Pay professional to clean home carpets?

twopu · 05-14-06, 04:11

I've been told that the retail carpet cleaners (bissels, eureka, hoover, etc) even supermarket rental carpet cleaners can't clean your carpets like a professional can. Is this true? The carpet has some pet stains/odors that the OTC pet stain cleaners can't seem to get out. Anyone have experience with professional carpet cleaners? What should I look for when hiring one?

Pup · 05-14-06, 05:04

Its been true for me in the past. There machines and force water deeper and also extract it out much better.
Also the cleaners they have are much stronger then your regular store brought stuff.
I have tryed the rentle ones many times and they are great for spot cleaning light soiling and general maintaince but you can't really get the carpets really clean!

G35stilez · 05-15-06, 03:27

To my knowledge, Stanley Steemer is one of the better cleaning companies out there.

On one account, I heard of the technician coming in and naming every single stain remover used on each spot on the carpet, verbatim. This sold the customer and their *white* carpets look like they were just laid down when completed.

On the converse, I have a pretty decent ($300) Bissel stand-up steamer. I use as hot water as allowed coupled with Kids & Pets or a good enzyme cleaner. This helps kill odors. 90% of the time, it works well, however, there are areas that need some extra treatments.

I believe a Stanley job isn't that expensive. It comes down to:

-What is your time/effort worth?
-Will the DIY costs exceed Stanley?
-Can *you* guarantee your work?

To me, I'd rather put it on someone elses shoulders, especially if they make any sort of guarantee.

kevmo327 · 05-16-06, 07:01

We use a Bissell on a regualr basis and it does a good job but once or twice a year will have a pro come in and the difference is very noticable.

tlak · 05-16-06, 04:16

I never had carpeted floors till now, so my question may be silly - do they move furniture too?

tx

Jeremiah · 05-16-06, 05:37

You will want to ask the cleaner if they move furniture. Don't hesitate to ask for references from the cleaner. I wouldn't use a commercial place like Stanley Steamer. I own my own floor cleaning business, and in my personal experience they are really bad at cleaning carpets good. Any good and honest pro will give references at will. I would also look for a company who uses a HWE (hot water extractor), as opposed to a non hot water one. The HWE will get the carpets much, much cleaner. Go with a pro maybe once a year and get a OTC job for quarterly cleaning, this will give you the best results.

PrinzII · 05-16-06, 06:50

Considering that I have seen some of the pros with steam extractors, I am wondering if they use their extractors to clean the carpet in the house.

Zackb911 · 05-17-06, 10:05

I used to clean carpets in college for a large local company. There is no way the bissell or Supermarket rentals will even come close! The temperature, pressure, etc isnt there. Call a local company tell them you need 1-2 rooms done, and slip the guy some extra cash to do a couple extra areas or rooms while he's there. It'll be cheaper and better for both of you...

Make sure the carpet is well vacuumed and as much furniture is moved, id pickup some scotchguard at Wallyworld and spray that down when hes done. Keep wood; like tables etc off the wet carpet or the stain could bleed onto it.

Zack

Accumulator · 05-17-06, 11:12

I've used my Century extractor (along with the Cyclo and its carpet brushes) to do our household carpet. I did at least as good a job as the Stanley Steemer/Serve-Pro (sp?) guys ever did and I left less moisture in the carpets/padding too; it dried out a lot faster than when they did it. I did have to use the smaller nozzle for the final extraction though (greater suction-effect), which was a bit of a pain.

IMO it's gonna *really* depend as much on the individual operator as anything else. Some guys hired by the big franchise places are *not* people I want in my house; I had the dogs follow the one crew from room to room. Maybe those guys really had reformed since getting their tattoos done, but I decided to try it myself and hire an independent if that didn't work out. It worked out fine doing it myself.

kompressornsc · 05-17-06, 11:18

I had totally forgot about doing this, but the last post reminded me of it.

I use to have a house that just had one small bathroom and a bedroom with carpet. Carpet companies wanted $100 minimum, even though the bathroom was probably 3' x 3' and the bedroom 12' x 15' with a huge unmovable bed in it. So...

What I would do is wait until I saw a carpet cleaner in the neighborhood doing another house. Go up, tell him what I needed and to come by after he was done there and I would pay him $25 cash. Took them about 10 minutes total, they never reported it to their bosses, and shazaam-I had clean carpets!

Way2SSlow · 05-17-06, 02:19

Quote:

Originally Posted by Accumulator

Some guys hired by the big franchise places are *not* people I want in my house; I had the dogs follow the one crew from room to room. Maybe those guys really had reformed since getting their tattoos done, but I decided to try it myself and hire an independent if that didn't work out. It worked out fine doing it myself.

LOL! I hear ya. FWIW, I went to the local grocery store and rented one of those Rug Doctor machines. It cost me ~$50 (I got the wand attatchement as well...they charge extra for that I guess) and it did get some GA Clay stains (thanks to my dogs) out of the gray carpet in my basement, but didnt do so hot of a job on the rest of the white carpet upstairs that I tried it on. The cleaner they sell there is expensive too. I think I got out of there for right around $75 and I spent a couple hours on the carpet. We have had our carpet done professionally, and it came out A LOT better. The guy we used was nice as he could be with no prison tats or anything. My dog followed him around because she loved him, not for security reasons.

HTH

twopu · 07-21-06, 10:56

Is it worth paying the extra to have them protect it and deodorize the carpets or can I do that myself? Each step costs about $15-$20 per room. I do have a little dog that soiled the carpet when she was a puppy. We used every OTC product to clean it up but the black light says otherwise. Should I just stick with having them clean the carpets?