Why Should You Choose Professional Carpet Cleaning?

Many homeowners shy away from professional carpet cleaning, assuming it is an unessential task that doesn’t have a place in their budget. However, the benefits of professional carpet cleaning certainly outweigh the costs. This is because professional carpet cleaners can help extend your carpet’s lifespan, offer a deeper clean than you could achieve with DIY methods, and make your home more comfortable.

At Chem-Dry, we understand that homeowners often forget about cleaning their carpets. After all, when it’s constantly underfoot, your carpet follows the old adage “out of sight, out of mind.” Moreover, since your carpet gradually becomes dirtier, you may not even realize the difference that deep carpet cleaning could make. 

Of course, these perceptions don’t change the reality that your carpet requires regular cleaning. Understanding the drawbacks of DIY carpet cleaning, as well as the cost-benefit analysis of professional carpet cleaning, can help you make the decision to invest in a professional service for the benefit of your family’s comfort and your wallet.

Mistakes Our Professional Carpet Cleaning Technicians Often See Homeowners Make

Chem-Dry technicians have plenty of experience providing transformative carpet cleaning services and helping homeowners better understand how to care for their carpets. Unfortunately, we often see homeowners make mistakes when it comes to basic care and maintenance for their carpets, not to mention deep cleaning. 

Here are some common errors that may be contributing to your carpets’ need for more frequent professional cleaning:

Not vacuuming often enough.

You know that regular vacuuming plays a key role in keeping your home clean and comfortable. However, you may not realize just how often your carpets need to be vacuumed and how this practice can help protect them from premature damage. 

Our professional carpet cleaning team recommends vacuuming weekly at a minimum. If you have pets, children, or wear shoes in the home, you’ll likely need to vacuum more frequently. Regular vacuuming can help you see a difference in the texture of your carpet and can stave off discoloration. 

Not giving high-traffic areas adequate protection.

Your carpet is built to take a beating. The issue is that certain areas are going to have significantly more exposure to foot traffic, and general wear and tear, than others. To slow the damage to these areas, and extend the lifespan of your carpeting as a whole, we recommend using an area rug or runner. 

Depending on the layout of your home and the habits of your family, you may lay down this added protection in the entryway, hallway, stairway, or other areas that experience near-constant use. 

Scrubbing at spots and stains.

When an accidental spill occurs, it can be tempting to grab a towel or sponge and start aggressively rubbing the affected area. In your mind, you’re scrubbing the stain out. In reality, this motion will actually scrub the stain in.

When you apply rigorous pressure to a spot, you’re encouraging the stain-causing substance to seep deeper into the textile fibers that make up your carpet, adding to the risk that the stain will become permanent. Instead of rubbing, always aim to dab at stains. The goal is to absorb excess liquid before it can penetrate deeper into the carpet.

A Cost-Benefit Analysis of Professional Carpet Cleaning

Next, let’s take a look at a cost-benefit analysis of getting started with professional carpet cleaning:

Professionals Can Bring Your Carpet Back to Life

Without professional cleaning, which goes in-depth to reach the dirt and grime located near your carpet’s backing, carpets show visible signs of dirt and wear. These telltale signs may not be noticeable to the naked eye, but you might be able to smell them. Nothing says it’s well past time to clean your carpet like a dusty, musty smell permeating your home or the odor of pet accidents whose residues were not properly removed from the carpet.

Professionals Can Extend Your Carpet’s Lifespan

In addition to eventually looking and smelling unappealing, a carpet that isn’t professionally cleaned is likely to break down faster than a carpet that is cared for by a professional cleaning company. 

There are a few reasons for this. One is that professionals know how to remove embedded dirt and grime that can be almost impossible for homeowners to wash away without professional equipment.

Another is that professionals know how to clean carpets in a gentle but effective manner that won’t damage delicate fibers. When carpets are vigorously rubbed or soaked with water and detergents, they can suffer irreparable damage that eventually necessitates replacement. 

Professionals Can Help You Maintain Your Carpet’s Warranty

Many carpet manufacturers offer warranties that give consumers peace of mind when investing in a new carpet. However, in many cases, these warranties are only valid if the carpet is properly maintained. 

Some manufacturers require proof that the carpet has been cared for in line with their specific instructions. These instructions often include professional cleaning on a set schedule. As a result, professional carpet cleaning can protect your carpet as well as its warranty.

The Risks of Skipping Professional Carpet Cleaning

Choosing to invest in professional cleaning doesn’t only offer a number of benefits for homeowners. It also prevents a number of negative consequences. Here are some of the costs associated with not calling on professionals to clean your carpet:

• The need for untimely replacement. As your carpet becomes compacted with dust and dirt, its fibers will weaken, leaving them vulnerable to damage and initiating early shedding. The cost of replacing your carpet entirely is significantly higher than investing in preventative care.
• A less attractive home environment. Your home should be a comfortable space in which you can fully relax. Carpet stains and evidence of traffic patterns are distracting and can keep your home from feeling like the oasis you once hoped for. 
• Negative impact on quality of life. When your carpets are dirty, stained, or showing wear, you may find that you’re less willing to invite friends and family over due to discomfort about how your carpet looks. While this doesn’t add up to a financial cost, it can definitely impact your quality of life.

Choosing the Right Professional Carpet Cleaning Service

It’s important to realize that not all professional carpet cleaning services are the same. Different cleaning companies use different cleaning methods, tools, and formulas, all of which can impact carpets and generate different results. 

Here’s a look at problems some carpet cleaning companies leave behind and what makes Chem-Dry different.

Reappearance of Spots

The recurrence of spots and stains, also known as carpet wicking, can be particularly frustrating for homeowners who call on professional carpet cleaning services to help them get rid of annoying spots and stains. Wicking typically occurs when deep-set dirt and grime is not removed during a cleaning process that only lifts away stains from the upper portion of the carpet.

Steam cleaning, which uses high volumes of liquid and results in long dry times, can also cause wicking to occur. The excess liquid floods the carpet backing, and dirt will be drawn up to the top as carpet fibers dry, leading to the reappearance of spots soon after the cleaning appointment.

Carpet Browning

You want your carpets to look fresh and renewed, but inappropriate cleaning can actually do the opposite. If you’ve ever seen carpet browning occur after professional carpet cleaning, you may be wondering why you spent the money to have your carpets cleaned in the first place. 

Carpet browning most commonly occurs after the steam cleaning method is used and requires re-cleaning to fix. There are a few reasons why carpets can turn brown following steam cleaning, including changes in the carpet’s pH resulting from the use of a high pH detergent. 

Some homeowners also find that carpets can resoil quickly after a visit from steam cleaners because the soapy residue left behind during traditional steam cleaning acts as a magnet for soil, making carpets look brown soon after cleaning.

Bubbling, Rippling, and Sticky Residue

In addition to discoloration, there are also problems related to texture that can rear their ugly heads when carpet cleaning goes awry. Bubbling and rippling are most common when too much liquid is used to clean the carpet. 

While this odd appearance can sometimes be temporary due to latex displacement that resolves as the carpet dries out, this isn’t always the case. The more often the carpet backing is exposed to flooding through cleaning methods that rely on high volumes of water, the more likely that it will start breaking down, leading to a bubbling and wrinkling effect.

A sticky texture, in contrast, is the result of using sudsy detergents that aren’t properly washed away during steam cleaning. In addition to trapping dirt and grime in the carpet and causing the need for more frequent cleaning, such a texture can also be unpleasant on bare feet, making your carpet less enjoyable when you want it to feel springy, plush, and fresh. 

Excess Moisture Left in Your Carpets

With traditional steam cleaning methods, carpets can remain moist for days at a time. This is not only a huge inconvenience when it comes to your day-to-day routine, but it also creates a dangerous breeding ground for mold and mildew. Should these contaminants gain a foothold in your carpets following cleaning, you’ll be back at square one, with new, unpleasant odors to deal with.

Reduce the Risk of Buyer’s Remorse with Our Professional Carpet Cleaning Process 

At Chem-Dry, we have developed a proprietary carpet cleaning process that avoids the trappings of traditional steam cleaning, providing better results that leave homeowners satisfied with their investment. Because our Hot Carbonating Extraction process (HCE) uses a detergent-free cleaning solution along with the power of carbonation, there's no risk of leaving behind a soapy residue that can cause carpet browning or an unpleasant texture. 

Furthermore, HCE uses approximately 80% less water than steam cleaning. This dramatically reduces dry times to lower the chances of both wicking and rippling. When Chem-Dry cleans your carpets, your family can get back to a regular routine while enjoying cleaner, more attractive carpets within just a few hours.

Finally, our professional carpet cleaning process is designed to extract dirt from the depths of the carpet’s base, removing even stubborn soil from near the backing. Thanks to the deep clean HCE provides, you won’t have to worry about spots reappearing after a visit from our technicians.

Are you ready to get started with a professional carpet cleaning service that provides better results than DIY and goes above and beyond what other companies can offer? Simply connect with a Chem-Dry technician in your area by calling (800) CHEM-DRY today!