“What makes you different from other carpet cleaning companies?”
I want to take a minute to talk about one of the things I get asked the most, with this article. This is very important to think about when hiring ANYONE to do any kind of work in your home as well, not just floor stuff. The answer can be as short and sweet, or as long and in-depth, as you prefer…but for the sake of brevity in this article, I’ll boil it down to “The 5 P’s”, or “Prior Preparation Prevents Poor Performance”. I say this because there’s a lot more to cleaning carpet than just spraying something down and running the cleaning wand over it…which we’ll get to in a minute.
How do you KNOW when something is truly clean?
Another great question, right? In his book “Protecting The Built Environment: Cleaning For Health”, Dr. Michael Berry (formerly of the EPA) defines cleaning as the removal of accumulated foreign material from any given surface. For the purposes of what I do, I add one qualification to that definition, however. If a coating of some sort has been applied to that surface (like an acrylic, urethane, epoxy, or polyurethane finish), then that coating is the NEW “surface”. Coating removal is a very different process than regular cleaning, and is much more labor intensive and time consuming (mainly because it is a plasticized material that when bonded and cured creates a “new” surface on top of the existing surface material). Therefore, it isn’t really affected by regular cleaning solutions…but I digress. If you’re interested in coating removal, call me, and I’ll be happy to dive down that rabbit hole with you.
Now, let’s get back on track, and talk about how to KNOW something is clean. Visual inspection is a great first step, because if the dirt hasn’t all been effectively removed by the cleaning process, there’s a good chance you’ll be able to SEE it. Over time, soiling can accumulate in traffic lanes (where people walk) on your carpet, in front of favored chairs/couches (or ON those chairs/couches, and we clean upholstery, also), and if care isn’t taken to properly remove it, you can wind up with no real visual difference. Trust me, just because someone ran some water over your carpet and then sucked it back up, does NOT mean that carpet is clean. Get more info on how cleaning results can actually be quantified by reading this blog article “Cleaning For Health”.
Look at the carpet in the pictures included int this blog, as an example. This is some work I did for a client, recently. Another company had been out about a year before to clean the carpet, and she’d complained to me that she couldn’t really tell a difference, when they were done. Sure, they hadn’t charged her as much…but they were in and out very quickly, and she wasn’t happy with the results. Needless to say, when I was done, she was pretty happy. What do you think?
If you want some work done, or even just want someone to take a look to determine what can be done with your carpet (because a lot of people are surprised at what we can remove from their carpet), give us a call at 540-818-4073. We’ll set up an estimate, and give you a price before we get started on the work. Any questions you may have about the process, the price, or the results, we’re always happy to answer. In the meantime, we hope you’re having a great week!
