Have you recently had a spot or stain on the carpet? Have you searched around the web for help? Isn’t it amazing at how much information there is to remove  spots and spills from your carpet and upholstery? Pet Urine removal is also a hot topic with tons of supposed secret information on how to treat pet urine.

As a professional carpet cleaning in Portland I am amazed at how much mis-information there is on the web. Some of the information I learn that my cleints have tried has often made spots worse or improssible to remove. The truth…using the correct chemistry to remove a spot can keep it from becoming a permanent stain. Use the wrong chemistry on a spot or stain and the spot can become permanent.

Everyday, I see things done with carpet, upholstery, counter tops, tile, etc. that cause major, often unrepairable, damage. With a little education on how to take the best care of your carpet, upholstery, tile & grout, and more you can keep your home in great condition.

What I’ve Learned – Secret Carpet Cleaning Information – For My Clients

Helpful Tips to Keep Your Home Looking It’s Best

Tip #1 – CAUTION Putting Area Rugs Over Carpet - You want to put a beautiful new area rug on top of the carpet in an area of your home.

Ok, but please make sure the rug does not have latex in the backing. Latex releases a gas called BHT that over-time naturally causes irreparable damage to the carpet turning it yellow. For example, the latex back on new shower mats is white and turns yellow over time. The BHT gas sometimes can also turn vinyl floors yellow.

Tip #2 – Acids Etch Natural Stone Counters/Floors- Natural stone counter tops and floors are prone to etching when exposed to acids, such as lemons. It is important to have these surfaces sealed. Often contractors skip sealing natural stone counter tops. Even after sealing natural stone surfaces can still etch, so be careful letting any type of acid sit on these surfaces.

Tip #3 – Unsealed Tile - Tile floors, counter tops, and showers are often left unsealed by contractors.  We can bring these areas back to life and seal them to help keep foreign debris from penetrating the grout.

Tip #4 – Prep A Repair Piece (Just in case J) - If you have new spare pieces of your carpet then I would recommend taking an approximately 12 x 24 inch piece and placing it where it will get lots of foot traffic (preferably shoe traffic). This will serve as great piece of replacement carpet that will blend in with the original carpet, if needed. After about a year of walking on this carpet have it cleaned and then put away.

Tip #5 – A Reason Why Dogs Like Certain Rugs – Do you have a dog that likes to pee on certain rugs and not others? The reason some dogs pee on one rug consistently and not the others is because the rug they favor may be made out of wool. Of course the dog has not seen a lamb running around the house, but the wool causes the dog to think there is a lamb near. The dog thinks, “Hmm…No lamb is coming into my home and taking over.” The dog pees on the rug to mark its territory. Bleach dissolves wool. So if you carefully remove one fiber from the rug and put some bleach on it and it dissolves then you know it is wool! Do Not put bleach on the rug.

Tip #6 – Microfiber Upholstery – Microfiber is a fabulous material that is very durable. This fabric is imitation suede, which is a compliment. If you have a spot on this type of fabric make sure to BLOT the spill. NEVER rub the spot or you can permanently damage the fabric turning it from a suede look to a leather look. Microfiber is not like carpet and cannot be re-dyed.

With the information above you should be better equipped to take the best care of your home. I found a great article on AOL that discusses How to Avoid The Top 5 Cleaning Faux Pas to help provide the best home cleaning tips. P.S. Make sure to read the comments section. There are some great tips there as well.

Hope this information is helpful! Until next time….Sean

Often the only time to clean the carpets is when the carpet looks dirty. Really, carpet cleaning is not just about the look and actually about good health. Yes, it can be annoying and sometimes embarrassing to look at the dirty carpet. Isn’t it amazing to look at the dirt build up and wonder, “How did all of that soil get there?” Even if you take your shoes off the carpet still seems to get dirty.

This Is Amazing

Whenever one my my clients happends to see the color of the water coming out of the carpet, especially carpet that looks clean to the eye can be shocking. Then if my clinets go one step farther and happen to sneek a peek at the inline cleaning filter they are often amazed at what has been removed from the carpet.

Yes, regular carpet cleaning maintenance is best performed by regular vacuuming and many clients are great at taking care of their indoor environments. Even with regular vacuuming and removing shoes before entering the home it can be disturbing to still see the soil, hair, sand, and much more than is removed with professional carpet cleaning.

Wether you have hardwood floors or carpet and no matter what you do to take care of your indoor environment soil will always enter the home. You see there is always a layer of air that travels throught the home. This air runs around the edges of the walls, up the stairs, and under door ways. The air that travels throughout the home carriers with it soil from outside and oily soot from filtration air.

Dark Filtration Line

One of the toughest things about filtration soil is that it gets stuck on the stairs and under door ways of doors that are not often opened. Filtration soil is also more prevalent in second story homes. Have you seen this type of soil? Look around the walls, especially upstairs. Do you see the dark lines around the walls? Now check under door ways of mostly closed doors. See the dark soil?

So you have vacuumed regualrly and taken your shoes off everytime before you walked in the house. So the obvious question is, “How did this soil get here?”

How Did The Soil Get In?

The homes that are built today are air tight. Every time a door leading outside is openned it is as if your home is exhaling. Well, what happens after everytime we exhail? Right, we inhail. Everytime an exterior door is openned your home exhails and inhails particulate soil, bacteria, etc. into your home. The good news…If you have carpet installed in your home it will filter and store the contaminents from outside until cleaning.

The Key…Cleaning!

The key to taking the best care of your indoor environment is to clean the carpet once in awhile. Usually it is recommended to clean your carpet every 6-18 months. It is best to clean your carpet at least once per year. Clean out the filter in the home and you will breathe better.

With cleaning you need to decide which type of carpet cleaning method is best for you.

Carpet Cleaning Starts Here

When trying to decide where to start with carpet cleaning it is best to start by reading your warranty. To maintain your carpet warranty carpet manufacturers recommend cleaning intervals and the method of carpet cleaning required.

In addition to carpet cleaning tips in this article the Sierra Club has a great article on Carpet Cleaning for Looks and Health.

Some useful tips for maintaining carpet are:

• Use doormats. As much as two thirds of the dust and dirt in our homes is tracked in on our feet. Make sure you have doormats inside and outside your doors, ideally long enough to come in contact with your shoes for several footsteps. Vacuum the mats frequently.
• Shoes off, please! Taking your shoes off as you enter your home is even more effective than doormats at keeping dirt out. Make shoe removal convenient by putting a bench or chair near the door.
• Cover it up. Small mats or rugs on top of the carpet in heavily trafficked areas reduce wear and tear, extending the life of the carpet.
• Clean up spills immediately. To prevent ground in dirt and stains, vacuum dry spills right away and blot (don’t rub) wet spills with an absorbent cloth.
• Vacuum frequently. Frequent vacuuming, especially in high-traffic areas, keeps surface dirt from working its way deeper into the carpet fibers, where it can be harder to remove. Always vacuum before a deep cleaning for maximum effectiveness.

Checkout their great article listed above. Now that you see how the soil gets into your home you can now see how to take the best care of your indoor environment.

Hope this information is helpful…Until next time…I will be out carpet cleaning for awhile…Sean Mecham…Professional carpet cleaner providing carpet cleaning in Portland, OR

Moving is almost always a pain isn’t it? Not one of my favorite things to do. It always seems amazing at the amount of stuff that was somehow collected. The challenge of organizing and packaging possessions can be overwhelming.

The scary part after removing items is the amount of cleaning that is needed to get your apartment ready for the move out inspection. Once everything is removed from the apartment it is like, “hey where did that spot come from on the carpet, or I never noticed all that black stuff down there!”

With this article I will help provide some tips to get your apartment ready ready for the big day.

Everyday, I get calls about what to do to get the carpet ready for moving out of an apartment. One of the hard parts to moving is dealing with all of the spots on the carpet. There can be black spots, red spots, yellow spots, or pet urine on the carpet.

Who to Hire?

Now that you notice all of the spots there is the tough decision of what to do about them. I mean should you hire a professional carpet cleaner or do your own carpet cleaning? I understand that everyone has a budget when getting their carpets cleaned. I get that the main goal with apartments and cleaning the carpet is to get it clean enough to get the deposit back.

The deciding point about whether to hire a professional carpet cleaner or to do it your self is deciding who has the best chances of getting the spots out? Black Spots are pretty easy in most cases. The spot cleaner Folex, which is sold at Home Depot, is great at removing most stains. For red stains it may be best to call a professional carpet cleaner. Often red stains need special attention and using the wrong spot remover will permanently set the stain. Secret Tip: Using and “Oxy”gen based spot remover will set most red stains.

Pet urine removal is most often best performed by a professional carpet cleaner. Most of the products used to treat pet urine don’t work. If you want to understand pet urine and how to remove it click the pet urine link above.

If you want to do your own carpet cleaning here are some useful tips on how to do it yourself carpet cleaning. This will tell you how to setup a rented carpet cleaning machine to get the best results.

Not Just Carpet

Obviously there is more to preparing for a move out inspection than just cleaning the carpet. You still have to clean the rest of the house!

Here is a great article that proivdes step by step details and how to prepare your apartment for moving out:

How to Clean an Apartment Before Moving Out

• Find out whether your landlord or apartment complex automatically cleans the carpet, without charge to you, when you move out or whether they require you to have stayed in the apartment a certain number of years before they will waive the carpet cleaning. Spot clean tough stains with a spray-on carpet cleaner first, like Folex.
• Before painting make sure the apartment manager is not going to paint anyway
• If there is damage you want want to start a conversation with the manager of the apartment about what they might charge to fix it. They often get deals from contractors to help with their repairs.
• Check the list on the site above to make sure you have all the items you need before you begin cleaning.
• Have family or friends help you with the cleaning. You can bribe them with offers of free meals at your new place.
• Bring a radio to listen to while you clean.
• If viable, begin cleaning in the room farthest from the front door, working your way towards the door. This prevents you from cleaning yourself into a corner.
• Send your new address to the landlord, so they know where to mail your security deposit.
• Take photos after cleaning your apartment to show the condition if needed.
• Hold on tight to the various records associated with your stay, such as:
  • apartment lease or rental agreement
  • rent receipts or checks
  • a copy of all agreements regarding damages between you and the landlord
  • a copy of the letter sent to your landlord with your forwarding address

Now you have your list and it’s time to get to work!

Hope this information was helpful…Until next time…Take care Sean

Sean is the owner of Sean’s Carpet Care, providing Carpet Cleaning in Portland.

Do you know what one of the most controversial topics with carpet cleaning is? Controversy surrounds the question of which carpet cleaning machine to use to clean carpet.

Yes, i’m sure you’ve seen all of the ads and reviews for the best home steam carpet cleaners for the Do it Yourself Carpet Cleaners, but what about professional carpet cleaners? There a lot of great home carpet cleaning machines for quick removal of spots and stains around the house. It is true that professional cleaning services do the best job of getting dirt out of carpets, so here is some advanced carpet cleaning information to help choose the best carpet cleaner.

Which Professional Carpet Cleaning Machine is Best?

As a professional carpet cleaner providing carpet cleaning in Portland it is amazing to see the reaction I recieve from new clients with the results provided by my hot water steam cleaning machine, the Rotovac. Between professional carpet cleaners there is a lot of debate about which is the best carpet cleaning tool.

Did you know…Carpet cleaners are called steam cleaners or steam vacuums, but there’s actually no steam involved

For me and my clients I feel that rotary jet extraction is best and it takes hot water extraction carpet cleaning results to the extreme.

Ok, I said it! You know which carpet cleaning machine I like best and which one I use everyday. Now, I will explain the two most prominent carpet cleaning tools used by professional carpet cleaners everyday. I will explain the science of capret cleaning and the benefits and negatives of each carpet cleaning tool.

Most Common Carpet Cleaning Tools

When hiring a professional carpet cleaner you will often see them use a Wand carpet cleaning tool and every once in awhile you may see a carpet cleaner use what is called a rotary machine.

Don’t worry…I will explain everything in a moment

With professional carpet cleaning two of the most popular cleaning tools, that is with hot water steam cleaning, are the Wand and Rotary Jet Extraction.

With a wand the carpet only receives 1 or 2 cleaning passes over the carpet. One of the secrets to getting carpet as clean as possible is agitating the fibers to loosen up and suspend the soil.

With a carpet cleaning wand the only agitation provided is from the front of the tool. Limited amounts of agitation only provided mediocre results at breaking up difficult stains and soil.

One of the best carpet cleaning tools on the market is the Rotovac 360i. This tool

provides 250 cleaning passes per minute over the carpet. This tool uses almost four times the water as a normal carpet cleaning wand. Then a second pass is made over the carpet to extract excess water and soil. Did you know…Carpet that is left extremely wet is also left with a lot of soil!

Using a carpet cleaning machine like the Rotovac 360i your carpet fibers are left fluffy and as soft as possible.

Click Rotovac Carpet Cleaning in Portland to see to Rotovac in action!

When searching for the cheapest carpet cleaner or the best carpet cleaner to hire you now have some information to help select the best carpet cleaner for your investment.

I hope this information is helpful…Please let me know if you have any questions…Until next time…Sean

P.S. please use this information on your website, blog etc. Just please put a link to this post! Thank you!

Providing professional Carpet Cleaning in Portland I know a ton about the science of carpet cleaning. Not trying to brag, but I am an expert at pet urine removal, tile and grout cleaning, carpet cleaning, upholstery cleaning, and more. Everyday, I learn and sharpen my skills regarding the science involved in removing some of the toughest carpet stains. A professional carpet cleaner can help you with difficult stains that many customers think are impossible to remove.

Hey, I Understand

I understand that not everyone wants or can afford to hire a professional carpet cleaner. I always do my best to educate my new clients on how to take the best care of their home environment. To help here is a couple great tips of how to perform Do it Yourself Carpet Cleaning.

Soap Is Your Enemy

One of the problems with do it yourself carpet cleaning is not being able to rinse out all of the soap. When soap is left in the carpet it leaves the carpet sticky and crunchy. The left over soapy residue attracts dirt quickly and can make the carpet look worse than before it was cleaned. I understand that you may rinse the carpet over and over thinking you got all of the soap out, but guess what? It’s still there!

Stay with me for a minute…

Have you ever noticed the crusty soap built up around the soap dispenser at the sink? After removing all of the soap around the dispenser, please do me a favor. Please put some water on your finger and rub it around where the soap was. Guess what happens? It foams up because the soap is still there!

Follow the tips below to help improve your carpet cleaning efforts.

If you want to rent a carpet shampooer at your local grocery or hardware store and do your own carpet cleaning you need to know a couple professional carpet cleaning secrets.

First, make sure to not put soap into the rental machine. You should put soap in a separate spray bottle and manually spray the carpet first. Then work the soap gently into the carpet with a broom. Brushing the carpet agitates and loosens up the soil and making it easier to remove more soil than just plain carpet cleaning.

Before beginning the rinsing process put a small amount of vinegar in the tank where the soap usually goes. The vinegar will help to neutralize the soap cleaning solution. The vinegar will help neutralize the soap and improve your cleaning efforts.

Make sure to not over wet the carpets by making extra dry passes over the carpet.

Now, your cleaning efforts will greatly improve close to a professional carpet cleaner.

Here is a great article, written by a fellow carpet cleaner in Portland, that provides some great advanced carpet cleaning tips for the Do it Yourselfer.

Read here, Portland carpet cleaning pro gives tips for homeowners

I hope this information is helpful! Take care until next time…Sean

My company Sean’s Carpet Care has just received a new review from one of my customers that I provided Carpet Cleaning in Portland for.

“Sean has a great carpet cleaning machine & knows how to use it very professional & polite-our carpet in the house and motorhome looks great.”

Thank you very much Mr. Reitzenstein

You read the review and visit Mr. Reitzenstein’s business page at: http://www.merchantcircle.com/merchant/review/detail?id=1507737

I just received another great client review for my business Carpet Cleaning in Portland. This is a review from a proven top-producing Vancouver WA Realtor in Clark County, and the #1 un-assisted Coldwell Banker BSSP Realtor for SW Washington (2008, 2009, 2010)

Plus, he is a great guy to work with!

Yea! I just received a great review from one of my new clients on Angie’s List that I provided Carpet Cleaning in Portland for:

“Sean was a pleasure to deal with. Gave me a discount for  being an Angie’s list customer. We needed 2 very dirty bedroom floors cleaned on a home we just purchased which had been a foreclosure and was bank owned. Since we planned on eventually re-doing the rooms with wood flooring, we only needed clean carpet to live with for now, and Sean provided quick and very good service. We highly recommend him.”

Elke P. Portland, OR

Thank you! Sean

Have you thought about buying new carpet recently? I know that it can be tough to look down at your carpet sometimes. Does it make you feel like you don’t take the best care of your home?  Sometimes when I meet new clients that call my company for Carpet Cleaning in Portland and I see their homes and I never judge. I always mention that I am there to clean and not to judge.

Don’t feel bad! You know…With some types of carpet you can clean it until you feel like your arms are going to fall off and it will still look like it’s dirty! Often, people consider the reason their carpets look dirty after cleaning is due to wear.

Do you know…That what most people consider as wear in their carpet is actually damage. Wear is a legal term that addresses fiber loss. Some types of fiber don’t actually wear and what you are looking at is most likely damage. I hear about wear everyday and educate my clients on the difference between wear and damage.

When searching for the type of carpet that will work best for your situation you should consult a good Carpet Buying Guide. As a professional carpet cleaner I meet clients with all types of carpet fibers. Carpet fibers are generally comprised of wool, nylon, polyester, olefin, and a few new ones. Each of these fibers can have different weaves like Frieze, Berber, Loop Pile, cut loop, and many others.

My favorite type of carpet fiber is nylon. But choosing a fiber for your next carpet does depend on the type of traffic that will run running across it on a daily basis.

Before choosing carpet I would recommend looking at StainMaster’s Carpet Buying Guide. When choosing new carpet you will learn about carpet styles & construction, importance of padding, carpet installation, and more!

So before looking at buying new carpet do some research and pick the best fiber and style to suit your needs. TIP: After getting your carpet installed make sure to read the warranty information and make to sure to note the recommended cleaning frequency. You definitely want to maintain your new carpet warranty.

I hope this information is helpful! Until next time take care….Sean

P.S. Please use this info on your blogs or where ever just please hit me with a trackback. Thanks!

Your home is your castle. When you own a castle you need to make sure you perform regular and proper maintenance. One of the goals with my website it help people learn how to take care of their home environment. Often, i’ve noticed that there are a lot of maintenance tasks that get over looked.

With owning a home you need to make sure to regularly clean the heating filters, carpets, hardwood floors, tile & grout, and counter tops. One other important maintenance tip is to take care of your lawn. One major problem with lawns that leaves homeowners at a loss for answers is How to Identify and Control Snow Mold Lawn Fungus. Check out the website link above for the answer on how to identify the mold and treat it yourself.

For more information on how to take the best care of your indoor environment, please check out my website. Hope this info helps…..Sean

My website: Carpet Cleaning Portland