Name: Carpet Cleaning Services
Brand: Gold Coast Flooring
SKU: 200
Rating: 5.0 (154 reviews)

When Steam Cleaning Is Better And When It May Not Be The Best Choice

The first and biggest issue with steam cleaning commercial carpets
is reoccurring carpet spots or stains (also known as wicking).

Most commercial carpeting is different from residential wall-to-wall carpet
and is usually a loop pile carpet like Berber carpet and is glued down without padding.
This carpet is notorious for cleaning up great and looking clean when done,
but as it dries the spots or stains will start to slowly reappear
and in heavy traffic areas you'll start to notice the areas don't stay looking clean.

Steam cleaning uses a lot of water to rinse the carpet
and even though most of it is recovered and extracted,
the carpet will retain that moisture and take a few hours to fully dry.
While this is definitely the best option for deep cleaning,
it's during the drying process that these spots or stains
will start to resurface and become an eyesore.

Now, this can be corrected with a return visit if the spots or stains only show in a few areas
but this not only takes another visit taking more of your time but also leaves
a bad impression that the cleaning service wasn't done correctly.

The second issue is going to be how long the carpet takes to fully dry.
Depending on how dirty the carpet is and all that is involved,
the dry times for steam cleaning can be a few hours to a full day to fully dry.
For most businesses that may be fine if the work is performed after hours or on a weekend
when the business will be closed, but there is a better method of cleaning
that can completely skip both these issues and provide better results.

Very Low Moisture Carpet Cleaning (VLM) With Encapsulation Products

Low moisture cleaning has been around for a very long time,
it's just that the cleaning products used were different.

Most people will immediately think of the major franchise Chem-Dry
which doesn't do steam cleaning but instead uses a low moisture
cleaning approach and has been for many years.

With low moisture cleaning, equipment connected to a truck mount is not used
to rinse the carpet, instead, usually, a 175-floor buffer machine is used
with microfiber or cotton pads to clean the carpet
by transferring the soil from the carpet to the pads.

You can think of this as spilling something and using a microfiber towel to soak up the spill,
this transfer to the towel is the same as transferring the soil
from the carpet to the pads used on the machine.

The most important step before doing this method of cleaning
is doing a very thorough vacuuming of the carpet to fully remove as much dry soil as possible.
Dry soil makes up the majority of what is in the carpet and if left there over time
and stepped on repeatedly will cause the carpet fibers to dull and become dingy.
Not vacuuming regularly will result in darker areas where there is a lot of foot traffic
and will cause irreversible damage.
No amount of deep cleaning (steam cleaning or low moisture cleaning) will be able to restore
the carpet fibers if they have been neglected for too long.

After a thorough vacuuming is done, all that's left to remove from the carpet fibers
is the 'sticky soil' which needs a cleaning solution to release the soil from the fibers.
Encapsulation cleaning products are great for releasing that sticky soil and capturing it,
basically turning that sticky soil into dry soil that can be removed much easier.

The encapsulation cleaning product is sprayed on all the areas to be cleaned
and then the 175-floor buffer is used to transfer that released soil over to the microfiber or cotton pad.
The 175-floor buffer is also agitating the carpet while cleaning to make sure
all that sticky soil is released and transferred to the pad.

Because most of the dry soil was removed before doing this,
there isn't a lot of water needed to rinse the carpet to remove the remaining sticky soil
and the microfiber or cotton pad is also absorbing some of the moisture while cleaning
which results in a dry time of 30-90 minutes.

Because the carpet dries so quickly, spots or stains don't have a chance to reappear
and the business can go about their duties without having to wait hours for their carpet to fully dry.

This is a perfect method for commercial carpet cleaning for businesses
that have light to moderate foot traffic and would like to maintain the carpet in their place of business.

Where Using Low Moisture Cleaning Is The Best Choice

Low moisture cleaning is going to be the best option
for any commercial setting with low to moderate foot traffic.
This would be most offices, medical facilities, small businesses,
or anywhere with a lobby where they have clients come to their place of work.

Now restaurants are a completely different story
or anywhere involving food or very heavy traffic like a warehouse or industrial facility.

The best option for these would be a hybrid cleaning
which would involve steam cleaning and low moisture cleaning.
I would first do a very deep cleaning using steam cleaning to fully rinse the carpets
and then go back over it using the low moisture cleaning to finish whatever is left in the carpet.
I would probably even schedule a return trip to check on the carpet,
address any issues with the cleaning, and do a post-treatment on any areas that needed it.

Try Low Moisture Cleaning For Your Place Of Business Or Home

Those are all the reasons why low moisture cleaning is a far superior method
over steam cleaning when cleaning commercial types of carpet.
If you have a business that needs carpet cleaned in
or would like to see how well low moisture cleaning does in your home,
fill out the contact form to get started on an estimate.

We service your area

Roseville, Rocklin, West Sacramento, Elk Grove,
El Dorado Hills, Folsom, LIncoln, Natomas,
Citrus Heights, Rancho Cordova, Arden/Arcade,
And many more communities throughout Sacramento

Gold Coast Flooring Hours

Monday - Friday - 8 AM - 5 PM
Saturday - 9 AM - 3 PM
Sunday - Closed