Unfortunately, the carpet cleaning industry is not immune to subpar service providers. However, as an informed consumer, if you are aware of at least some of the common corner cutting practices, you can save yourself the time and aggravation that is part of a poor service experience.
There are some very basic elements of a proper carpet cleaning service that distinguish a quality carpet cleaner from one cutting corners. For a consumer, perhaps the easiest corner cutting practice to recognize is not seeing a pre-conditioning solution applied to the carpet prior to cleaning.
Why is a pre-conditioning solution important? The pre-conditioning solution is applied to the carpet to loosen and help separate soil from the fibers as it is flushed and extracted with the cleaning equipment. The solution is applied early in the cleaning process so it has sufficient time to dwell and react with the soil attached to the carpet fibers.
A corner-cutting cleaner will simply bring in the carpet wand and hoses and begin “cleaning” the carpet. Unfortunately, this approach results in a significant amount of soil remaining on the carpet fibers. As the carpet fibers dry, from the bottom up, the remaining soil is carried to the surface of the carpet. This is one of the primary reasons for spots and larger soiled areas returning, sometimes looking even worse, after a carpet has supposedly been cleaned.
Cleaners who practice this type of cleaning will tell you they don’t need to apply a pre-conditioning solution because they use a detergent that is mixed with the hot water that is sprayed onto the carpet with the cleaning wand. What they fail to explain is that the hot water rinse should include a mild detergent that is used to ensure the carpet fibers are left in a neutral state (remember back to your high school chemistry pH lessons!) and provide an added punch to achieve the best possible cleaning results.
At J. Brightwell Carpet Cleaning, our goal is to provide our clients with a quality carpet cleaning experience. That is why we apply a pre-conditioning solution to the entire carpet, not just heavy traffic areas. This is done in conjunction with our basic spot treatment for any visible spots. Both steps are elements of the recognized industry cleaning protocol and result in superior cleaning performance. We may not be able to remove every spot from a carpet, but we won’t cut any corners in attempting to do so.
