Carpet Upholstery Steam Cleaning

Started off today doing a carpet & upholstery steam clean in the suburb of Wynnum in Brisbane.

The customer had 4 seats 2 rugs and 1 mattress that she wanted steam cleaning, the rugs and the mattress were no problems at all, but the seats were from freedom furniture.

In the past many carpet cleaners have been caught out by cleaning a freedom made lounge suite, the fabric is very thin and prone to over wetting, this can put the fabric out of shape as it dries.

Most carpet cleaners don’t like cleaning these types of lounge suites, you have to be very careful not to over wet the material, plus you need to be mindful of the type of cleaning product to use.

With lounge suites the arms and also the cushions where your legs press against are prone to getting very dirty, this is mainly because of the sweat from our bodies rubbing of onto the fabric.

Before we started the job we have to do a small test piece on the back of the seats, this will ensure that the products used won’t do any damage to the material.

Removing Grease

The only thing that will remove grease from seats or carpets is a grease release agent, they have solvents in them that break down the grease and body sweat making it easier to remove.

Steam alone will not remove grease from carpets or any kind of fabric; it needs to be treated firstly with the grease release product.

The product is applied and then agitated with a small soft bristled brush, then extracted.

Shampooing carpets/seats

Everything cleaned from seats, carpets, mattresses and rug all need a shampoo applied to it first before any steam cleaning is done.

Our machines can get the water very hot up to 160 degrees, but as mentioned earlier this is still not enough to properly clean carpets and upholstery, different cleaning solutions and spotters need to be used for a successful outcome.

The Cleaning process

The cleaning process for carpets and upholstery is pretty much the same; the only difference is the tool in which the cleaning is done with.

A large carpet cleaning wand is used for cleaning of carpets and rugs, and a small upholstery cleaning tool is used for seats.

So firstly a pre-vacuum is done if necessary, some more powerful machines today can do the vacuum at the same time as the steam cleaning, saving time for the technician.

Then the shampoo is applied and left to settle for a few minutes, this give the product time to start to release stains and dirt.

The steam cleaning can now begin; during the cleaning process the technician will apply spot cleaners to more stubborn stain as they go, such as the stain remove mentioned earlier (Grease release).

The steam can be mixed with deodorisers and sanitisers or even conditioners for better cleaning, this will help remove germs and bacteria from the carpets and upholstery as the cleaning is being done.

Drying Times

Drying will vary depending on the jobs and how dirty the carpets or seats are, but in general carpets should be dry within a couple of hours and seats a be faster, but as with the job mentioned earlier the seats will take a fair bit longer to dry out because of the type of material being cleaned, this was explained to the customer beforehand.

Area that are particularly dirty or that may have a more stubborn stain to remove can take longer to dry out, because more steam and cleaning solutions are applied to these areas.

Advice Choose the right Cleaner

When doing the calling around for quotes etc. for your cleaning needs, don’t just pick the cheapest cleaning company out there as they are prone to doing a shocking job.

It’s best to ask some questions about your jobs and see if they can answer them for you, you’ll then get an idea over the phone as to how experienced they are or aren’t.

If you have nice carpets and seats in your home you don’t want them ruined by an untrained cleaner, and that also goes for tenants moving out of a rental property, don’t risk your bond with a cheap cleaning company.

Don’t risk it, get it right first time and use a professional carpet cleaning company.

Nylon Crapet Cleaning

Before & After Results