment for residential use necessitates several, immediate decisions: (1) will you be cleaning the rug with a wet or with a dry cleaning method? (2) if a wet cleaning method, will you want to use a "box" machine with a hose and wand assembly; or, will you prefer a "self-contained" unit with an add-on (or, attached) hose (3) if considering a bare floor cleaning unit will you be scrubbing or just buffing the floor? (4) will you need to sand or strip the floor periodically, etc., as well? and most importantly (5) what kind of quality are you looking for in any of the above equipment selections (this decision will greatly affect the quality of the results).  If you would like, click on Suggestions to go to our page on Suggestions on which type of carpet cleaner to own.

The following section is broken down into a number of parts: (1) Methods of Cleaning Carpets (2) Characteristics and Types of Results to be expected from each method and (3) Procedures for Carpet Cleaning.  The last section - #4 - will deal with Hard Floor Cleaning and Maintenance

(1) Methods of Cleaning Carpets

Wet Carpet Cleaning

(2) Results of Carpet Cleaning Methods

Generally speaking, a wet carpet cleaning method is a more thorough, aggressive method compared to a dry cleaning method.  A wet solution can more thoroughly penetrate a carpet; thus, resulting in a more complete result.  A few caveats should be noticed:

  1. Most wet carpet cleaning methods employ a chemical based on the alkaline side to effectively clean the average, synthetic carpet and the water used should be hot water
  2. A natural fiber carpet such as wool should be cleaned on the "sour", or, acid side and the water should be cold
  3. There is a dry time associated with wet cleaning that does not apply to dry cleaning
  4. During the dry time oneself should not walk upon the carpet cleaned with a wet method.  The dry cleaned carpet, however, can be, essentially, freely walked on with no adverse results
  5. A wet method is a bit more involved than a dry method - i.e., chemicals have to be mixed, the fresh solution tank on the carpet cleaner filled and the recovery tank emptied as needed
  6. Care has to be taken with furniture so that a wet cleaning solution does not cause either wood furniture legs to "bleed" stain or metal legs to rust onto the carpet
  7. Thus, the furniture has to be protected with styrofoam blocks or tinfoil, etc. under the legs

A dry cleaning method has certain advantages:

  1. It is bit faster over all
  2. It requires less effort
  3. While there is a "dwell" time involved for the cleaning agent there is, essentially, no "dry" time
  4. The carpet can be walked upon at any point during or after application
  5. It is important that a good vacuum be used to effectively remove all the dry cleaning agent
  6. While a rotary floor machine such as is used for wet shampooing of a carpet can also be used for dry cleaning a carpet, the best dry cleaning equipment  is "dedicated" for this purpose and uses a horizontally rotating brush - or, brushes - both to effectively apply the drycleaning agent and to also avoid carpet "flaring"

(3) Procedures for Carpet Cleaning
The procedures for cleaning carpet are essentially the same whether shampooing, wet extraction cleaning (we make the distinction of "wet" extraction cleaning because there is a process called "dry extraction cleaning"; however, it is a commercial process and is not in the price range of the average homeowner - maybe Bill Gates might own such a unit) or dry cleaning.  The steps to be followed are listed below:

  1. Vacuum thoroughly to remove all possible loose soil
  2. Spot clean all individual spots and stains with appropriate spot removers.  Only clean a spot as clean as the rest of the carpet is dirty - i.e., don't overclean a spot or you will wind up with a clean carpet and a cleaner spot when you are all done
  3. Prespray the carpet with an appropriate prespray paying special attention to the dirtier traffic lanes.  Allow the prespray to "dwell" on the carpet approximately 10 - 12 minutes.  Do not let the prespray dry - if it does - prespray that area again before beginning the final cleaning process
  4. Clean the carpet with the selected method.  Usually, the simplest approach to cleaning an area is to break it down into sections, or quadrants.

(4) Hard Floor Cleaning & Maintenance
Hard floors can be broken down into a number of different types of surfaces - i.e., resilient tile, linoleum, rubber, cork, ceramic, slate, granite, marble, terrazzo and wood.  If you have a specific problem or question pertaining to maintaining any of the above floors, please feel free to Contact Us via e-mail and we will respond to your inquiry.  The intent of this particular webpage is only to provide information on different methods of cleaning and maintaining carpet or hard flooring.  

Depending upon the type of surface, hard floors can be sanded, ground down and resurfaced, stripped, waxed, polished, burnished, etc.  For the average homeowner, the maintenance of a hard floor usually involves fairly simple procedures such as cleaning or buffing.

Cleaning/Maintaining

pic of floor buffer

The above provides a basic primer on carpet cleaning and hard floor maintenance.  The subject is vast, and major books and manuals have been written on it all. E-mail us with specific questions and needs and we will respond as we are best able.