Well one way is to ask the same questions that are found under the section, “HOW TO AVOID GETTING RIPPED OFF BY AN UNSCRUPULOUS CARPET CLEANER”. Most carpet cleaners are honest, but they could be less than fully competent.

additional questions to ask your carpet cleaning service:

1. How long have you been in business?

2. What kind of training have you received?

3. Do you give free on site estimates? (be careful of estimates over the phone unless you are dealing with a reputable firm)

4. How do you arrive at your charges?

5. How would you clean a 5th generation nylon?

Let’s analyze some of these questions and why you would want to know the answers.

1. How long have you been in business? Everyone has to start sometime, it’s not a crime to be new in the business. However, you don’t want the person to be practicing on your carpet or furniture. What will compensate for being new in the business is if the individual has been certified by the Institute of Inspection, Cleaning and Restoration Certification or other similar training organization. The IICRC is a highly respected, non profit organization that certifies cleaning technicians. If they say they are certified, ask them to show you their card.

2. What kind of training have you received? How many days and what subjects did you learn? The technician training should be considerable as they will be responsible for the proper care of thousands of dollars worth of carpet.

3. Do you give free estimates? A reputable firm will be most happy to do this. They will come out to your home, measure the size of the rooms (why should you pay the same price for cleaning a small bedroom that you pay for your large living room or den?). Examine the carpet for clean-ability. Test spots for the possibility of removal, and some will even give you a free written report. They should be frank and honest when setting your expectations about how your carpet will look after it is cleaned and what stains may not respond to professional cleaning techniques.

4. How do you arrive at your pricing? There are different ways of arriving at an equitable cost for cleaning your carpets. Many reputable firms will charge by the square foot others by the room. There is no one right way. In residential homes with average furnishings that must be moved and average soiling, the square footage price could justifiably run up to 35 cents per square foot. This should include the following:

• Pre-inspect all areas to be cleaned to uncover all customer concerns and set reasonable customer expectations
• Pre-vacuum all carpet to be cleaned
• Move all movable furniture
• China cabinets, book cases, entertainment centers, pianos, grandfather clocks, waterbeds, beds with bookcase headboards, aquariums, and other such items are not normally moved unless they are empty and properly prepped
• Pre-treat the traffic areas with cleaning products that are designed to loosen oils that are binding the soil to the fibers
• Clean the carpet and carefully return furniture to its original location, putting protective foil squares or plastic to prevent staining by furniture legs
• Clean all open areas
• Treat all spots that haven’t been removed in the normal extraction process and re-extract
• Groom or brush the carpet to set the pile on end
• Final walk through with the customer to ensure satisfaction with job

The pricing for the cleaning usually does not include:

• Deodorizing
• Carpet Protectors such as Scotchgard
• Attempts to remove permanent stains such as Kool-Aid®, wine, etc. after normal professional removal techniques have been utilized. This is not the same as spot removal, which should be included in the cleaning price. Please see the difference between a spot and a stain in the section titled, “What To Do If You Have A Spill On Your Carpet”.
• Burn spots, tears or rips in seams or other installation problems

5. How do you clean a 5th Generation Nylon? The majority of current nylon is 5th Generation or Stain Resist. This must be cleaned with cleaning compounds with a pH (a term to measure the alkalinity or acidity of a solution) of 10 or less. If your cleaning technician is not aware of this then he may not be knowledgeable enough to use the right cleaning products for your carpet. If your carpet is wool, then cleaning should be done with a solution that is a pH of 7 or should be treated with a pH balancing product to neutralize the cleaning solution (there is usually a slightly higher charge to clean wool carpets because of this extra step).

It’s sad but there are people who are just out to get your money without providing a service of value. But they would not have as much opportunity if there weren’t individuals who they felt could get something of value for a ridiculously low amount of money. “LET THE BUYER BEWARE” is the old adage that rings true when talking about ‘too good to be true’ prices. If you see an ad for carpet cleaning for say $9.95 per room … Beware! It could be an unscrupulous carpet cleaner or someone who doesn’t know any better and is imitating one.

We call them “Bait and Switch” con artists. The bait is the unbelievable low price. When they get there they demonstrate their double scrub cleaning method, or deluxe cleaning method. That’s the switch, which means that in most cases they won’t pre-spray the traffic areas or work the pre-spray in with a carpet grooming tool unless you pay them extra for it. The “extra” , which should have been included in the initial price, is usually an additional charge of so many dollars or cents per square foot. Now the room you thought you were going to pay $9.95 for has tripled or more and that is before add-ons like carpet protector and deodorizer.

In reality, when you add up the cost of the equipment, van, labor, insurance, advertising and other overheads, it costs the average reputable company over $50.00 just to send someone to your door. And that’s before there is any work done. So how can they clean for that price? They can’t. And if you insist they do what they advertised, they will either leave, try to get a minimum trip charge for coming out, or just lightly clean around the furniture very quickly and you will not get a good job.

What Can You Do?

First of all, don’t be fooled by unbelievably low prices. If the prices look too good to be true, then they probably are.

Ask questions before you invite them to your home. Like:

1. Shampooing
2. Dry foam
3. Bonnet (Dry Cleaning)
4. Dry Powder
5. Hot Water Extraction (Steam Cleaning)

Let’s start with the oldest form of modern carpet cleaning first:

SHAMPOOING

Shampooing is the use of a motorized circular brush in which foaming cleaning products are introduced to the surface of the carpet and are then scrubbed into the carpet. This method has very good agitation and is best suited for low pile commercial carpet or low cut pile carpet that is highly soiled. This method, unless it is used with some other type of carpet cleaning, has no extraction in the cleaning process but rather relies on vacuuming after the shampoo dries. Because of it’s high aggressiveness, and the large amounts of cleaning product residue it leaves, this method is not recommended for most cut pile residential carpet. It also can have long drying times associated with it.

DRY FOAM

This method is very similar to shampooing in that it relies on the aggressiveness of the brushing action, which is usually counter rotating cylindrical brushes. The difference is that the solution is whipped into a foam and applied right before the brushes instead of a liquid as in shampooing. This does allow for faster drying times. Although some DRY FOAM machines have a built in vacuum they still rely on the cleaning product drying to a flaky residue that the dirt adheres to and being sucked away by a vacuum cleaner. This method has the same weaknesses as Shampooing with the additional one of not being able to deep clean.

BONNET (Dry Cleaning)

In this type of cleaning sometimes referred to as ‘Dry Cleaning’, the cleaning product (sometimes mixed with carbonated water) is misted onto the carpet in the form of a spray. Next, a circular rotating buffer with an absorbent pad attached is run over the carpet. The soil attaches itself to the pad and the pad is changed with a clean one after becoming dirty. This method has the advantage of drying very quickly because of the small amount of moisture used. It generally does a good job of cleaning the topl/3 of the carpet pile that is visible to the eye. But does little to remove the heavier grit and sand that damages carpet over time. Because there is no flushing action or extraction, there is very little deep cleaning. This method may be considered as an interim cleaning between more effective deep cleanings.

DRY POWDER

With this method, a dry product (powder or ground corn cobs that have been soaked with a solvent chemical) is broadcast over the area to be cleaned. Then either a circular brush or cylindrical rotating brush is used to force the dry cleaning product in contact with the soil. After the carpet dries, which is surprising fast, a through vacuuming is required to remove the product and loosened soil. This method has the fastest drying times of all carpet cleaning methods and has the advantage of being able to be walked on almost immediately after cleaning. Similar to the Bonnet method, dry powder cleaning does a fairly good job of cleaning the top 1/3 of the fiber that is visible if it is not heavily soiled. Again, it does very little to remove the heavier soils in the base of the fibers. It’s weakness is the extraction cycle. If not vacuumed with a powerful commercial vacuum, large amounts of the cleaning product can remain, and over a period of time build up and cause considerable problems later on.

HOT WATER EXTRACTION

Hot water extraction is sometimes referred to as ‘Steam Cleaning’. Actually this is a misapplied term, for real steam is too dry and hot to clean carpet properly. In this method, hot cleaning solution is sprayed under pressure onto the carpet and is immediately extracted with a vacuum source. The dirty solution is collected in a recovery tank and is usually poured into the sanitary waste system. The advantage of this system is that is has the ability to flush out large amounts of soil and contaminants in carpet. It is the most preferred method by all of the major fiber producers, such as Dupont, Monsanto and Allied Signal, as well as the carpet manufacturers like, Shaw, Mohawk, World, and Queen. Because this method removes more contaminants than the other carpet cleaning methods, hot water extraction is favored by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and is the preferred method of the Institute of Inspection, Cleaning and Restoration Certification (IICRC). It does have the disadvantage of having longer drying times and the possibility of wick up of spots if they are not thoroughly extracted. Most higher quality carpets that have extended appearance and texture retention warranties require this type of cleaning every 18 months in order to retain the warranty coverage.

NOT ALL HOT WATER EXTRACTION MACHINES ARE EQUAL

There are three basic types of extraction machines. They are:

Residential/Rental. These machines are fine for spills and maintenance of lightly soiled traffic areas. But they lack the power needed to do the deep cleaning required to get out the grit that lies deep in your carpet pile and to maintain carpet manufacturer warranties.

Professional portables. These machines are many times more powerful than residential units. The number and size of vacuum motors and pumps plus heat exchangers differentiates one from another in terms of performance. The most powerful machines may have two power cords to enable household circuits to cope. A really good job can be done with these units. if the operator has excellent training and takes his or her time. Sometimes portables are the only way the carpets in some locations can be cleaned.

Truck mounted units. These machines have large independent engines or run off the motor of the cleaning van. They can develop up to 1000 pounds of pressure (though normally carpet is cleaned at only 500 lbs. of pressure). They also heat the water to 180 or more degrees and have very powerful vacuums. These machines are expensive but they can leave the carpets drier in many cases when used properly. Typically, this type of hot water extraction machine should give improved results as well as decrease time on the job.