Today, with abundance of home carpet cleaning solutions, as well as the option to rent high-grade carpet cleaning equipment from your local rental company or just about any retail store that supplies home appliances, one could think that professional carpet cleaning is going the way of the VCR or MySpace.
Of course, nothing could be further from the truth – and you probably already know that if you are a property maintenance professional or a facility manager. But many homeowners still consider renting or even buying a carpet cleaning machine a better deal than hiring out professionals to do the job. This may be true when viewed upon from a strictly expenditure-oriented point of view: it will cost you noticeably less to rent a carpet cleaning machine from Home Depot and buy some cleaning agents. However, when you factor in time spent – time that you most likely don’t have too much to spare – as well as other more tangible costs like chipped furniture or strained muscles, hiring out a professional looks like an increasingly appealing option even when all you need is to clean the traffic areas around your house, not to mention when you are in charge of maintenance of a larger office or housing space.
It used to be the case that it didn’t make much difference whether you rent out a commercial-grade carpet cleaning machine and do your home or business carpet cleaning yourself or if you call in professionals to the do job for you. Both were kind of equally inconvenient in terms of facility downtime and both options yielded similar results. Practically the same methods and machines were used and it really just came down to whether or not you felt like your time was worth it.
But, today’s professional high–pressure carpet cleaning equipment is much more eco-friendly, effective and gentle than entry-level options, and the cost of buying such a machine has gone steeply up, ditto for renting costs. Basically, the situation today is such that if you want professional-level carpet cleaning, your choice is to hire professionals or invest a substantial amount in professional-level carpet cleaning equipment. True, this is easier than ever thanks to online sellers as well as the manufacturers in search of profit pushing into new market segments and hither-to untargeted demographics such as individual buyers.
Yet, not many people are buying such equipment, because operating it takes some training and experience – and it is not likely a homeowner can get much of that when the usual recommendation for home carpet cleaning is to do it every 12 to 18 months. Ultimately, this means your results will not be comparable to what a professional can do – and this also makes renting carpet cleaning machines not too viable of an option.
(Incidentally, a faulty “piece of folk wisdom” regarding carpet cleaning has been floating around for much more than it should be and it is time for it to be put to rest: it goes something along the lines of “cleaning your carpet before it is necessary will cause it to dirty up quicker.” Well, no. There is really no logic behind that claim and certainly no data to back it up.)
Seasoned facility managers, property managers, office managers and executive housekeepers universally consider professional carpet cleaning a superior choice over renting out equipment and using their own staff to carry out the necessary cleaning. This is in part due to the increased frequency of cleaning that is demanded by higher level of foot traffic in commercial buildings or business facilities. But in larger part, this is a purely cost-sensitive choice, since intangible costs of inexpert carpet cleaning add up much more quickly than they do in an individual home.
Professional carpet cleaners use professional equipment and cleaning agents, but more importantly their experience allows them to do a much better and faster job than you could do yourself, even if you are an executive housekeeper with dozens of staff ready at your command. Simply, the equipment that the pros use has more extraction power than what you could get and the carpet will dry faster as well.
If you are still considering renting or buying carpet cleaning equipment in order to do the job yourself, there are several things you should be aware of.
First, do your research thoroughly. Check out all available rental units in your area and compare their prices and reviews online. Be aware that, in our experience, cheaper, low-end equipment will not clean your carpet thoroughly and may actually even end up damaging it. Unfortunately, this is as often as not simply due to unskilled handling.
The deciding factor should be whether the equipment has enough vacuum power to allow the carpet to dry within 12 hours of cleaning. Avoid units that don’t have the power to extract the cleaning solution from the carpet fast enough, as this is the second chief cause of carpet damage.
The first cause is, of course, untrained steam cleaning, which in most cases boils down to over-wetting the carpet (there was a pun there somewhere – if you noticed you are probably a carpet cleaning pro yourself). Protracted dampness can lead to mildew growth or cause a separation of the backing, ruining your carpet beyond repair.
A DIY approach means spending what could amount to thousands of dollars for your carpets to be cleaned – and using up a lot of time, to boot. On the other hand, hiring professionals will mean one less thing for you to worry about, especially if your carpets require cleaning on a more regular basis than the standard warranty-recommended 12 to 18 months.
And if you are still unsure whether you should hire a pro or just do it yourself, why don’t you give us a call or drop us a line? We can give you more in-depth advice as well as a quote, so you can do the math yourself. Just don’t forget to factor in the time it would take you to do it alone. And of course, the bumps and sore muscles.
