No More Snow, No More Slush, No More Tracked in Salt, Sand, and Muck … Does That Mean Your Carpets Are Still Clean?

winter-window1-242x300Winter is well behind us. It feels great, doesn’t it? Of course, if you are a winter sports enthusiast, then you might not like summer very much, but the vast majority of people enjoy time at the beach, barbecues, outdoor sporting events, hiking, and much more. Since we no longer have to deal with snow and slush, we no longer have to worry about tracked in salt, sand, and other muck commonly associated with winter precipitation. So, does that mean you can neglect your carpets?

Absolutely not.

The rain is going to fall. Dust and dirt is prevalent. Residual sand from the winter plowing season is going to remain on sidewalks, driveways, the edges of roadways, and so on. Children and adults alike are going to be tracking in most of that dirt and other foreign materials.

Even if people remove their shoes as soon as they step through the door, dirt will begin to collect, it will get caught in the fibers of socks, and tracked throughout the house.

Yes, you vacuum, and that’s good.

Vacuuming is important. However, not even the strongest, most powerful and expensive residential vacuum cleaner in the world is strong enough to get all of the dirt and other particulates and foreign contaminants out of the carpet fibers. That’s why, even after you vacuum, when the sun is shining through the windows at the right angle, you can see a cloud of dust billowing up into the air if you run across the carpeting, dragging your feet because it’s kicking everything up that your vacuum missed.

It’s a good idea to have your carpets professionally cleaned this summer.

It’s highly advisable to have your carpets professionally cleaned twice a year, once during the winter, perhaps toward the tail end of it, and again in the summer. It will not only help those carpets look their best, but protect them well into the future.

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The One MAJOR Mistake Too Many Homeowners Make When Relying on Scotchguard to Protect Their Carpets

That ‘New Carpet’ Smell isn’t Always PleasantPurchasing brand new carpets for your entire house can be quite the expense. The average home might have wall-to-wall carpeting in three bedrooms, the family room, and perhaps one other room. Some have more, some less. To carpet an entire house might cost $5,000 or more.

Many homeowners do accept Scotchgard as an add-on.

This is wonderful. Scotchgard and other protective measures do work, to some degree. However, when there is a spill of any kind, when a dog has an accident, a cat gets sick, a child spills grape juice, a husband drops some spaghetti sauce on it, or anything else occurs, it’s too easy to panic and make a major mistake.

The biggest mistake people make.

Scrubbing out stains. This is, by far, the single greatest mistake homeowners make when something gets spilled onto their carpeting, whether it is brand new or several years old. Just because carpeting has been coated with Scotchgard doesn’t mean the liquid or other substances isn’t going to work its way down into the carpet fibers. If you jump at it with paper towels, another type of towel, or even sponge and begin scrubbing away, what you are doing initially is pushing it deeper down into the carpet pile, beyond the Scotchgard protection.

It’s necessary to blot the stain.

If there is any material on the carpet that could stain it, the Scotchgard is going to do what it can hold it on top. Take paper towels or other towels and lightly blot at the stain.

This takes time!

Don’t become impatient. Lightly blotting at the stain is going to allow the cloth or paper towels to absorb the maximum amount of it. From there, you should notice just how effective Scotchgard can be at protecting your carpeting.

Still, it’s important to have those carpets professionally cleaned as soon as possible. You don’t need your entire house cleaned room by room if they are brand new or you just had somebody do it within a few months; you can contact a company like Royal Interior Cleaning to come out your house and do spot cleaning on those stains.

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3 Tips to Finding the Right Carpet Cleaning Service for Your Home, Expectations, and Budget

to tip or not to tipYou understand that a carpet cleaning service is important to not only help protect your carpets and allow them to last as long as possible, thus protecting your investment in them, but also providing a healthier and safer environment for you and your family. In fact, many pollutants get trapped in the stubborn carpet fibers and even the most powerful vacuum cleaner is unable to draw them out.

Some of those pollutants can include pollen, but also bacteria and germs. If you only vacuum and don’t have a professional carpet cleaning service come out to your home at least once a year (twice a year is optimal), if anyone is lying down on the carpet, such as children, rolling around and wrestling, and so on, they are being intimately exposed to those pollutants.

Once you accept the value of carpet cleaning services, here are three tips that will help you find the right one for you. At Royal Interior Cleaning, we certainly would love your trust and business, but more importantly is that you feel comfortable and confident in your decision.

Tip #1: Focus on companies that have positive ratings online.

Search engines and other services provide opportunities for customers to review various businesses. A carpet cleaning company should have at least a fair number of reviews to give you some insight into whether or not they do a good job, their technicians are professional and courteous, and if they are responsive to customer needs. Check out those reviews and only focus your attention on those that have a positive reputation.

Tip #2: You get what you pay for.

If you are trying to save as much money as possible on carpet cleaning services, you will be able to find cheap providers. Unfortunately, what many customers don’t realize is only truck mounted equipment is going to be truly effective to get those stubborn stains and bacteria and germs out of the carpet. If you want to go cheap, cheap is what you’ll get.

Tip #3: Determine the company’s responsiveness to you.

When you contact the company, ask to speak to somebody directly so you can ask a few pointed questions. Are they responsive? Do they get back to you within a reasonable amount of time? If you take days or weeks for a return phone call, what does that say about the company itself?

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How Much Furniture Should You Move Out of the Room Where a Professional Carpet Cleaning Service Is About to Come In?

Upholstery Cleaning TorontoYou’re waiting on a professional carpet cleaning service to come to your home to clean all of the carpets. You may have carpets in two or three bedrooms, the family room, and maybe even the living room. If you hired the right company, they should have advised you to move as much furniture as possible out of the way.

So, how much furniture should you consider moving?

That all depends on the room itself, the item of furniture, and a number of other factors. If you have a bedroom, for example, and the bed is a queen or king size mattress, you have a large dresser, and these items rarely ever move, if at all, then it’s not practical to move those items out of the way.

However, you might have a tendency to move the nightstands to do some vacuuming around them, smaller items of furniture like an end table, coffee table, recliner, and so on. These smaller items of furniture, if you are physically capable of moving them, should be moved.

When you have the carpet cleaning service scheduled, the night before or possibly the morning of, get some help and move these mobile furniture items into another room. That will allow the carpet cleaning professional to come in and do the best job possible.

If this individual has to maneuver around a host of small furniture items and is expected by the homeowner to move them, that is not their job (unless there’s an arrangement made, and that usually means more money). They may simply clean around them, assuming since they were not moved that it isn’t important.

If you want the best job done, take the advice of the person you speak to, move as much as you can out of the way, and be prepared to leave it out of the room until the carpet completely dries, which might take several hours or an entire day.

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If Your Vacuum Cleaner Has a HEPA Filter, When Was the Last Time It Was Replaced? This Could Be Impacting Indoor Air Quality

vacuum-Not every residential vacuum cleaner has a HEPA filter, but if yours does, when was the last time you replaced it? This may not seem like a major concern, especially if you don’t have allergies, but it could be impacting the cleanliness of your carpets.

A clogged HEPA filter can reduce suction power.

It’s the same with any other type of filter that may be in a vacuum cleaner. Take a wet/dry vacuum cleaner, for example. Inside this unit, as simple as it is, there is a filter. This filter is designed to catch dust and dirt and keep it from flying back out of the machine.

When the filter gets clogged, air can’t flow through and it reduces section. It reduces power and effectiveness. The same concept holds true when you have a HEPA filter on a vacuum cleaner.

These filters are designed to capture even the smallest particulates that may cause allergies for some people. These might be microscopic, even smaller than dust you see flying around in the air. Still, given enough time and use, these filters can become clogged. If you have a vacuum cleaner that has a HEPA filter on it, and you have no idea when it was last checked, cleaned out, or replaced, now is the time to do that.

Don’t make the assumption that a HEPA filter means cleaner floors.

It simply means the smallest particulates could get trapped by the vacuum cleaner, at least the particulates that get sucked up. In your carpeting there are far more particulates, including pollutants, allergens, and bacteria and other germs, that are going to get tossed up into the air when people walk across the surface just after you vacuumed.

If you’re concerned about the indoor air quality of your home, the safety and health of your family, then you need to realize the value of carpet cleaning services. A carpet cleaning with truck mounted equipment at least once a year can help improve air quality tremendously. Just don’t forget to replace that HEPA filter regularly.

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An Amazing Thing Happens, Even AFTER You Completely Dust Every Surface AND Vacuum … Dust STILL FLIES! Why? (And What Can Be Done About This?)

The Second 3 Steps to Get Your Home Ready for a Summer PartyOkay, here’s the situation: you spent an entire weekend with your family cleaning your house. You started from the ceilings and upper walls, vacuumed everything, all the cobwebs, wiped down every surface of the wall, the shelves, furniture, and then finally vacuumed the floors. You know everyone was thorough and you are proud of them.

Then, you came home Monday evening from work or school and, with the sun shining through in the late afternoon hours, you see a blizzard of dust flying around in the air.

How is this even possible?

Well, it’s possible because the majority of dust we see flying around is actually getting stirred up from drapery, cloth furniture, and the carpeting.

But we vacuumed like crazy!”

That doesn’t matter. Even the most powerful residential vacuum cleaner in the world is not going to be strong enough to get everything out of the carpet fibers. If you look at an extremely magnified image of dead skin cells (which comprise more than 80% of the dust inside your house), allergens, pollen, and other pollutants, including bacteria, you will see they have jagged edges to them. They cling to the carpet fibers.

That makes it extremely difficult for simple suction to get them out.

To properly clean carpets, especially carpets that have not been thoroughly cleaned in a long time, it requires water. It also requires the most powerful machine possible to then suck all of that water (with the dirt) out.

The next time you’re planning a major cleaning project in your house, whether it’s during the spring, summer, fall, or middle of winter, make sure you have scheduled a professional carpet cleaning service to come in, preferably right after you wipe everything down, and you will notice a lot less dust flying through the air every time you walk across the floor surfaces.

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Cleaning Carpets Is About More Than JUST Vacuuming Regularly (and Have You Ever Noticed No Matter How Often You Do, They Continue to Get Ratty Over Time?)

vacuum-When you first get new carpeting, move into a new house, or unpack at this new apartment (new to you), you may feel invigorated. You may immediately start focusing on what you need to do to keep everything looking it’s best the entire time. You get a decent vacuum cleaner or you brought it with you.

Is vacuuming enough?

Most people have experience with this. They vacuum consistently, every week, and are diligent to use the attachments and get in the corners, clean cobwebs from the upper corners of the ceiling and walls, and so on. However, within a year or two the floors are looking ratty. The carpet looks stained, dirty, and it seems that nothing you do is really making a difference.

That’s because vacuuming is not enough.

Even the most powerful residential vacuum cleaner in the world is not strong enough to get deep down into the carpet fibers. That’s where the dirt starts to travel over time. Every footstep, every plop of a pet’s paw, and every piece of furniture moving around (even the vacuum cleaner itself rolling back and forth) is pushing down more and more dirt, allergens, and other pollutants.

Even the simple stains that you thought you got up suddenly begin showing themselves over time.

This is why a professional carpet cleaning service is so crucial to helping carpets look great.

A professional carpet cleaning company with truck mounted equipment is going to be the best option to help people maintain their carpets looking their best. In fact, for those people who get a professional carpet cleaning at least once a year, their carpets can last for two, four, or even more years longer than they would have without any carpet cleaning service at all.

Just because you vacuum regularly does not mean the carpets will remain in optimal condition; you have to be diligent and remain focused on these other aspects, especially professional cleaning services.

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If You’re Planning a Graduation Party for Your Teen This Spring, Getting Your Carpets Looking Their Best Will Lay the Foundation for a Great Feeling

carpet cleaning tipsGraduation season is just about upon us and if your teenager is set to graduate from high school or maybe your adult child is finishing up college, you probably want to throw a big celebration. You’ll want to invite family and friends, possibly even neighbors. When they are all coming over to your house, you want everything to look its best. You may look around at the carpeting in your house and suddenly worry about how it looks.

Getting them professionally cleaned is a great idea.

Calling on the services of a professional and experienced carpet cleaning company is the best option to start. You may want to clean other areas and aspects of the house first, but sometimes it can be difficult to feel motivated when every time you turn around and see stains, a haggard look to the carpeting, or just wish you could cover it up with something else.

What could a professional carpet cleaning service offer?

Depending on the condition of the carpet, it’s age, and a number of other factors, a quality, experienced company with the right tools (truck mounted equipment) and cleaning solutions will often be able to help restore carpeting that looks worn out, bringing back an almost new like condition to the surface of the carpeting.

This often inspires people to take better care of their furniture and the cleanliness of every aspect of their house. It’s similar to the time when those carpets were first installed.

That new carpet smell, feel, and appearance usually causes people to admonish family and even friends to not have food in those rooms, to take their shoes off, and to keep each room cleaner.

If you are planning a big celebration the spring, inviting family and friends to your house, and if your carpets have not been professionally cleaned in a long time, this is the optimal time to do so. You won’t regret this decision, especially when that graduation party finally arrives.

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You MAY Be Able to Replace a Small Section of Stained Carpet, but There Are Several Reasons Why a Professional Cleaning Service Is the Better Option

Stain RemovalThe moment you spot that stain in the carpet, you may feel your heart sink. After all, that wall-to-wall carpeting could have cost thousands upon thousands of dollars for you in your home. Maybe you admonished your children, your husband, your wife, or even friends to be careful, but the accident happened.

Right now you may be considering your options.

The first option is to try and scrub the stain out. Rarely is that going to work. Before you take any type of cleaning solution to the carpet fibers, test it in an inconspicuous area, such as behind the entertainment center, under the couch, or in the back corner of the room. If there is going to be discoloration, it would be best to notice this in an area that is not going to be seen, at least not easily or readily.

The next option you may consider is cutting out the small section.

After the carpet installers finished the job, they may have asked if you wanted any of the extra sections, and you may have said yes, for this specific reason.

It seems an easy solution to simply cut out and replace the stained part of the carpet, but it’s going to be incredibly difficult to not just make it match up properly, but to avoid what will appear to be an odd section, out of place, even though it’s the same color, texture, and depth.

The best option is to turn to carpet cleaning services.

A carpet cleaning company that has been around for years and whose technicians have incredible experience, and that also use professional cleaning equipment is going to be the best option. That’s because with the right solutions, the right equipment, and the right techniques, almost all stains can be removed from carpeting.

Before you jump in and start cutting the stain out to replace it with an extra section, call Royal Interior Cleaning. You might be surprised at how cost-effective spot cleaning of stains can be.

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Opening the Windows This Summer Might Bring Forth a Musty Smell, and If It’s from Your Carpets, There IS Something You Can Do About It

musty smell in carpetMost of the time, when summer arrives and we start opening the windows in our homes, we associate that with wonderful, fresh air. However, sometimes it can bring forth a musty smell.

Often times, this is due to the carpeting or area rugs inside the house.

It would seem that this musty smell would be prevalent all the time, especially during the winter when those windows and doors are sealed up tight to keep the cold air out. In fact, that smell is still there, but you notice much more when the weather starts warming up and have an opportunity to open the windows for a little while. Then, you have a direct contrast between that mustiness and the fresh air pouring in.

How can you get rid of that musty smell?

The most effective way is by having your carpets professionally cleaned. If they are not more than eight or 10 years old, a quality carpet cleaning company should have the tools, solutions, and experienced to help restore those carpets to almost new condition.

Don’t mistake this statement as a blanket claim that even older carpeting can be restored to like new condition; each house, each carpeting, and each factor is going to be different, but the point is that you can truly get rid of a lot of that mustiness, the stale odor that may have been lingering all winter and that you just had grown accustomed to.

How much is this going to cost?

That all depends on the size the house, the area of the floor surfaces, the company itself, the equipment they use, how much experience they have, and many other factors. A company like Royal Interior Cleaning will provide an honest estimate and, if the carpet is too old or has too many issues, they will explain clearly why it may be more practical, effective, and efficient to have them replaced.

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