Carpet cleaning for your home
Story By: Kristin Hawley
Source: KOAA
Are your carpets looking shabby after the long winter? The Good Housekeeping Institute puts some carpet cleaners to the test. Cleaning products director, Carolyn Forte says, "at least once a year, it's a good idea to have your carpets professionally cleaned by an outside service. You'll get a better deep-down job than you could if you did it by yourself. But not even the pros can get out every single stain, but to see how well they did, we evaluated four national carpet cleaning services. We evaluated Stanley Steemer, Sears carpet and Upholstery care, Servicemaster and Home Depot, which used the chem-dry process."
Stanley Steemer tied with Sears overall in the tests. "Both companies used a process where they inject a hot water and cleaning solution into your carpet and then use powerful equipment to extract the dirt and any residue that might be left behind," says Forte. "Both were very cost effective in our tests at under 30 cents a square foot. But Stanley Steemer was the only one who located the pretreated stains in all of our testers' homes, as well as explained what to do should a stain reappear."
One carpet cleaning customer says, "it's clean. I didn't think they could get all those stains out and it's white again."
Good Housekeeping says Home Depot 's chem-dry service was very professional. The owner of the store says, "this is a carbonator extractor that shoots out a carbonated solution from our truck outside down to the carpet and it sucks up all the soil, all the nasty things that are in people's carpets until it's nice and clean and dry"
Whether you choose a national or local carpet cleaner, there are a few basics you should expect.
Forte says, "technicians should move small furniture, put protectors under the furniture legs, and if your carpeting hasn't been cleaned in a while, give you realistic expectations of what the results should be."
