Next to floor maintenance the most labor intensive and technical type of cleaning you will be required to do is carpet cleaning. Many new office cleaning businesses subcontract their carpet cleaning jobs out to a professional carpet cleaning firm. If you have never had any experience in the field of carpet cleaning this may be a very good idea.

However, if you wish to attempt cleaning your clients carpets yourself we would like to share a few technical tips with you. These tips should help you to avoid any costly mistakes.

A. Spot Cleaning:

The most common type of carpet cleaning is called spot cleaning. This involves removing small spots in you clients carpet during your general cleaning. The spots are generally created by spilled coffee, ground-in food and dirt brought in from outside the office. Very often copier toner is also the culprit. One key point to remember at all times is that a spot is only on the surface of the carpet and a stain is set into the carpet. A spot that is left unattended for a period of time will become a stain.

There are a variety of carpet spot and stain removers on the market. However, from experience there is really no miracle spot and stain solution. While any given carpet cleaning solution will work on one type of spot or stain it may not work on another. For this reason we recommend that you purchase a spot and stain removing kit from your local janitorial store. These kits come complete with a selection of different cleaning solutions that will work on a variety of spots and stains. They also come with an instructional book. And very often they will come with a spot and stain identification chart that will help you to rapidly identify a particular spot or stain and the proper chemical agent in the kit that will remove in it. Also only use a clean white piece of terry cloth to clean any spot or stain. Other types of materials have a tendency to only smear the spot around and push the offending mark deeper into the carpet. Terry cloth will draw the spot or stain out of the carpet as long as the correct cleaning solution is used.

If all else fails in your attempt to remove a spot or stain you may want to try the following remedies. While they may not be a high-tech approach to the problem, they have been around for years and can work wonders.

1. Tar and Grease: Remove all that you can with a putty knife, then dampen the area with paint thinner. Once the stain is removed with the paint thinner clean the area with a mild soap detergent and blot dry with a piece of terry cloth.

2. Gum: The easiest way to remove gum from a carpet is to purchase a small can of gum remover form a janitorial supply store. Inside the can is an aerosol solution that, when sprayed on the gum, will freeze it. All that you have to do then is to take your putty knife and scrape it out of the carpet.

3. Coffee and Tea Stains: Dampen the stained area with paint thinner, then clean the area with a mild soap detergent. If a stain remains, dampen the stain with a hydrogen peroxide solution and allow the area to air dry.

4. Ink: First try to remove the ink stain with a mild detergent. If this doesn’t work, spray the stained area with hair spray or dampen the spot with rubbing alcohol. Blot the stain out with a piece of terry cloth. If a faint yellow stain remains, dampen the stain with a rust remover purchased at you local grocery store. Then rinse the area again with a mild detergent solution.

5. Blood: Although it is a rare occurrence, from time to time you will have to remove a blood stain from a clients carpet. If the spot is covered with dried blood, scrape it with a putty knife and vacuum the area. Then soak and blot the area with salt water. If the stain still remains, blot some ammonia on it with a piece of terry cloth. Hydrogen peroxide and rust remover are also excellent for removing blood stains.

B. Cleaning Traffic Lanes:

Every office you contract to clean will have it’s share of traffic lanes. These are usually located at the front and rear doorways of most buildings and down corridors. As you become more experienced in the commercial cleaning business you will find that these carpeted areas are the hardest to keep clean. And very often these may have been the downfall of the previous cleaning company. It is for this reason that you should take preventive measures in order to keep these areas as clean as possible.

The best way to prevent a heavy dirt and grime buildup at all entrances and exits is to place chemically treated mats at each doorway. While you can purchase these mats at your local janitorial supply store, we recommend that you contract with a mat cleaning service. On a regular basis they will remove the dirty mats and replace them with fresh clean chemically treated mats. You can add the cost to your regular cleaning charge when you contract with the building management or you can have the building’s management contract with a mat service on their own.

Always give all traffic lanes extra attention when vacuuming, making sure to vacuum both on the top and under each mat. Eventually, despite every effort, these areas will have to be cleaned more thoroughly.

For complete carpet cleaning of an entire office or just the traffic lanes, there are a few methods of carpet cleaning that you should be made aware of. Below is a brief description of each method, along with their individual pros and cons.

1. Carpet Shampooing: When many people think of carpet cleaning the first image that comes to their mind is the shampooing method of carpet cleaning. This type of cleaning has been around for over half a century and until recently was the standard form of cleaning in the carpet care industry.

In shampooing carpet you use a floor machine with a nylon brush attached. A tube runs from a small container mounted on the floor machine’s handle to the nylon brush assembly. Inside the container is the shampoo cleaning solution. By squeezing a trigger on the machine’s handle above the container, the floor machine operator distributes the shampoo solution down the tube from the container onto the base of the nylon brush assembly. As the brush spins it drives the shampoo deep into the carpet. Then you vacuum removing the dirt and debris.

2. Dry Foam Carpet Cleaning: This method of carpet cleaning is similar to shampooing. However, in place of a floor machine, you use a specially designed machine that releases a foam solution onto a cylinder brush mechanism under the foam machine. From a labor point of view it takes absolutely no skill in operating a foam machine. You simply roll the machine over the carpet just as you would an upright vacuum cleaner. And because the foam solution contains no water it dries in about one hour. All that is left to do then is vacuum the foam solution out of the carpet.

3. Steam Cleaning: Over the last few decades this method of carpet cleaning has become quite popular. In this method of carpet cleaning water combined with a chemical cleaning solution is sprayed deep into the carpet under very high pressure. Then the dirt and grime is immediately extracted with a wet vacuum. Both the sprayer and vacuum are mounted together on a lightweight pole.

There are two popular types of steam cleaning equipment. Below is a brief description of each.

Portable Steam Cleaners: This is the type of steam cleaning apparatus that most people think of when they think of carpet cleaning machines. They are small compact units on wheels that can be rented at your local hardware or tool rental store. They are also now available for rent from many grocery stores around the country. For the do-it-yourself weekend carpet cleaner these are excellent and need very little instructions or hands-on training. As in all types of steam cleaning it is important to remember that you are dealing with hot water. If you over wet the carpet it can shrink as it dries and pull away from the walls. If you are using a portable steam cleaning machine we recommend that you go over the carpet twice. The first time using the full solution and vacuum. This will speed drying and prevent carpet shrinkage.

Truck Mounted Steam Cleaners: Unless you have a very large start-up budget you can forget about employing this method of steam cleaning. Along with the purchase or lease of a truck, you will also need a large solution tank, a powerful vacuum unit, recovery tank and the spray and vacuum extracting unit. For most office cleaning companies, regardless of their size, this is not even an option.

There are a few points you must remember when steam cleaning carpet:

• DO NOT OVER WET THE CARPET. This can not be emphasized enough.

• Always mix the water to carpet cleaning solution ratio as per the manufacturers recommendations on the label.

• As in other forms of floor care always start from the farthest point in the room and work you way back to the exit door.

• When steam cleaning carpets we recommend that you have a helper. It is always easier if you have help in moving and replacing furniture. Also your helper can place foil back carpet protectors under the furniture legs, this will prevent water and rust stains from discoloring the carpet.