What Chemicals are Involved in Carpet Cleaning?

Choosing a Carpet Cleaning Company is a Question of Chemicals

If your home has carpets, you’re constantly locked in a futile struggle to keep them looking as good as possible. Sure, you can ask everybody to take their shoes off when they visit and follow that up with obsessive vacuuming to keep dirt from getting ground in, but the sad reality is that all carpets eventually get dirty. Whether it’s grime from everyday traffic, stains from spilled drinks or mishaps from children and pets, sooner or later you’ll require the services of an expert.

Once you make the decision to hire professional carpet cleaners, it’s important to consider exactly how a company plans to make your floors look new again. Different cleaning methods require different ingredients, and before you make up your mind, you should see if a company matches well with your needs. Here’s how the two major cleaning styles differ when it comes to applying chemicals to your carpet.

The Old Method: Traditional Steam Cleaning

It takes a lot of work to loosen dirt from carpet fibers. Steam cleaners accomplish this by completely saturating your floors with a high pressure solution of chemicals and water. Without the power of carbonation, these companies have to rely on chemical soaps and detergents to stop grime from hanging on, and the process is much less efficient.

Because of the diminished efficiency, steam cleaners have to pump more and more water and detergent into your carpet to finish the job. As a result, your carpets could take days and sometimes weeks to finish drying, and even then, you could end up with a sticky film that coats the entire floor. Since that residue is made up from dried detergents, your carpet is essentially coated with a layer of chemicals, and the stickiness can actually cause your carpet to rapidly attract dirt and accumulate dirt faster.

Now don’t get me wrong, there are some good and reputable steam cleaners out there, but because of the low set up costs for these types of businesses, the market is flooded by untrained cowboys that are causing some major damage to carpets across Melbourne.

The New Way: Clean and Green

As an alternative to chemical-laden steam cleaning, consider using a company that uses a hot water carbonating method to clean your carpets. Instead of using detergents to loosen particulates, carbonating cleaners use millions of tiny bubbles to pull dirt out of your floors. Since this method doesn’t rely on soaps or phosphates, you’re left with a truly clean carpet with no sticky residue after everything is dry. Your floors will stay cleaner longer, and it’s safer for your children and pets. As an added bonus, since this method uses 80% less water, drying is done within a few hours.

With this method you are also ensured that you are utilizing the services of a fully trained professional, as these businesses (ChemDry) uses only patented cleaning equipment which is only supplied to the company after full training is completed and after ongoing contracts are signed to guarantee workmanship.

The Bottom Line

The market is full of carpet cleaning companies competing for your business, and it’s important to choose a business that’s the most compatible with your lifestyle. If a house with a minimal amount of chemicals is important to you, a company that uses a hot carbonating technique is probably the best way to go. It’s better for the environment, prolongs the life of your carpets, and it’s safer for your family.