Carpet Cleaning and Rug Cleaning Video

This short video reviews the difference between carpet cleaning and rug cleaning. Carpet cleaners and rug cleaners are bunched together in the internet search engines and the yellow pages. So whether you have wall-to-wall carpeting, oriental rugs, wool rugs, designer rugs or handmade rugs, you need to know the difference between the two.

If you don’t, you may over pay for a service you don’t need. Or you may get back a rug that is still dirty and smelly, or worse yet, has been damaged by the “cleaning”. Here are the 7 critical facts you need to know.

1. In the U.S. “carpet” typically refers to wall-to-wall carpeting. It’s typically made from nylon and olefin (polypropylene) fibers, assembled and held together with adhesive.

2. Nylon and olefin fibers are non-absorbent. Soil stays on the outside of the fiber.

3. In the U.S. “rug” typically refers to a floor covering that covers only a part of the floor. Most rugs of any value are made of natural fibers – wool, cotton and silk.

4. These natural fibers are absorbent. Soil goes inside the fiber as well as adhering to the outside.

5. Wall to wall carpeting is most often cleaned using a “hot water extraction” – also referred to as “steam cleaning”. The cleaning takes place “on location”, that is, in your home or office. The professional carpet cleaner uses cleaning agents to break up the soil. He then extracts the soil and cleaning agent from the fiber surface using hot water and a powerful vacuum. This works well because the cleaning agent and equipment are designed and manufactured to strip soil off synthetic fibers.

6. Valuable rugs – rugs made of natural fibers – are washed for the same reason you wash clothes. There is no other way to get them thoroughly clean.

7. Professional rug cleaners wash rugs in a rug cleaning plant designed and equipped for that purpose. The rug cleaner needs to be able to address all types of rug construction, mitigate dye migration, remove all types of soil, including dry soil and pet accidents, and thoroughly dry the rug.

If you live in New Hampshire or Vermont and have a rug that needs cleaning  call or contact us.