All Pro Carpet Cleaners

DISCOVER THE DIRTY TRUTH ABOUT WHAT YOUR SHOES ARE BRINGING ONTO YOUR CARPET AND TILE.....

In some countries and cultures, it’s scandalous to walk into a home with shoes on.  But in the U.S., most people do…

However, “Good Morning America” recently tested the bottoms of eight different people’s shoes, as well as two dogs’ paws, for bacteria.  According to Jonathon Sexton, a research assistant at the University of Arizona’s College of Public Health, “Good Morning America’s” test results were “dirtier than a toilet seat.”  “Toilet seats generally have 1,000 bacteria or less and these (shoes) are in the millions so there’s a lot more bacteria here.”  One of the tested shoes contained the most bacteria of all—66 million organisms!

Children under 2 are the most vulnerable to the germs we track into the house, because they play on the floor and put their hands in their mouths an average of 80 times an hour. "That means your child can be exposed to every single bacteria that you picked up on your shoe. all the bacteria from the park, the store, everywhere you went that day," Sexton said.

In a recent study, researchers at the University of Arizona found nine different species of bacteria on people's shoes These types of bacteria can cause infections in our stomachs, eyes and lungs. The study also found bacteria live longer on our shoes than in other places. As we walk, we constantly pick up new debris that feeds the growth of more bacteria.

Out of GMA's 10 test subjects, 9 contained coliform, a type of bacteria that comes mostly from human and animal waste. Scientists blame the floors of public restrooms and bird and dog droppings. The dogs in the test came in 5th and 9th place for the dirtiest soles. That doesn't mean dogs are cleaner than people...one of the dogs had just been for a walk in the rain which probably cleaned his paws and the smaller size of paws carries fewer germs.

Researchers tested to see if bacteria on shoes would transfer to tile floors in a house. More than 90% of the time it did. So...while it's great to remove shoes, it isn't always practical and we hesitate to ask guests to remove shoes, so the next best thing is to....CALL ....ALL PRO CARPET CLEANERS 386 774 7441       407 833 8888.

You will have a better chance of keeping your carpet fresh and new looking when pets have accidents if you are able to treat it right away.   More and more people want home-made carpet cleaning solutions because of the fact that they are really inexpensive. An example would be the acetic acid present in vinegar. Common household white vinegar is effective in combatting odors from pet urine. This type of carpet cleaning solution is also non-toxic in nature & inexpensive;and will not harm your children or pets in any way. It is an excellent pet accident remedy. 
Homemade Stain remover
If you want to prepare homemade urine remedy, all you need is white vinegar, and a pistol grip spray bottle. Mix vinegar and water, 50/50 and mist on the area in question…..BLOT and repeat as necessary. Be sure not to rub vigorously as this may distort carpet fibers and while the odor may be gone, an unsightly area will remain. A larger accident (we have big dogs ourselves, so we know these kinds of accidents are rarely “small”)…..may require more vinegar solution as the urine has usually also soaked into the padding underneath. In this case, it is essential that you remove all the solution by blotting with white towels and then laying a towel down and weighting it with something heavy to help soak up the solution as it wicks to the surface. Of course you and I know that prevention is the best cure, but sometimes accidents happen. Prevention is the same case when it comes to the cleaning of carpets. If you vacuum your carpet daily, especially with pets in the home, you will find the indoor air quality is much more healthier and carpets will look and be cleaner longer. Check your vacuum cleaner belt often to insure peak performance.

One of the most important things we can do to maintain a clean and healthy home, as well as make our carpeting last longer and look better is to v acuum, vacuum, vacuum!!  Not one of most people's favorite things to do (even we admit we don't love the vacuuming part of our job!)--it is, however SUPER IMPORTANT.   Our carpets act as air filters in our rooms and trap dust that would normally be floating around in the air.  This is a good thing, as long as we vacuum routinely to keep the "filter" clean.

Shaw Industries, the world's largest manufacturer of carpets recommends rooms with light traffic be vacuumed once weekly and the traffic lanes 2x a week.

In heavy traffic areas, Shaw recommends vacuuming traffic areas DAILY and the entire area 2x weekly.  In heavily soiled areas, we should make at least 5-7 passes of the vacuum, changing direction occasionally to help reduce matting. 

Don't forget to change the bag often so vacuum suction won't be impaired...and clean the filter if you have one.   Many people who don't like vacuuming may do so more often when using the type machine with a clear dirt receptacle so they can see exactly what they're getting out of the carpets.  And don't forget to vacuum the area rugs--hand knotted orientals can hide pounds and pounds of dirt and still look great.  When we bring in Orientals to clean in our shop, we not only vacuum, but use a commercial rug duster that gets piles of sand out before we wet clean them.

If you use carpet powders, DON'T!!  But, of course some people will and super vacuuming is essential----once the perfume wears off, the powder then absorbs any odors and what was intended to remedy a smelly situation actually ends up making it worse.

When we don't vacuum, the dirt and sand acts like sandpaper on our carpet fibers, taking away the lustre and changing the appearance (think what your waxed car would look like if you rubbed sandpaper on it) and grinding away at the fibers---leading to carpets wearing out faster and looking bad sooner.

Often, when we go to clean carpets, homeowners will tell us that some rooms don't need cleaning because they never get any foot traffic even though they haven't been cleaned in a few years---of course we couldn't go several years without dusting our furniture--well, we could, but you wouldn't!  All that dust has also settled on our carpets.

Of course All Pro Carpet Cleaners of Deland, FL vacuums before we clean your carpeting and we encourage you to get out that vacuum now and have fun! 

Do you have allergies? 

 Good News!

Believe it or not, you can keep your carpet.  Studies have shown that carpet is better at trapping allergens than hard flooring such as tile or hardwood. How can this be? Particles and allergens fall to the floor (out of the breathing zone) and onto the carpet. The fibers of the carpet trap allergens and particles, reducing their continued circulation in the air.  If you have hardwood floor or tile and have watched the dust swirl around in the sunlight, you know what I mean.

Proper cleaning, and frequent vacuuming with a Hepa-filtered vacuum effectively sucks up the dust in the carpet, locks it in the machine, and keeps it out of the air.

 

November 7, 2009

Carpet cleaning client recommends Hydrogen Peroxide

I really like the carpet cleaning business. One of the reasons is that I meet some really interesting people. Recently I cleaned carpet for Mr. Lindquist, a retired chemist who holds 17 world wide patents. It’s really neat to meet and talk with such amazing people!  He and I started discussing the powers and properties of H2O2, or as it is commonly known, Hydrogen Peroxide. Mr. Lindquist made several observations and I concurred with him that with this one chemical you can clean your teeth, have sparkling dishes emerge from your dishwasher, treat cuts and wounds, plus hundreds of other uses. As a professional, trained carpet cleaner, we use H2O2 to help remove stubborn organic stains such as pet stains, or help in removing odors.

Check out the following link for more practical everyday uses: http://www.using-hydrogen-peroxide.com/