I wrote this article to help homeowners decide if they should clean or replace their carpet, or clean some parts and replace others.

We would all love to have our carpets look like the day we had them installed: one single, shiny color with all the fibers tight and standing up straight. As we live on it, we experience varying degrees of wear and soiling, depending on how we care for it, how many people use it, what pets live on it, and other factors.

For every carpet there comes a day when its owner must decide if it can be cleaned, or if it needs to be replaced altogether. Then the homeowner feels like she needs to decide if she should call a carpet cleaner or a carpet installer.

This is mostly a personal choice. Some people will consider a carpet “ruined” if it has visible wear in traffic areas. They may choose to replace it because they know that cleaning cannot repair wear—once the carpet fibers have unbound and laid down, nothing will make them stand up again.

Others consider the carpet usable all the way until it becomes dangerous (and beyond) with tears and exposed tackless strips.

This decision is further complicated by the fact that the homeowner may be worried about cleaning pet stains from carpet. Can the carpet be cleaned, with complete pet odor removal and pet stain removal? That’s not a question I can answer without seeing the carpet in person. I can tell you that cat urine removal is more complicated than dog urine removal. Pet stain carpet cleaning is not the same as just cleaning the carpet, because the nature of a pet stain is that it often goes through the carpet and soaks the pad and even the subfloor below. All carpet cleaning machines are designed to clean the top of the carpet only, not the backing, and not the pad. This makes more aggressive carpet cleaning techniques necessary.

The important thing in making this decision is what is important to the homeowner. If she wants her carpet to look brand new, replacement may be a more viable option. If visual cleanliness and sanitary condition is most important, a carpet cleaning may be in order.

If you haven’t had your carpet cleaned before (or if you haven’t had it cleaned well!), you may not know what results to expect from cleaning. For this reason, we’re always happy to give a sample of our work. We would come in, and show you our process on a small section of carpet, so you can see exactly what to expect with the rest of the carpet. You will also get to see exactly how it is done.

We offer the same service with filtration soiling. This describes the black lines that develop at the baseboards, on the edge of the carpet. We can often get these, but not always. If you want these lines removed, we can show you what to expect on a small section of carpet. This will allow you to make an informed decision about whether to have a filtration soiling removal.

It may be the case that some, but not all, of your carpet is not cleanable. In these cases, we can give a quote and a demonstration for cleaning, and another quote for the replacement of other parts. We are truly a one-stop shop in this regard.

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I’ve seen this twice in the last week: I was called to clean a carpet, and it was wet. Neither carpet was wet to the touch–I couldn’t feel dampness–but my moisture sensor indicated that it was well over acceptable moisture. Some fungi can grow at 16% moisture. Dry rot will happen at 20% moisture and above. Accelerated wet rot will happen when moisture remains at 30% or higher. In any of these cases, the moisture must be dealt with before the carpet can be cleaned.

This floor is visibly wet.

So what happened? In one home, the homeowner acknowledged that she had been using a home wet vacuum. The results were disastrous–the entire pad was wet, and the subfloor was wet as well. It is hard to tell how long they had been wet, but there was some visible fungal growth. In the other home, the homeowner was no longer around to defend himself, but I suspect that the same thing happened–the carpets were uniformly wet in almost every room, with no apparent water source. The water probably went in through the top.

If the error is caught quickly, the carpet can be dried and cleaned without pulling it back. After a week or so, however, fungus can begin to grow, and it will become imperative to pull the carpet back, and replace the pad. It may be necessary to dry the subfloor, clean the back of the carpet, and even apply a biocide to roll back any fungal growth.

Instead of cleaning this carpet, the homeowner has been pushing dirt through it, into the pad. It wicked back up constantly, leaving it in a permanently dirty state.

Why did the carpet get so wet from cleaning? Wet carpet cleaning requires a powerful vacuum to evacuate the water used to clean. Ideally, a powerful, truck-mounted engine is used to drive a large blower to accomplish this. Home units, and some larger, portable units, are not strong enough to meet this standard.

Both of these homeowners probably cleaned their own carpet in order to save money. In the end, the damage cost a lot more than a professional carpet cleaning would have.

Your carpet acts like an air filter, holding down dirt and debris that would otherwise be floating in the air. If you have hard floors, you are probably familiar with the fact that they appear to get dirty faster than your carpet does. Of course, this is not the case. With hard floors, the dirt lays on the surface and floats up when there is air movement. Your carpet will at least hold on to dust and dirt and keep it out of your lungs.

If you’ve ever used a doormat made of carpet, you have probably experienced wonder at how much dirt they could hold. When you shake them out, the dirt keeps coming and coming. The same is true for the carpet in your house, but you can’t shake that out. If you don’t vacuum frequently, hard soil will settle down between the carpet fibers and the vacuum will no longer be able to get them out (no, not even your $500 high-tech vacuum, Mrs. McGillicudy). So stay ahead of this curve! Vacuum frequently. A good rule of thumb is to vacuum one time per week per occupant, and pets count as occupants. A family of four with three pets should be vacuuming every day. Of course, an office or bedroom may only have one occupant, so reduce accordingly. However, in my experience, almost everyone vacuums less frequently than optimal.

When you get behind, I’ll be happy to help!  Call Keech Clean at 919-741-4150 for carpet cleaning in Raleigh and Wake Forest.

It can be done–you can be very effective in maintaining your carpet with some simple tools.

The best thing you can do to keep your carpet clean is to vacuum as frequently as you can stand. A good rule of thumb is one time per week per occupant (and pets count!). Now, I don’t run into households with 7+ occupants where the carpet is vacuumed every day, but they are out there, and their carpets look fantastic and last for as long as they want to keep them.

Next, your carpet will thank you if you just don’t cause it too much harm. Not wearing shoes and not having pets live inside are both great ideas, from your carpet’s perspective. However, the carpet has to work for us, so the best advice I can give is, don’t use any chemical product that says it’s for your carpet.

Some of these products work, but many of them cause harm by either bleaching the carpet or by leaving residue that attracts dirt. You can’t go wrong with vinegar–it’s more effective than most specialty spotters you might buy at the store, and it causes no harm. Mix 1:1 with water, wet a white cloth with the mixture and dab (don’t rub! Trust me on that) the spot. You want the spot to wick up into the cloth.

The big exception to the above rule is with the use of enzymes. If you have pets living inside, it is worth investing in a bottle (or more) of an enzyme. There are many, most of which are effective. Most people have heard of Nature’s Miracle. You will think that name is accurate if your dog relieves himself on your carpet, and you see how effective it is against pet spots and pet odor. Spray or pour the enzyme where he went (depending on the volume–better too much than too little). The enzymes chosen are ones that break down organic waste material. They will consume the pet mess, leaving nothing behind. If you take care of it soon, you can solve the problem by using an enzyme.  People concerned about pet spots and pet odors in their carpet should always keep a bottle of enzyme handy.

Most of us have rented a carpet cleaning machine from the grocery store. Some of us own one of those. I’m not a big fan, because they don’t remove their water very effectively. However, if you must use a store-rented carpet cleaner, please do not buy the store detergent. This may be as much as the rental itself, and it will do more harm than good. Since the machine doesn’t rinse well and no balancing rinse is used, the carpet will remain in an alkaline state. Like soap, it will be attractive to dirt. You will wonder how your carpet got so dirty after you just cleaned it! Use water, or water and vinegar if you clean your carpet with a rented mini-machine.

In case you were skimming to the end, you will be most effective if you vacuum frequently, don’t use store-bought spotters, and do use enzymes to clean up pet messes (of all kinds).

When your carpet problems get out of hand, I’d love to hear from you!

I have three young boys, so I ask that question a lot. Even worse, though, is this situation: after carpet cleaning did not fix the odor, you’ve replaced the carpet, but you can still smell the pet odor that convinced you to replace it in the first place. Why does it still smell? Most people assume that tearing out the old carpet and replacing it with a new one will solve all pet odor problems. While it’s true that the carpet is capable of holding more pet urine than any other place, other porous materials in your home can perpetuate the problem even after new carpet installation (or an effective carpet cleaning).

If there is still an odor it is because the odor-causing agents (usually pet urine) have not been removed. If you replaced the carpet and the pad, those are not the problem. The pet urine has soaked in somewhere else.

The first places I would suggest are the subfloor and the baseboards. If you are replacing carpet to get rid of pet odors, it’s important to seal the subfloor first. If put urine has soaked into the subfloor, and you put carpet over it, some people will be able to smell it.

The baseboards and sheetrock can also contain a lot of pet odor, usually with male cats who spray the walls. Once it has soaked in, the only way to fix this problem is to remove and replace the baseboards and part of the walls. It is useful to examine the walls with a powerful blacklight to see where the damage is. Even worse than removing too much sheetrock would be removing too little!

If you have pet damage to your carpet and are considering installing new carpet to solve this, have someone inspect for pet damage. If the problem goes beyond the carpet, you will want to know that before replacing it. It is much easier to fix the subfloor while replacing carpet than after replacing it.

Carpet becomes “delaminated” when the backing separates from the fiber side of the carpet.  When this happens, it loses its structural integrity.  In the first picture, the rolling chair has damaged the carpet.  These wrinkles can’t be taken out by stretching the carpet, because the carpet is separated from the backing in those places.  The carpet can be stretched tight as a drum, and the wrinkles will remain.  In cases like this, we advise the client that stretching won’t solve the problem.

In the second picture, the carpet was under water for about a month before it was discovered.  This weakened the glue that holds the carpet together.  Since the delamination was in isolated areas along the edge, we were able to stretch it in properly.

The cat urine has been removed from the back

A work in progress–we have treated the floor and cleaned the back of the carpet.  We will treat and clean the front of the carpet, seal the floor, replace the pad and tack strips, and stretch the carpet back in.

There are two distinct advantages to using Keech Clean to install your carpet (in addition to cleaning). First, we offer your first cleaning on your new carpet, complete with Scotchgard, absolutely free! I’m unaware of any other carpet installer in the area making that same offer.

In addition, we can be very useful to people who want some carpet replaced, and some carpet cleaned. We specialize in solving problems other cleaners can’t handle, especially (as you know if you’ve poked around this site) pet urine damage. When you call us, we can give you different options to make sure you are making the most of your budget. You will be surprised at what carpets we can save!

We can save this carpet!