If You Clean Your Own Carpets, Follow These Tips For Fresh Results
Having your carpets professionally cleaned is definitely preferable to doing it yourself. Professionals have powerful extraction equipment and specially formulated shampoo to ensure amazing results. However, if you cannot afford professional cleaning or can't find a carpet cleaning company that services your area, home carpet shampooing is better than nothing. You'll just want to follow the tips below to ensure your carpet ends up smelling fresh and clean afterwards.
Use a shampoo solution with baking soda.
Look for a carpet shampooing solution that contains baking soda. Baking soda is really good at neutralizing odors, and if it is already contained in the shampoo, you won't have to do the extra step of sprinkling it on the carpet. Baking soda will help get rid of any pet, sweat, or bacterial odors on your carpet. Some people do not even realize their carpet smells until they use baking soda and notice how much fresher it smells. This is because you grow nose-blind to odors in your own home. Rest assured, though — if your carpet has not been cleaned in 6 months or more, it smells!
Make sure your water is hot.
Most carpet shampooers tell you to add hot water to the tank. They then go through a cycle of heating the water up even more. If you do not follow instructions and you add cold water to the tank, the water will never get hot enough, and it will not be as effective at removing dirt and smelly compounds from the carpet. Don't use boiling water, as it could melt parts of the carpet shampooer, but do use water that's as hot as possible coming out of the tap.
Go over the carpet twice.
After you shampoo the entire carpet, drain the carpet cleaner's tank and then go over the carpet again. With no shampoo and water left in the tank for this second run, the carpet cleaner will just suction water up out of the carpet. The end result will be a dryer carpet, which means you stand less chance of the carpet developing mold as it dries. A moldy carpet is a smelly carpet. You can also open some windows and turn on some fans to encourage the carpet to dry faster after shampooing.
Home carpet shampooing won't give you professional results, but if you follow the tips above, it will give you reasonably good results. Remember to use hot water and a solution with baking soda, and go over the carpet twice.
To learn more, contact a resource that offers carpet cleaning services.
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