Clean carpet in a house?

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ptownTSI

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What do you guys use for deep cleaning a carpet in a house? That 4" wide wand attachment on the mytee's would take forever. Is there a larger version or am I better off renting a commercial steamer for a few hours? We have one room in the house that is VERY soiled. We had a party here and all kinds of nasty things were spilled on the floor. Beer, food, soda, etc.



Do you guys use those hoover shampooers at home? Scrub by hand and use a shop vac to clean up?
 
I have a old hoover steam cleaner no use now the new house has all wood floors. I like the wood all different width all oak.
 
ramtough said:
I have a old hoover steam cleaner no use now the new house has all wood floors. I like the wood all different width all oak.
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I know my old house was all wood. Now this one they decide to put carpet in worst spot. the family room. Everything else is tile and wood.
 
For spot cleaning on carpets/rugs, I use Griot's interior cleaner.



After brushing out as much dirt as possible (a key step) and vacuuming I pretty much saturate the stain with the cleaner, scrub it, and finish it up with a run of the mill extractor.



Hasn't failed me yet.
 
ptownTSI said:
Do you guys use those hoover shampooers at home?
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Yes, I have one of those Hoover all-terrain jobs. It pulled a bunch of black stuff out and left the carpet surprisingly dry. It also pulled out a disturbing amount of carpet fuzz; I don't know if that's normal, from the brush action, or because the carpet is 35 years old and starting to break down anyway. I've never rented one of those supermarket carpet scrubbers, but I was pretty happy with the Hoover. Of course, it will help to pretreat obvious spots and stains. Also, the normal caveat about trying to get as much detergent residue as possible out applies.
 
I've used various Hoover and Bissell units and also my Century/Ninja. Heh heh, I must have at least five or six extractors around here :o



The problem with most larger nozzles is that they tend to leave things pretty damp IME. I actually DIYed an adaptor to use a little Bissell nozzle on my Century just because it helps get more moisture out. The *wide* Century nozzle, made for household use, simply left things way too wet for me.



To my (pleasant) surprise, my latest Bissell unit, a "ProHeat" model that looks like an upright vacuum cleaner, is my favorite; I even prefer it over my Century.



I'll sometimes scrub nasty stains with carpet brushes on my Cyclo.



Important things I've discovered: Heat makes a *huge* difference. Professional carpet-cleaning chemicals work a *LOT* better than other stuff (including the Griot's Interior Cleaner that I'm otherwise so happy with). Pre-spotting, with an adequate dwell-time, can work wonders if you use a pro product. It's best if you don't get things so wet that you really saturate the padding. Rinsing is critical, and the hotter the better. I might even switch from plain (hot) water rinses to a rinse agent next time. Don't quit rinsing until you're no longer getting *any* suds out of the carpet.



Check the yellow pages, there's almost always a pro carpet cleaning supply place nearby.
 
We use a Hoover Steamvac (that like Accumulator's looks like an upright vac) in our few rooms w/ carpeting. As we live on the Gulf Coast w/ its ensuing heat and humidity our regiment is doing the carpeting in spring/fall months so we can open windows during drying time.



We'll do two rooms a day using half the recommended soap solution then add fans to speed the dry time. Usually 4 hours later - when the carpet is dry - we'll do a pass w/ clear water to remove the soap solution and add fans once again until dry.



I've tried a trial run using just hot clear water (no solution) and was surprised at the dirt that was lifted that way and may change up my routine this fall.



Stains are dealt w/ immediately using the BLGM so I don't have probs there.
 
I just did this this week actually with a Hoover SteamVac. I ran the sweeper obviously to get all the fun dirt, fuzz, fur, etc up. Pre-treated each of the nasty spots with Folex (buy the gallon size!), and followed the usual directions for Folex.



I then did something a little out of the norm since I was trying to remove some nasty smells (cig smoke, pets, etc). I got a gallon of that Odoban stuff at Home Depot. My carpet cleaning solution was 10 oz's of Folex and 5 oz's of Odoban to the water tank, and then filled the water tank with hot water. I went over all the carpets with that mix twice (first time it only put a small dent in it). Then dropped down to 5 oz's of Folex and 3 oz's of Odoban for the 3rd run through, and then three run throughs with just straight clean water. Now the reason for this much cleaning is, someone thought it'd be a good idea to put a off-white carpet in a farm house... Not a good idea with all the junk tracked in from the fields and barns... But the carpets are back to almost new looking with that combo. Just be prepared to spend a lot of time with that combo.
 
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