| | Misconception 1 |
| | You Should Wait as Long as Possible Before Cleaning Your Carpets Because Once They’re Cleaned They’ll Get Dirty Faster |
| | False. Dirt is an abrasive—like sand paper. Every time you step on the carpet, you grind dirt into your carpet fibers. This cuts your carpet, just as if you had used a knife, causing it to wear out faster. A dirty carpet will not last nearly as long as a clean one. And while vacuuming helps, by itself it’s simply not enough. The longer you wait to have your carpet cleaned, the more permanent the traffic lanes become, the more damage you do to your carpet, and the faster it wears out. |
| | Misconception 2 |
| | The Only Reason to Clean Carpet is to Get the Dirt Out |
| | False. As you probably know, outdoor air contains pollen, fungus, bacteria, air pollution, cigarette smoke, car exhaust, and hundreds of other chemicals. When you and your family members come into your home, you carry those pollens, bacteria, and chemicals on your skin, hair, clothing, and shoes. Not surprisingly, all those chemicals pollens and bacteria end up—you guessed it—in your carpet. |
| | Misconception 3 |
| | One Method of Carpet Cleaning is as Good as Another |
| | No. There are two primary methods—dry cleaning or hot water extraction. |
| | Dry Cleaning. Many people believe that dry cleaning your carpet is like dry cleaning your clothing. This is not true. All carpet cleaning methods use water in one form or another. Here are the 3 variations of dry cleaning. |
| | When a cleaner uses the Dry Foam method, he applies shampoo to your carpet, allows it to dry, then sucks the dry shampoo into a vacuum. Can you imagine applying shampoo to your hair, allowing it to dry and then removing the shampoo from your head with a vacuum? This method can leave residue in your carpet, which is one reason dry foam is not very effective. |
| | The Dry-Chem method is similar to dry foam. The major difference is that when Dry-Chem is used, the company sets a large cotton bonnet on your carpet. Using a machine, the bonnet spins from side to side, absorbing the dirt that’s in the carpet. After the bonnet is saturated with dirt, another cotton bonnet is applied. Bonnet cleaning is like trying to use a large towel to rub the dirt out of your carpet. Like Dry Foam, Dry-Chem is not very effective. |
| | The Dry Compound method spreads an absorbent mixture that looks like wet sawdust all over your carpeting. Then the machine brushes the mixture into the carpet, which in theory causes the dirt to absorb into the mixture. When the mixture has dried, a vacuum cleaner sucks the material out of the carpet. Because the carpet is not rinsed in any way, this method is not very effective. |
| | Hot Water Extraction. This is a fancy way of saying that a hot water cleaning solution under high pressure is forced into the carpet and sucked out of the carpet. This method is also referred to as steam cleaning even though steam is not used. |
| | Shaw Industries, the world’s largest carpet manufacturer recommends hot water extraction cleaning only. In fact the director of technical services at Shaw stated that in their testing every other process was merely rearranging the dirt. Here’s the link to that information: |
| | You can choose from two types of hot water extraction—portable extraction which is done with a small machine, or truck mount extraction which means a large cleaning machine is mounted in a truck or van. Not surprisingly, the truck mount extraction cleans much better because it heats the water to over 200 degrees and shoots the cleaning solution into the carpet at around 400 lbs. of pressure, which breaks up the dirt and kills the bacteria and germs. Then the machine uses high-powered suction to draw the dirt out of the carpet. In effect the carpet is sanitized due to the high water temperature, and only truck-mounted “steam cleaning” can accomplish this. Complete Carpet Care uses this method and carpets dry in about 2 hours, the same as the so-called “dry” processes. We use a Prochem machine, the industry leader. |
| | Methods that use cold and even warm water remove dirt—but are not nearly as effective as the hot-water truck mounted method. No question, the most effective way to clean carpeting is with a hot water extraction unit mounted in a truck. It’s the most powerful cleaning machine on the market and the only machine that thoroughly cleans your carpet and rids it of dirt, harmful bacteria, fungus, chemicals, pollens, and tobacco residue. |
| | Misconception 4 |
| | Having the Right Equipment is All a Bellevue Carpet Cleaning Company Needs to Clean Your Carpet Properly... |
| | Sorry, this one’s false too. That’s like saying anyone with a set of wrenches can fix your car. |
| | Many companies own hot-water cleaners, but a large number of their employees don’t know how to use the machines. These companies use similar equipment and produce very different results in the quality of their cleaning. The company may own good equipment, but the technician may have only two weeks’ experience. Employee turnover with large franchise-type operations is very high. Many of our clients have told us how they used to use a large franchise cleaning company in the past and their service was always dependent on who was sent out to the job. Sometimes it was okay and other times a nightmare—they never knew what to expect. |
| | This is why it’s important to choose your carpet cleaner carefully. |
| | Misconception 5 |
| | The Bellevue Carpet Cleaning Company That Offers the Lowest Price is the One You Should Hire... |
| | Maybe… but not always. A couple of points to consider: |
| | The price you see offered may not be for the services you want performed |
| | Before you select a company, decide what you want to accomplish. If you want the carpet cleaner to remove only some of the dirt, you can choose from hundreds of companies that use small shampooers and other cleaning methods. You can even rent a machine at the grocery store and do the job yourself. |
| | On the other hand, if you want your carpet thoroughly cleaned—if you want to remove the harmful dirt, bacteria, pollens, chemicals and tobacco residues—then you need to hire a company that uses a hot-water cleaner mounted in a truck. |
| | So remember that the price you see offered may not be for the services you want performed. |
| | The price you see advertised may not be the price you pay |
| | Many homeowners have discovered after the fact that the low price they saw advertised was not the price they were charged. |
| | If you’ve ever hired a carpet cleaner, you too may have been the victim of false or misleading advertising. You probably learned the hard way that some carpet cleaners advertise a cheap price and then pressure you into paying a lot more once they get inside your home. Some may even break the law by using illegal bait and switch tactics. |
| | As in all businesses and professions, the carpet cleaning industry has its share of bad apples—some unethical and a few dishonest. By their misleading advertising and false promises, they cast a dark shadow on our entire industry. The good news is that there are also honest Bellevue carpet cleaners—professionals like us who work hard to earn your trust and respect. |