Helpful Tips to Get Your Carpet Clean and Looking Like New Again

You know how your carpet got dirty, sloppy kids, slobbering pets and a revolving door of spill-happy guests. Now you want to know how to get it clean.

If your carpet is the size of a beach towel, you can simply roll it up and throw it in the wash. But if it's a wall-to-wall hash of tea and coffee spills, grease and gravy spots, and mustard and mayonnaise stains, you will have to broaden your knowledge of carpet-cleaning options. Fortunately, few trashed carpets are beyond hope, say the experts.

The first step to restoring the color, pile and life of your carpet, says the industry professionals, is to identify your carpet's composition. Nylon is the primary synthetic fiber, making up about 75% of all carpet. Acrylic, polyester, olefin and wool are also used.

The second step is to classify the carpet to be cleaned by level of soiling or its appearance. This may take into account past maintenance, excessive foot traffic, household pets and even air pollution and smoke from heating systems, fireplaces and incinerators. Typically, high-traffic areas such as entrance ways and family rooms may require cleaning every six months while seldom-used areas such as a spare bedroom may require attention only once every 18 months.

The business of removing that waste, based on the carpet's degree of soiling (e.g., slight, moderate or heavy), is the next task facing the carpet cleaner. While there is no single "miracle cleaner," individual cleaning methods will produce a range of results.

There are five major systems available:

1 - The hot water extraction or "steam" cleaning method sprays a hot-water cleaning solution on the carpet, then slurps it back up -- along with the dissolved soil -- with a wet vacuum. Extraction equipment can be portable or truck mounted, the latter being more powerful in terms of spray pressure, heating capabilities and power of vacuum pumps.

Because hot water extraction most closely simulates the detergent and rinse cycle of a washing machine, it is a familiar and popular option for many cleaners. Drying may require four hours.

2 - Bonnet buffing, often referred to under the trademarked "Chem-Dry" system, uses a rotary machine to buff the carpets clean. The detergent or carbonated cleaner is applied directly to the carpet. As the machine is operated, a round, double-faced shag pad or bonnet rotates on the carpet and removes the soil by absorption.

3 - Foam cleaning is usually applied by a mechanical unit that generates foam from liquid concentrate, works it into the carpet pile with cylindrical brushes and then removes the foam, along with the trapped soil, using a vacuum.

4 - The dry-powder system often associated with brands like Host and Capture contain detergents and cleaning solvents that are sprinkled on the carpet and worked into the pile by a machine or a brush. After drying for about a half hour, the cellulose-based compound that resembles moist sawdust can be vacuumed up.

(Despite their names, all dry-cleaning systems, including bonnet-buffing, foam and dry-powder use minimal amounts of water in the cleaning process.)

5 - Shampooing is usually done in conjunction with another method such as steam cleaning. To simply shampoo in a detergent without extracting it, however, may simply relocate the dirt.