bleg
Anyone know anything about carpet cleaning? [it's a low, creamy colored looped & patterned berber type with light traffic-area dirt]
I have wood floors, so I know noooothing, but my uncle has asked me to look into it for him.
So I remember hearing that if they use soap [or soap-like substance] it leaves a sticky residue that makes the carpet get dirtier sooner. Not acceptable. Is true?
Which outfits have you had success with?
Which outfits should I run skreeming from?
What else should I know?
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18 Comments!
Get rid of the carpet.
Problem solved.
I’ve used the home “steam” cleaners you can rent, and have been completely satisfied. They work by spraying warm (not hot) water on the carpet, then sucking it back into a waste tank.
They use a light detergent that I’ve never had a problem with, but if it’s a concern, be prepared to do a rinse with clean water.
Strongly recommend the type that uses a wand on a long hose, not the “Rug Doctor” type, which is a big boxy affair, difficult to maneuver.
As always, try on an unobtrusive area first, to ensure color fastness, but be aware that no matter how “lightly trafficked” you think this carpet is, the waste water will be black, almost muddy, and the cleaned carpet will look substantially different, in a good way.
Claire, I have two large rooms with nice carpett, the rest is all hardwood.
I have been Really Happy with “Zero-Rez”…. no soap, no sticky, really clean.
http://www.zerorez.com/
Bottom of page enter your zip code and you’ll be set.
The carpet cleaners have clean,rinse and dry (by sucking up the water) . While you’re shampooing make sure you change the water often. The rinse and dry are the most important. Use only the soap and amount the machine recommends for cleaning.
hm… Did I fail to make clear? I. Am. NOT. Doing. This.
No. Way.
ThanQ
LaZee Cow
Hire a carpet cleaner.
Claire,
I have a light tan wall to wall carpet in my home. Nobody can figure out how to *spill* all kinds of food, blood, gun oil and booze on a carpet like a Marine!
However for everyone`s information, I will splain what I do, that has so far utterly,totally removed the above and more from this carpet. First, think back to young *cowboy*, Ronald Reagan an Death Valley Days. Death Valley used to be THE place for mining of BORAX!!!! Reagan`s sponsor was 20 MULE TEAM BOROX! Years ago, I used to fly my Beechcraft Sierra on to the gravel strip in Death Valley every November and spend a 3 day weekend listening to an annual guitar,violin, banjo show in the evenings under a crystal star lit sky.
Cosmic!!! Under the old hotel (where all the famous Hollywood stars stayed, there are a bunch of “caverns”, each housing a bar and or grill and sooo cool, temperature wise. Surrounding the hotel are hundreds of Palm trees & flowers up the ying-yang and dozens of peacocks trolling the lush green grass.
A hug museum about the 20 Mule Teams. Oh, guess what is the biggest obstacle crossing Death Valley, besides 125 degree temperatures? WATER!!!!! The valley is full of water, but it is soooo salty it is fatal to drink!
KO, back to removing carpet stains. I spill something. I may wipe it up or leave it as is. I have a spray bottle of clean water. I spray the spot/carpet until it is saturated. Then I cover the stain/wet spot with a thick coating of 20 MULE TEAM BOROX. The Borox immediately starts sucking the stain plus water up.
The next day, I take my vacuum cleaner and vacuum the Borox covered spot.
The “spot” has TOTALLY fucking disappeared AND the carpet looks exactly like nothing, no matter what, had ever occurred!!!!!!
I have applied this technique dozens of times on my carpets and NO ONE can tell that my carpet is not pristine!!!!!! Nor can I!!!!
Ronnie Reagan led me to BOROX and BOROX saves my carpet from this child`s stoopid spills—-bar none!!! And a box of Borox is dirt cheap at the grocery store and lasts for fucking ever………….
Also works identical on my clothes—–also, too………(I add about 1/4th cup to every clothes washing as a regular routine to keep the colors bright….)
A 4 lb box lasts me a year and costs about 2 bucks….I alway think of *my* Death Valley Days and president Reagan every time I grab my Borox—-
Sorry I got it now—:)) I had the carpet cleaning done and now do it myself– easier and less $$ and a much better cleaning job— do what ever melts your butter it’ll be fine.
Tear it up and get hardwood. You’ll be much happier. You can much more easily replace area rugs.
We had light beige carpet in the living room at one time. Between the kids and the cats and us too, the carpet got pretty unpleasant over time. The worst was when our oldest son was ill and decided to camp out on the sofa. He had taken a can of Tiki Punch soda to drink, and set it (opened) on the coffee table next to the sofa before going to get an extra blanket. He apparently decided his bulky sleeping bag was what he needed, came back to the sofa, and in passing by the coffee table, he knocked the full can of Tiki Punch all over the carpet.
I was off at the grocery store at the time and knew nothing about it. In fact, several hours passed before I found out, since the other kids tried to help clean up the mess, made it worse in the process, and then collaborated to hide it under a throw. Since the spill was between the sofa and the coffee table, I just figured the boy had kicked off one of his spare blankets, and didn’t pick it up immediately. When I did, I was greeted with a huge pink stain. What was worse was that in desperation one of the kids got the bright idea to use bleach to try to remove it.
We got a professional cleaner to come and work on the carpet, but the stain never really came out and the bleach damage was pretty noticeable. In the end, we replaced the flooring with hardwood – so now there is NO carpet in this house. On a side note, it is about time to replace the area rug!
Zerorez
We have all hardwood floors and area rugs – orientals and Capel oval braid. I take them to a good oriental rug cleaner here in town as needed, and they make them look like new with a soap and water wash with a mild pressure cleaner on the floor, then they are hoisted up over a round bar and rinsed thoroughly with cold water from a garden hose, then left to drip dry. Some are more than 20 years old, and all still look like new.
TSP (tri-sodium-phosphate) will clean the shit out of anything. Use that instead of soap in the carpet machine. A little goes a long way, and it’s fairly cheap too. It’s also great for washing nicotine-stained walls. Miraculous, even.
Just make sure to rinse it twice or yer dick will fall off.
I’ve heard good things about zerorez, too.
Yeah, have the cleaner go a little slower with the wand/vacuum over the carpet then do a clear rinse. The water or cleaning solution needs to get down into the fibers and even the padding to stir up the dirt and suck it out. A company came once or twice who did my condo in under an hour and I still pulled stuff up with my vacuum cleaner after they were gone.
Stained and epoxied my own floors last month, glorious and nearly bombproof. Certainly cat proof.
I like the borax idea and will give it a try.
Aside:
For the pet stains, my go to is hydrogen peroxide–$.88 /qt at wally world. My Mom has had some troubled cats since her husband passed. There were a couple of spots that wouldn’t come clean and the odor stayed even after the carpet cleaner replaced the pad and cleaned the carpet. but he didn’t clean the hard surfaces under the pad and apparently not the carpet itself either. Saturate with peroxide, wait an hour or so, remove with shop vac (slow and thorough), repeat and follow with clear water twice. You see the results in the tank. Keep under low fan for a day or two to be sure the pad gets dry, too. No more odor.
You hire someone to clean your carpets.
Get it Dry Cleaned Claire. Best way to do it. Don’t know if you have any out your way but its a heck of lot better than all the ‘regular’ carpet cleaning places.
That does it. I’m taking Colonel Jerry’s advice and heading out to DV for some banjo under the stars and cavern bar ‘n’ grill. I’ll take my uncle and we’ll forget about the whole carpet thing.
Perfect!
Thanks Y’all!
Rly, if it were mine, I’d do it myself, but my uncle is an older Gentleman [in the original meaning of the word -- not ToDaZeD meaning of felon] who would be appalled and horrified if I were to do physical labor on his behalf.
It was hard enough for him to ask me to research it for him. Also, there is the slight chance that I will use whoever to clean the acres of [1984] carpet in the other house. [Where I plan to put in hardwood. ...some ... day...] So I need to find someone useful.
Off to get some Borax for my very own!
Claire,
Used to be 10 November for the Death Valley music festival. A million motorhomes & lots of peeps on horseback. Temperature at night? About 70-75…Visibility? Could see Starship Enterprize…
Semper Fi,
ColJ