How to buy a Carpet

WHAT CAN YOU EXPECT IN CARPET CLEANING

Carpet comes as wool, wool mix or polypropylene. The ease of cleaning and wear depends on which you buy. Wools and wool mixes clean easier than an all-polypropylene carpet but this takes a lot to wear out, if it wears out at all. So there are several ways to deal with carpet.

  • 1. Buy a very expensive wool carpet and ensure the surface is treated with stain resistant coating. Then keep it that way. And get rid of all pets and children. Take off your shoes.
  • 2. Buy a wool mix and do likewise, but be aware of the need for clean.
  • 3. Buy something really cheap and get rid of it in two years or so (although we know of one which is 30 years old, has never been cleaned, and looks about the same as it did 25 years ago - so you never can tell)
  • 4. Buy the carpet in a colour fitting to your purpose. Having once had a relative with a pure white shag pile the practicalities of visiting with three small children should be obvious. Worse, later, when an ex- lover slit his wrists over it at the end of a happy romance. Then there was the chap who wanted us to clean a spilt meal from the night before - on a very pale green plush carpet. There were tears after bedtime, the stains were so fixed the carpet needed replacement. Let this be a lesson. Probably dark brown to hide everything you throw at it, is the only practical choice. We've seen a white carpet in a nightclub - no, no, not at all.
  • 5. Move your furniture around to reduce patchy wear

    • WHEN CARPET CLEANING DOESNT WORK

  • 1 When you have a polypropylene carpet and it is really dirty. You'll just cry over the results. Rip it up and start again.
  • 2. When you've got hundreds of dirty feet walking over it all day long, and a very poor vacuum cleaner to clean it. Oh and lots of chewing gum ground in it.
  • 3. When you have water marks in it owing to the fact that the roof leaks on to it. Or oils and greases from a shop floor
  • 4. On a worn - out with the carpet.
  • 5 On carpet tiles of any description

    • You will get a cleaner carpet if you get the carpet cleaned when it looks soiled. And treat your stains immediately. You will look at all sorts of systems The truck -mounted ones wash and blow dry your carpet The dry cleaners use a powder to clean by releasing carbon dioxide gas on contact with water. The residue sits in the bottom of your carpet in a solid splodge and is extremely difficult to remove, subsequently.
    The others usually use wand -type and/or bonnet machines - unless the detergent is extremely good, expect to be sort of disappointed with the carpet. The number of times we went to clean a carpet to find old detergent foaming in our machines, or old dry powder which wouldn't move from the pile. The carpet should be bone- dry within an hour The effectiveness of the clean really depends on the effectiveness of the vacuum cleaner, and the detergent, in the carpet cleaning machine.
    Steaming can shrink your carpet very quickly, and you still have to remove excess water out of the carpet. Only use dry steaming, but don't rely too much on it as a method.

    VACUUM CLEANER CLEANING

    Yes! They do need cleaning. Filters should be cleaned out after use - and in a house they will get very clogged up, very quickly. The best buy is a cylinder vacuum cleaner with a series of filters designed to trap the finest particles. Now follow the manufacturers instructions, regarding paper filters and wash out fabric ones.
    Bags should be changed, not re-used, but also look for bagless machines if cost is likely to be a problem here. The favoured vacuum cleaner for anyone, though, should be a wet/dry machine. Think of the variety of uses it has. You can really wash these out if having to clean up in a very dusty atmosphere, but they work in any circumstances, anywhere.
    (We have emptied drains, oil pits and moved gallons of grease and water, with one of these and the machine comes through OK) We find that a wet/dry works as well in comparisonto a dry vacuum cleaner. For good air quality, you should find a cylinder vacuum cleaner much better to use than an upright machine. The machine is away from you, rather than you having to work over the top of it. You do get a certain amount of dust leakage from the air filters, this will be worse if you have to clean in a very dusty atmosphere.
    If you have two vacuum cleaners, use one to clean out the other - the filters, the seals, the pipework and the body of the machine, and the motor and its housing. Otherwise clean all these areas out with a brush to loosen the embedded dust.
    By cleaning all the areas of your machine you will extend its life and save you some money in not having to replace burned-out motors. And finally, don’t forget to wash the head and tools.

    Previous page