By Igor Liokumovich
Homeowners’ #1 complaint is that carpet stains reappear two-three days after the cleaning. Having encountered this problem a few times, many question the purpose of professional carpet cleaning, and some even give up on that. That’s understandable — who wants to waste money? But is there a way to prevent carpet stains from coming back? To answer that, we need to understand what causes the problem.
Say, you were carrying a dish to the dinner table, and you spilled a little sauce on the carpet. If this liquid reached the bottom of the carpet pile and the subsequent cleaning reached only halfway to the bottom, the stain will remain on the lower portion of the fibers. But here’s what takes place next —
Soon after the carpet cleaners are thanked for what looks like an job well done, a physical process called wicking begins pulling the stain upward from the bottom of the carpet fibers — just like what happens in the oil lamp, where fuel is traveling from the tank up along the wick to the burner, where it feeds the flame. A few days are enough for the stain to climb up to the surface, but it may take up to two weeks. The result is the same — the stains and spots are right where they were prior to cleaning, but you are two hundred dollars poorer.
Unfortunately, there is no quick and easy solution for the reoccurring stains problem. But there is labor-intensive and time-consuming one. This is how it is supposed to be done —
Cleaners must vacuum your whole carpet to remove dry soil and agitate the carpet's pile. Vacuuming is critical, yet it is usually omitted. They should also brush in the pre-spray into the carpet's entire surface — not just the high traffic or soiled areas.
Having given enough time to allow the pre-spray to loosen the dirt particles, guys should start deep-cleaning your carpet with slow crossing multiple passes over the same area — to reach to the very bottom of the carpet’s pile — before moving to the next. The advanced pH-neutral cleaning solution needs to bemixed with the hottest water possible, to make sure that no sticky soapy residue is left in your carpet.
If any of the stains or spots persists, cleaners need to re-work those using additional cleaning materials— until spots and stains disappear. But that’s not all —they still need to groom your carpet for uniform appearance and fast drying, and then place a powerful fan in the room to suck the moisture out of the carpet with dozens of mini-tornadoes.
This is about the only way to deal with reappearing carpet stains — but it works.
Article courtest of Igor Liokumovich of Onsite Cleaning Systems.
