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Carpet cleaning requires a cleaner to do an outstanding job, because in Jacksonville, there are several options available that will produce a variety of results. The variety is based on the variations of the different methods of cleaning on the market. The carpet cleaning industry’s central certification body, the IICRC, recognizes several methods of carpet cleaning. These methods include the following:

• Shampoo: a method using a shower fed rotary brush scrubber, that dispenses a solution that cleans the carpet.
• Bonnet cleaning: a solution (always a water based solution) is applied with a pump sprayer and a clean pad or “bonnet” is rotated over the carpet transferring the soil into the pad. (this method is the basis of most dry cleaning advertised as “dry cleaning”)
• Dry particle method. In this method, a corn husk (or other dry carrier) is ground up and a solvent is applied to them. This powder is then applied to the carpet and then vacuumed up taking along with it the carpet soil.
• Hot water extraction or steam cleaning. In this method, the carpet is cleaned using a portable or truck mounted cleaning machine that injects hot water to the carpet surface with a row of inline sprayers. Right next to these sprayers is a suction port that extracts the spent solution to a holding tank.

All of these methods (according to the IICRC) require the carpet to be vacuumed before it is cleaned. It is a fact that 80% of carpet soil is dry particles that must be vacuumed out before cleaning.

We clean carpet using a commercial pile lifting vacuum cleaner. Following this vacuuming we use a multi-brush machine that spins both clockwise and counter clockwise to apply or cleaning solution. After allowing this solution to dwell we extract using the hot water extraction method listed above.

There are several things that complicate life for the carpet cleaner, but the biggest one has got to be the explosion over the last 10 years of white/off white carpet installs. Years ago when I first got into the cleaning business homes were carpeted with a variety of colors – greens, mauve, blue made up the bulk, but there were also rust, browns and even red. Today when we see a colored carpet, we congratulate the owner and tell them they are indeed a rare breed. I would guess if we knocked on 100 doors in our market we would see less than ten with color.

The reasons (and these are anecdotal BTW) for this I believe are twofold: 1- if you are moving (and everybody is moving up these days) a neutral color will make the house easier to sell. 2- the advent of the stain resistant warranty. This also includes the fact some fibers like olefin are sold as stain resistant.

Also what complicates life for the cleaner is that there are so many people that are at home all day. Retirement, unemployment, home offices all cause use to be greater than in days gone by when everybody went to work at 730 and returned home at 530.

So how to deal with the soiled white carpet that the owner is careless with because they have a stain resistant warranty and are home all day because their office has been transferred.

It is our opinion that the elements cleaning must be used as never before. A few of these elements:

1. Vacuuming before cleaning – this is best done with a commercial pile lifter.
2. Pre conditioning using a device that will agitate and lubricate the entire fiber. For this we believe the Cimex is the only product we know of that actually cleans all sides of the fiber because the deck spins both clockwise and counter clockwise.
3. A chemical needs to be applied that will a- clean the carpet and b- not be too high a ph as to void the stain resistant warranty
4. Time for the preconditioner to dwell in the carpet so that the chemical will work. Cleaners will ignore this requirement more than any other.
5. Heat during the extraction process. Notice how many steps we talk about before we even consider using the heated extraction. For me, the extraction is more a finishing step than a sole method of cleaning the carpet.

If the cleaner uses the above factors in proper combination, the cleaning will be excellent.