Carpet Cleaner Buyer's Guide

LIES, MYTHS AND LEGENDS COMMON MISCONCEPTIONS ABOUT CARPET CLEANING

Myth #1: YOU SHOULD WAIT AS LONG AS POSSIBLE BEFORE CLEANING YOUR CARPET.
No. Dirt is abrasive, like sandpaper. Every time you step on your carpet, you grind dirt into the carpet fibers. This grinding action cuts your carpet, just as if you had used a knife. This cutting causes your carpet to wear out faster. A dirty carpet will not last as long as a clean carpet. And while vacuuming helps-by itself, it’s simply not enough. The longer you wait to have your carpets cleaned, the more damage you do to your carpet and the faster it wears out.
Myth#2: THE ONLY REASON TO CLEAN CARPETS IS TO REMOVE DIRT.
No. As you probably know, outdoor air contains pollens, fungus, bacteria, cigarette smoke, and car exhaust-and hundreds of other chemicals. When you come into your building, you carry those pollens, bacteria, and chemicals in your hair and on your skin, clothing and shoes. Not surprisingly, due to the law of gravity, all those chemicals and toxins wind up in your carpet. If anyone at your business has asthma, allergies, emphysema, and other breathing problems-one major source of your problem could be all the pollens, fungus, smoke and chemicals in your carpet.
The good news is, your carpet is actually the most effective air filter in your facility. It filters out and traps the dust, dirt, pollens, toxins and pollutants. But, like any filter, it needs to be cleaned from time to time so its filtration efficiency can be restored.
Myth #3: ONE METHOD OF CARPET CLEANING IS AS GOOD AS ANOTHER.
No. The dry cleaning methods-which are dry foam, dry chemicals, and dry compound-do not rinse your carpet in any way. Instead, they leave a soapy residue. You might say they clean your carpet halfway. One of the most effective methods is hot water extraction.
Hot water extraction means a hot water cleaning solution, under high pressure, is forced into your carpet and then sucked out of your carpet. Shaw Industries, the world’s largest carpet manufacturer, recommends hot water extraction as one of the primary method of cleaning carpets. This is the one of the two go to methods my company, Santos Carpet Cleaning, uses. And many cleaning experts will use hot water extraction as their primary method of cleaning.
With that said, cleaning technologies has advanced over the years. Encapsulation, which we will discuss further in this guide is one such new technology. It uses polymers and emulsifiers to surround and lift the soil particles from the fibers and traps that soil within a hard brittle shell, that is removed with the next vacuuming.
Encapsulation is our other goto cleaning method we use at Santos Carpet Cleaning. It is a low moisture method, making it ideal for when fast turnaround is required.
Myth#4: THE COMPANY THAT OFFERS THE LOWEST PRICE IS THE COMPANY YOU SHOULD HIRE.
No. I’ve seen so many problems arise from lowest-bid companies that I suggest you NEVER hire the company that quotes the lowest price. The two most common problems are:

1. The price may not be for the services that you want to be performed. The company may be equipped to remove dirt from your carpet. But you may want bacteria, fungus, pollens, dust mites, and tobacco residues removed as well.
2. The price you see advertised may not be the price you pay. Many facility and property managers have learned that the low price they see advertised lasted only until the carpet cleaner gets into their building. Then they were pressured into paying a lot more for a variety of add-ons. (Some carpet cleaners even break the law by using illegal bait and switch tactics.)

All of the clients of Santos Carpet Cleaning are given this promise. YOU WILL NEVER EVER BE QUOTED A LOW PRICE JUST TO GET INTO YOUR HOME, ONLY TO SUBJECT YOU TO BAIT AND SWITCH, HIGH-PRESSURE SALES TACTICS.

Myth#5: ANY HONEST CARPET CLEANING COMPANY SHOULD BE ABLE TO GIVE YOU AND EXACT PRICE QUOTE OVER THE PHONE.
I wish this was true, but most of the time it isn’t.
Honest reputable carpet cleaning companies almost never price carpet cleaning by the room. Instead, the square footage of the area usually determines carpet cleaning prices. So, if you would like to know the exact cost of cleaning your carpet, then your carpet cleaner needs to know the exact number of square feet you want to be cleaned. To get an accurate measurement, sonic yardsticks or measuring wheels are used to calculate the exact size of the carpet area.
Now carpet cleaners who are knowledgeable of your building will most likely be able to give you a good ballpark price. But an exact price can only be done with an accurate in office quotation.
Now, of course, there is an exception to this rule. Full-service package pricing will give you an accurate quote over the phone price for the size of area stipulated in the package. However, the full measurement of all the carpeted areas to be cleaned are still needed.
Myth #6: PRE-VACUUMING IS NOT NECESSARY.
No! Actually, pre-vacuuming is by far the most important step in the cleaning process. Here’s why…

1. Over 75% of the soil in your carpet are dry soils. Most of which are the silica’s or sand. Now when you get sand wet, you get mud, and mud doesn’t vacuum out all that well. It just stays at the bottom of your carpet.
2. All the tiny particles, the dust, dust mites, molds, fungus, and other pollutants are so light that when you hit them with the high pressure of hot water extraction, you just push them down deeper into the carpet. You won’t remove them.

Unfortunately, unethical and uninformed carpet cleaners are giving consumer’s a surface cleaning only by skipping this step. That is why, in the interest of providing the most thorough cleaning ever, Santos Carpet Cleaning will always make sure the carpet is pre-vacuumed prior to cleaning it. This step is that important.
However, should you choose to pre-vacuum prior to our arrival. They will save money on their cleaning bill as it saves us time. The most important thing here is the pre-vacuuming, not so much who does it.

Take A Look At What Some Of Our Clients Had To Say.