Common Commercial Carpet Cleaning Mistakes

Carpets make our offices and workplaces look professional, but there are costly mistakes that can make them look old beyond their age. One of the most common mistake is the lack of adequate vacuuming. This is critical to the carpet’s health, because almost 90 percent of the carpet’s soiling is dry soil. Vacuuming easily removes dry soil. If you omit vacuuming, then there will be more work and added stress to your carpeting as the dry soil turns to sticky mud due to moist.

“Remember that using water will turn dry soil to mud, which is more difficult to remove compared to when it is dry”, says Victor Nugent, Owner of AJS Carpet Cleaning, Inc. located in Orem, Provo Utah. Furthermore, a wet carpet can attract more dirt. If the people who manage the cleaning in the building skip this step, do not expect it to look good as with a correctly maintained carpet.

However, not all manner of vacuuming is particularly effective.

The synthetic fibers that commercial carpets are usually made with can be scratched with improper vacuuming, so take note. If the fibers are abraded, it can’t be fixed and returned to its original appearance.

Dry soil removal isn’t the only problem though. During intensive cleaning, a whole lot more of the mistakes will pop up. Using too much water and soap and not rinsing enough is yet another of those mistakes.

If the soap remains, it will create a negative charge that attracts far more soil than it used to. This is a costly misstep. If you read the carpet’s manufacturer warranty disclaimer, any improper cleaning will void the carpet’s warranty.

Another mistake is the use of too much force during wet cleaning due to deep extraction. This is because of the adhesives used in the carpet’s foundation, which is impacted when too much force is applied. If the water is not fully taken out, the encircling areas can be affected with molds and mildews. It can also result to accidents due to the carpet being slippery.

This is where low moisture cleaning or encapsulation methodology comes in. As with everything, it should also be used with care.

Before we continue, remember that the mistakes discussed vary on the goal at hand whether it is maintenance, surface clean or deep carpet cleaning. Low moisture or encapsulation cleaning has its disadvantages too, as the chemical used can build up over time and degrade carpet’s appearance. In this process, the chemical is sprayed into the carpet and wait until the chemical crystallizes, or ‘encapsulates’ the soil it is laid over with. Using this method uses little water, compared to other methods such as hot water extraction carpet cleaning.

However, if time is of the essence, then this process is not for you as it takes almost 24 hours for the chemicals to be completely dried and the encapsulation complete. After which, the bead-like crystals can be removed with regular vacuuming.

So is it this the perfect solution? No, far from it, as stated earlier, the wait time is too long and if the carpet is overly saturated with soil, then it undermines its effectiveness. One can greatly assume that rigid vacuuming before applying the encapsulation is a must, but that is for another issue to contend with.

Typically, the chemical covers only light soiling and cannot dissolve dry soil or sand completely, what it dissolves is the sticky stuff that adheres the soil to the carpet.

Encapsulation can’t be used with all type of soils, such as those found in factories, restaurants, movie theaters and the like where soils are more greasy in nature.

The dried crystals need to be removed through vacuuming since its efficacy will be negated if the beads come in contact with moisture.

As such, equipment plays an important part on low moisture, or encapsulation process. There is danger of leaving out residual crystals on traffic lanes if wrong equipment is used, which can cause minor damage over time.