Principals of Carpet Cleaning- Highlands Ranch CO

All carpet cleaning methods utilize four principals of cleaning; dry soil removal, soil suspension, extraction, and drying. each of these for principals are used each time you perform carpet cleaning (please no shortcuts or results will be diminished)

Dry Soil Removal - Dry soil removal is the first step in carpet cleaning. Carpet cleaning chemicals (soil suspension) cannot break down dry soil (it is insoluble), so you must make an effort to remove as much dry soil as possible before you apply carpet chemicals. Your cleaning chemical will try to break down these insoluble dry soils, but chemical usefulness will be weakened (or overcome) in its attempt to suspend these soils and cleaning result will be diminished. Dry soil removal amounts to simply vacuuming! Before you begin to clean vacuum the area you are about to clean THOROUGHLY. One or two passes may not be enough. In doorways, 10-12 slow, deliberate passes will remove about 60% of the dry soil. The more dry soil you remove, the better the carpet cleaning chemical will be able to break down soluble soils.

Soil Suspension - Soil suspension is the use of a detergent to attach to soluble soil (soil that dissolves in water) particles. If you are interested in understanding the chemistry of how this works, be sure to review our other sections of Do-it-yourself carpet cleaning.

Soil suspension also has 4 principals. Each must be used in careful balance. If you subtract or limit one of the principals, you must increase the other three. These include:

Time - Your chemicals need time to work. I have always found it is best to apply the chemical as a prespray and allow 5-7 minutes for the chemical to begin breaking down soil.

Agitation - Once the prespray has been applied to the carpet, it should be agitated or scrubbed. A pile rake works well in working the chemical into the carpet pile, dislodging soil, and helping the chemical break down soluble soil.

Chemical - The quality f your chemical significantly impacts your cleaning result. If you are using a poor quality chemical you must increase the other three principals

Temperature - The higher the temperature, the better. For every 18 degree increase in cleaning temperature above 140 degrees, cleaning effectiveness is doubled.

The fourth principal of Cleaning is drying. You must get the carpet dry within 8 hours or mold can develop.

This should provide a basic overview of carpet cleaning. For a step-by-step procedure for cleaning carpet, visit our website and our steps for DIY Cleaning page. We have two pages. The DIY Methods page explains basics our professional cleaning methods section explains each cleaning method. Subsections include dry foam cleaning, dry powder cleaning, steam cleaning, rotary bonnet, and rotary shampoo.

For more detailed explanations of carpet care and carpet cleaning, visit our commercial carpet maintenance and commercial carpet cleaning section which provides a more detailed explanation of how to clean carpet.

For all your carpet cleaning needs call: TLC Carpet Care Today:720.314.0178