Sean's Carpet Care

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

More destructive to carpet than spills is soil! Yes, it’s true. The soil in the carpet causes the carpet fiber to distort (change shape) and cause what looks like wear. Spills are usually not that much of a concern for a professional carpet cleaner, since most can be removed making your carpets look like new again.

The real problem is the soil left in the carpet that acts like sandpaper damaging the face yarns of the carpet fibers. Everyday, in my Portland Carpet Cleaning business I see carpet that if it was regularly maintained through vacuuming and cleaning it would stay looking like new. It is sad to see some carpet that with a little maintenance would have still looked great but now looks older than it should. I can get out all of the soil and fluff up the carpets, but the distorted fibers get to stay.

One of the best ways to maintain indoor air quality and keep healthy happy carpets is to provide regularly scheduled vacuuming and carpet cleaning. Here is a great article written by Veronica Harley to help Get Rid of Dust Bunnies For Good: Top Rated Vacuum Cleaners

Hope this information is helpful…Until next time…Sean

Have you looked down at the dirty traffic lanes and wondered what caused them?

Okay, it may seem obvious that soil is causing the traffic lanes to look dirty, but is it?

When soil is left in the traffic lanes they begin to sand the fibers and dull the fibers. Cleaning will remove the soil, but nothing fixes fibers that have been scratched from abrasion.

To understand the damage abrasion causes to carpet imagine this simple example. Imagine holding a clear acrylic tube. Half of the tube is clear, like new, and the other half is scratched. The difference between the two ends of the tube is that one end is shiny and the other end is dull. Also, there is the same amount of plastic on each end of the tube. This is important point that we’ll get to in a minute.

Now, when carpet gets scratched from abrasion it becomes dull. The dull areas of the carpet reflects light differently than the new or lightly traveled areas. So after removing the soil from the carpet it will still look a little darker than the other areas of the carpet that have not suffered from abrasion.

Abrasion can be mild to severe and is not actually wear. Remember where I stated that the same amount of plastic is on each end of the tube? Well the fiber that has been scratched has the same amount of fiber when it was new. The only difference now is that the fiber has been scratched, but there still is about the same amount of fiber when it was new. Therefore this situation is not wear. Now you know the difference between wear and abrasion.

See the reason why is is a good idea to have your carpets cleaned at least every 12-months? If you need help with your carpets, please give your local Portland Carpet Cleaner a call at 503-922-4875 or info@seanscarpetcare.com