There can be many mistakes people make when choosing a carpet cleaner
Did you know this industry is totally unregulated? Anybody with no knowledge at all can set themselves up as a carpet/ upholstery/ leather cleaner. They have little or no training, no knowledge of chemistry or chemicals or the solutions they use; they operate with a total disregard to any of the potential risks to you, your family or your furnishings. If they cared they would be NCCA/IICRC members who are trained & have a code of practice. They all have one motto in common and that is – SHOW ME THE MONEY!
Choosing a professional carpet cleaner like us cannot be that hard.
The directories are full of them. Yell.com again is full and the internet is choc o block with a bewildering choice of companies, who on the face of it look and sound professional. There are companies who when they bought their equipment had a one day course using that specific supplier’s solutions and off they go learning on the job, never ever learning another thing or taking a refresher course, never knowing or wanting to know, what other solutions are out there.
There are companies who buy their equipment and never take a course OMG!
Then there are some who took a recognised course years and years ago and that’s it, never keeping up with all the latest developments and innovations in this ever changing industry.
There are those who say they are trained to the standard of this organisation or that organisation that means they may have attended a course but couldn’t pass the exams. All that information just didn’t sink in did it?
What do they all have in common- They call themselves PROFESSIONALS.
I was called on a few months ago to rectify a problem caused by one of these firms, over the phone the husband explained they had their carpets cleaned days ago and they were still soiled and very smelly and was there anything I could do? So I called on them that very day and as soon as they opened you could smell it -AMMONIA! They were a young couple with a baby no more than a few months old and this firm had used ammonia to clean all the 80/20 wool carpets and a Persian rug in the home with total disregard to the health of this family. They had spent the last two days with family, in the hope that the smell would go away. They told me they had complained to the company that had done the work. They said the company denied all knowledge and if any work was done, it was not by them and no cash changed hands. (That is the polite version). On inspection the expensive Persian rug was ruined; all the colours had run into each other, the white parts now pink or grey, the fringe was also pink and black. As for the carpets. All those people who have had a perm go wrong and you look like you have just been hit by lightning and your hair is all frizzy. Well that is what their carpet looked like, a 2% solution of 0.880 of ammonia has a pH 11.1 depending on the water in the area which in itself is alkaline and is corrosive (the safe pH for cleaning carpet is between 6.5 and 8 but the solution used was stronger than that and at no time was it neutralised, so a ruined carpet was the result. People expect payment for this kind of shoddy work! So after discussing with the couple what could be done to rectify the situation, the answer was very little. Why charge for clean when the carpet is ruined, it’s not ethical. A costly mistake with a cheap and cheerful clean, it’s not cheap to replace all of your carpeting. Sorry but we are not into cheap and cheerful, we are proud to be professional.
So, if and when you need a professional to do work in your home or office, ask the person or company who are qualified and competent to do the work you need doing. You would never in a million years to ask a plumber to re- wire your home or office. What about asking a plasterer to build you a retaining wall – it’s ludicrous. So why on earth do you invite unqualified people into your home?
Your carpet cleaning professionals want and need first rate equipment. Many companies own hot water extraction machines. But he or she also needs employees who are trained to the highest industry standards. Very few are. It’s just like the film Finding Nemo when you have the seagulls saying ” mine, mine, mine”. Very little cleaning knowledge is passed on. That’s assuming they have some to pass on.
Carpet cleaning based on low price not Quality
We all love a bargain. Rooms cleaned for as low as £10 – Whole 3 and 4 bedroomed homes’ carpets cleaned in an hour and at an unbelievably low price. But is it really a bargain? They will be in and out in a blink of an eye, leaving you with wet carpets & in very many cases, damaged carpets. You will not see this today or tomorrow but that day will come, when your carpet starts to fall apart & you will be wondering why & you will be out of pocket.
If you think using a professional carpet cleaner is expensive, try using someone with little or no training. You get what you pay for. There is only one way to do any work that’s needed and that is, the correct way. Don’t cut corners, don’t experiment with your customers and If you are not skilled, that is exactly what you are doing
Ask yourself how long it takes you to vacuum your home thoroughly from top to bottom, moving all the beds and furniture. Then all your carpets need to be cleaned, with all the dwell time the cleaning solutions need to work. Your carpets then need to be dried and all furnishings replaced and all this cannot be done in a very short time period. Untrained staff with time constraints imposed on them to do it quickly will not effectively clean your carpet. Even worse, staff without NCCA/ IICRC certification and training are using carpet cleaning chemicals around your home.
Give me a price over the phone
There are many factors to consider before an honest price is quoted, such as:- what is your carpet made from; is it cotton, viscose, linen, wool, silk, nylon, polyester, polypropylene or even paper (yes I did say paper) – sometimes £250.00 per sq metre. There are new manmade fibres coming on the market almost on a daily basis and some of them are bizaar to say the least. I call them Frankenstein Fibres. What is the point of selling/or buying a rug that can cost well over £1000 and the only way you are allowed to clean them is with a product that looks like sawdust that you sprinkle on the rug brush it in then vacuum it off, because if you use any other system your manufacture’s guarantee goes out of the window.
Is your carpet woven, tufted, Axminster, Berber, Wilton, needle punched, bonded, Belgian Wilton. All this needs to be taken into consideration. It will not cost more to clean your carpet, but if you don’t know what you are dealing with, it is an accident waiting to happen. That is why we need to do a survey
We will visit your home or office and carry out a survey to establish what kind of carpet/carpets are to be cleaned. Is it a commercial carpet?
What fibre or blend of fibres they are made from?
What style they are?
We will check how the carpet is secured
Do you have gripper rods? Is the carpet glued down, or loose laid?
Is the carpet secured with double sided tape?
We will check the condition of the seams.
Do you have a wooden sub-floor, or stone, or is it concrete?
We will check for. Apparent wear areas, traffic lanes wear, Spillages, spots and stains. Placement of furniture.
There are many many more considerations to be taken into account, before any cleaning can take place.
An honest carpet cleaning company will visit your home, at a mutually convenient time to pre-inspect your carpet and ascertain your particular carpet cleaning needs at no cost to or obligation yourselves. You should then be given a final written price and a comprehensive guarantee.
Carpet cleaning companies using unsubstantiated claims
Many unscrupulous companies will use the media to mis-inform the public about the so called professional services they provide. Using claims such as “WE ARE THE BEST”. “IF WE CANNOT DO IT THEN NOBODY CAN”. “OUR MACHINARY IS THE FASTEST AND MORE POWERFUL.” ” ALL OUR STAFF ARE QUALIFIED”. WE ARE INSURED”. ” WE TRAINED and qualified”. It is up to you to separate the wheat from the chaff
So why choose us?
We are highly trained school attended, and experienced professional carpet cleaners and have many years’ experience.
All carpets cleaned will be
Pre- Inspected
Pre – groomed
Pre- vacuumed
Pre- sprayed
Agitated- then allow enough time for the pre-spray to emulsify & suspend the soiling.
Cleaned using the correct method for that particular type of carpet.
Post spotted if needed
Dried if needed.
Why not have a listen to previous customer’s video reviews. There are a lot to choose from.
And we hope to hear from you soon.
Russ