My name is Joe Martin and I have been cleaning carpet for around fifteen years. In that time I have made it my number one goal to become an expert on carpet cleaning. Through education, experience and mistakes I have gained the knowledge I will try to impart in this blog. I am IICRC certified in carpet cleaning, upholstery cleaning, water damage, floor care and stone and tile care. I am also trained in terrazzo restoration and concrete polishing. I have also taken classes from Chem-Dry and have attended many trade shows and conventions in order to understand every view point in my field. I may make a mistake or two along the way. For that I will apologize in advance.

This blog will cover how to properly care for your carpet; from the installation of your carpet, through and between cleanings. This will include vacuuming, how a professional should clean your carpet and how to identify and prevent excess wear.

Once your new carpet is installed You will need to be sure your vacuum is adequate, In most cases the best vacuum will have a beater bar. This allows the vacuum to dislodged and removed from the carpet. Wind runnel vacuums are the best I have found for the consumer. Vacuum often and you can extend the life of your carpet. Sand and dirt will wear your carpet quickly if left for long. I have cleaned carpet for many people who neglect their carpet as well as people who vacuum often and have a professional cleaner clean their carpet. Improper care can cut seventy five percent from the life of your carpet. Vacuum often and use a pro to clean your carpet.

When a consumer buys new carpet it is a major expense as well as a great inconvenience. Yet, few will properly care for that carpet after installation. I cannot tell you the number of time I have been told, “The installer said we should wait at least a year before we have the carpet cleaned.” The installer is afraid the carpet will loosen from cleaning and they will have to re stretch the carpet. On many occasions by the time I get there the carpet is in such bad shape that it will never look good again. With some people and carpets a year may not damage the carpet, but with high foot traffic, a rural house where dirt is often tracked in, or low quality carpet this can be a fatal mistake. If your carpet looks dirty then you waited to long to clean it.

By the time the dirt is evident, it is doing damage to your carpet.

Now this does not mean the dirt cannot be removed. Carpet manufacturers will tell you if you wait too long it can be very difficult to remove soil, so regular cleaning is a requirement in order to maintain your carpet’s warrantee. If you have to clean, then your first question may be, “which system is best for my carpet”? When I first started cleaning carpet I used the bonnet method. In that type of cleaning the carpet is scrubbed with a buffer. The carpet is pre sprayed and buffed in order to transfer the dirt to the bonnet. The bonnet is like a cotton mop head. This method is best for intermediate cleaning.

Next we will talk about wand cleaning.

Wand cleaning utilizes hot water extraction. The Carpet and Rug Institute says hot water extraction is the most effective way to clean carpet. It is a good way to clean carpet. The down side is that wands can leave the carpet over wet and the carpet will then re soil quickly. It can also be effected by effort. Wand cleaning is hard work. In order to maximize effectiveness the tech has to work very hard. Wands clean back and forth in two directions. While wand cleaning is good, I feel the best cleaning method is deep rotary extraction.

Rotary extraction carpet cleaning has many advantages over other types of cleaning. Also called rotary jet extraction, this system is a low moisture, agitating, 360° dirt eating monster. This system rocks! The RX-20 weighs eighty pounds and cleans six hundred and fifty cleaning passes per minute. We is a truck mounted carpet machine that reaches 230°-250°. This high temperature agitating machine thoroughly cleans your carpet. It has no idea if the tech is tired or fresh. It does not depend on the tech to work hard as a wand does.

The rotary tool does the work. It has the Gold Seal from the Carpet and Rug Institute. That is their highest award they give. The Carpet and Rug Institute is made up of the largest manufacturers. They have looked at the carpet, after it was cleaned with this system, and determined that it thoroughly cleaned the carpet and did no damage the fibers.

When using this system Safe Dry first pre sprays the carpet using a tool designed to utilize truck mounts high temperature. The hotter the pre spray the easier the carpet can be cleaned. After pre spraying we use the rotary extraction tool to apply and extract a cleaner-rinse. It cleans, rinses and leaves no residue on the carpet. This will allow for faster drying times cleaner carpet and a residue free carpet. What that means to you is lees cleanings then with our competitors. This will also extend the life of your carpet.

Once your carpet is cleaned you should re apply the stain guard. Over time all the stain guard will be removed. If you spill something on unprotected carpet there is a good chance it will cause a permanent stain. Stain guards today protect against oil based and water based stains. They will keep those contaminants out of the fiber. Remember that you still need to remove the spot quickly. Over time spots will turn into stains.

Today’s carpet are designed so you will buy new carpet every six or seven yours. That does not mean that it will look bad in six , or seven years, but that by that time you will be sick of looking at its condition and buy new carpet. This being said you can still affect the life of your carpet if you vacuum regularly, clean often and re apply stain guard on a regular basis.

Concrete Polishing

The following blog will cover proper concrete polishing. I have been polishing terrazzo and concrete for many years and have been trained by HTC and I am certified by RetroPlate as a RetroPlate densifier installer.
Concrete polishing was born out of terrazzo polishing. As far as I can tell it was started by HTC at the request of a box company who wanted a shinny concrete finish,
Polished concrete is a low dust, low maintenance floor that will never need replaced. It can also be very beautiful when done right.
The most important aspect of concrete polishing is a proper pre-inspection along with a hardness test and mock up.
During the initial walk through pay particular attention to nails, bolts, pipes and studs that are above floor level and on the floor. These will need cut before grinding. One stud and render an 850 Pound grinder useless. If one of the heads is bent you will not be able to use the grinder until it receives expensive repairs. Also look for holes in the concrete. while they may not be very evident on an unpolished floor, when the floor is polished, they will fill with dust and will break up the shine. In short they will be much easier to spot.
Also look for Coating on the floor. any coatings may cost additional days to a job.
Always warn that the floor will most likely have level problems between expansion joints. This can and will cause larger exposed aggregate at the joint lines. This is the result of a flatter floor.
Warn that different pours may give different results. Not all concrete will be equal. Last, but not least, understand the expectation of your customer. If you are polishing a factory, they may want a low dust, low maintenance floor, but not care about a few scratches. A showroom may require a perfect shine.
When doing the initial scratch, hardness test one should scratch several areas. I remember a house we did in polished concrete, We went in and scratched five areas. We did not bother to test the bedrooms which were covered by carpet, Upon arriving at the home to polish the concrete we discovered the bedrooms had a lot of damage, including significant cap loss. The cap is the top of the concrete which is flat. When there is cap loss it will take a significant amount of grinding to eliminate.
At Safe Dry we use HTC grinders. For the mock ups we prefer to use the 500. It is smaller and easy to set up and get started. The 500 is also the grinder of choice for residential work. The 800 will, in most cases, do a better job, but its 32 inch cut and 480 volt power requirement make it to problematic.
One of the toughest decision may be what grit to start with. It is easier to start at 40 or 80 and go down to a lower grit if need be. The problem is you may be several hours into the job before you realize you made a mistake. When grinding you can start with 40 grit metal bond diamonds and go up to 150 grit metal, than down to 100 grit resin bond, or you can go up to 80 grit metal then use 80 grit mixed resin diamonds. then use 100 grit mixed resin. If you use a lithium based densifier now is the time to densify. Then use 200 grit, 400 grit, 800 grit, 1500 grit and 3000 grit for a high shine.
This blog is meant for professional floor polishers only. There are hundreds of problems that can arise while polishing a floor. The only thing you have to rely on is experience. If you have little or none, then you WILL fail.
If you would like Safe Dry to give you a quote just give us a call at 877.824.0501 or log onto http://www.safedry.com/concrete_polishing.html