What To Expect During A Commercial Carpet Cleaning Service

For the majority of businesses, there will be someone that handles regular cleaning around the property. This will often involve vacuuming the carpets, mopping the hard floor areas and doing other general cleaning tasks.

While this is a great way to handle the day to day needs of the office, it should be paired with a regular commercial carpet cleaning service to get the best results. But what does this entail?

What is commercial carpet cleaning?

At the heart of it, both domestic and commercial carpet cleaning services are the same.  The aim is to use specialist equipment and cleaning products to clean the carpet in a way that a normal household cleaning doesn’t manage.

With commercial carpet cleaning, the scale is usually much larger than a home and the potential for dirt, debris and stains also much bigger.  Where a home might have three or four people using it, a commercial property could have 300-400 people using it.  Or for shops, this number could be many times higher.

Therefore while the core aim of both services is the same, the approaches are different.  Commercial carpet cleaning services are designed to handle these heavier loads, larger spaces and greater challenges.

Do you need carpet cleaning?

As a business, you are always trying to manage costs and it makes sense that you ask the question whether you even need carpet cleaning.  If the carpet is new, hardly used and has no stains, you can probably wait a while.  But for everyone else, a carpet cleaning service has big benefits.  These include:

·     Create a great first impression on customers or visitors with a smart, clean and fresh smelling entrance area

·     Make a healthier workplace for staff by reducing allergens that can become trapped in carpets such as dust or pollen

·     Make sure there are no strange smells in the office where a stain is festering

·     Get the maximum lifespan from every carpet by ensuring it is professionally cleaned

Carpet cleaning method examples

To know what to expect during carpet cleaning, it is worth knowing a little about the potential systems used to clean your carpets.

Hot water extraction cleaning

Hot water extraction or HWE is a common system of commercial carpet cleaning that works for wool and synthetic carpets.  It involves a check to see the pH scale of the carpet material then there is a pre-treatment that looks at any stains on the carpet.  

Experts will then use special equipment that is designed to remove dust and grime.  It works by injecting a mixture of hot water and carpet cleaning products right into the fibres of the carpet.  At the same time, the dirt and debris are vacuumed back out and as much as 90% of the moisture goes with it.  A plain water rinse is then used to remove any remaining detergent.

Dry carpet cleaning

Dry carpet cleaning is also known as dry chem cleaning and is used for delicate or non-water resistant fabrics such as sisal or suede in upholstery.  It isn’t as effective as HWE but is used when the process of hot water cleaning could damage the carpet or fabric.

Again it starts with a pH scale check then any stains are treated with a low moisture cleaning powder. After this, a carpet cleaner with rotating brushes is used to get the powder deep into the carpet and let it collect all the debris and stains.  The carpet is then intensively vacuumed to remove the powder and the debris.

Rotary/ Bonnet Cleaning

Another system which is commonly used is a rotation system which is a form of low moisture cleaning and is a very effective cleaning process that can be used on most carpet types. This works by a rotary system which spins a removable pad or brush. The rotation, along with the pad and solution draws and attracts the dirt, lifting it away from the fibres.

This process means carpets are usually dry within an hour or two and receives a deep clean that really scrubs the carpet fibres. This system is also low noise and offers minimal disruption so it is perfect for a domestic setting as well as being powerful enough to suit commercial requirements.

Finishing the service

Once the service is complete, there may be a few finishing touches done, depending on the nature of the business.  For example, removing furniture marks may be something you have requested, and this would need special treatment or even patching to achieve.

The carpet cleaning expert may also recommend that special treatments are added or refreshed on the carpet to help it stay stain-free for longer.  Things like Scotchgard stain protection are used for rugs and some types of carpet while there are treatments like anti-insect products that can help combat common pests.

Booking the service

The good news is that when you use an accredited commercial carpet cleaning service, you don’t need to decide what treatment is needed or how to approach the cleaning.  The first stage in the cleaning process will be to assess this and decide what is the best way to get the carpet clean.

When you use a quality service, they will also offer commercial floor cleaning for hardwood and other types of flooring.  This means you can have one company to handle all of your floor cleaning and have the job complete in one cleaning session.

Why not DIY the service?

At a glance, carpet cleaning seems pretty simple – a bit like vacuuming but with some water, right? The reality is that it is a lot more complex.  That initial quote and assessment will involve the expert looking at the material to decide what's the right cleaning product, system and even temperature for hot water extraction.

If you get these things wrong, then you can potentially damage your carpets to the point they will need replacing.  Or you could use a product that could be harmful to people or even animals that enter the building (think guide dogs, for example).  Less dramatically, you could spend time and money and find the carpet is still dirty or smelly.

Finally, if something does go wrong during the cleaning process, you know that the accredited commercial carpet cleaning company will have the right insurance to protect you.  If you do the cleaning yourself, there’s no protection and your business (or you!)could end up with the bill.

The best carpet cleaning service

When you are looking for the best commercial carpet cleaning service, always looks at the company’s accreditation. Here at Apex, we are members of the National Carpet Cleaning Association and Trust mark so you can be confident in the standards of the service we offer.  We have worked with clients of all kinds across many different business types, so we also have the experience to handle any cleaning project.

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