DIY carpet cleaning?

[widebody911]

The wife is having a "party" next weekend (translation: one of those gigs where she's flogging a product for someone else) and I'd like to clean up the carpets a little. There's footprints (mine) and cat barf stains all over the place.

Are those rental units from Home Depot et al any good? Or should we just bring in a pro? Can/do the pros handle shuffling furniture around?

The carpet is berber.

[VINMAN]

The rental ones do a pretty good job. If you get it from home depot, dont get the cleaning solution from the rental area. get a bottle of the Zep carpet cleaner from the cleaning isle. works way better and 1/3 of trhe price.

Other thing is berber is a lot harder to clean than pile carpet.

I bought one of those Bissel green machine cleaners a few years ag, one of the best investments ive made.

[Zeke]

If you do go pro, get a good one from Angie's List or off Yelp. Lots of bad CC's out there. Don't go for some cat that says spotting is extra, blah, blah. A good pro CC'er cleans regardless of what needs to be done.

Yes, they should move furniture as necessary.

A good friend of mine went into the CC business following his dad. He tells me there is enough soap residue in most carpets that have been cleaned even just once that he usually fires up the steam and just sucks out the old residue and cleaning at the same time. I know when he gets done the carpet is softer.

If he does use his soap, he goes back with a clear hot (very hot) water rinse. I know that's what the machine is supposed to do to begin with, but this guy gets things done right.

[sc_rufctr]

I've done my own a few times using a rental machine from the local super market.
If you decide to go this way follow the instruction to the letter. Don't be tempted to add any extra cleaner.
I used hot water in the tank and that seemed to make it easier. You'll be surprised at the amount of muck in the water

What I do is...
1. Do a really good vacuume first.
2. Clean the skirting boards especially the tops.
3. Setup the machine and chemicals etc.
4. I start in the main traffic areas first and get this as clean as I can.
5. Then the rest... As I push forward I press the trigger for the spray. Then pull back sucking up the same area.
You can leave the spray on/in the carpet for a bit longer in problem areas.

Go slow and you'll find your own way of doing it and you'll soon be in a hypnotic Zen like state. No joke... I actually look forward to that part.

When done put down some clean towels so you're not walking on wet carpet. It will take a few days before it's 100% dry.

The pros do an excellent job but they won't take the time to concentrate on the problem areas like you can.
Usually I hire the machine for a whole week end and take turns with my GF. While she's using it I'm getting the next lot of water/detergent ready and visa versa.
I pour the dirty water down the toilet rather than in a sink.

[Dantilla]

After cleaning with the chemicals, I go back over it again with hot water only- Amazing how much dirty sudsy crap gets sucked back up!

[Bob Kontak]

Originally Posted by sc_rufctr

As I push forward I press the trigger for the spray. Then pull back sucking up the same area.

Nice write up. FWIW - I recently used my brother's "home style" Rug Doctor. Not set up to allow ease of (push) forward movement. Was meant to work backwards.


I use hot water only in my cleaner. I use the Zep type stuff in a spray bottle and scrub with a nylon bristle hand brush on the stains. For stuff like cat vomit, hot water in the machine is all you need.

Don't like putting the soap through the machine. OK if you have the discipline to run the last load of clean water through and clear out the tubes. Also, you will be leaving some soap on the rug where soap is not necessary to clean.

[Evans, Marv]

Back when I owned rental property, I did all the maintenance except for things that required a pro beause I didn't have the resources. I bought one of those Bissel carpet cleaning machines from Costco. I found I could do as good a job & better than the pro companies could. I'll add my comments to the above good advice. The go slow approach is very necessary. I also found out rinsing the carpet two or three times made a huge difference in how it came out. Obviously I didn't drench the carpet when rinsing & did a light rinse each time. After a while I got to where I only used Folex as a cleaning agent, although wholesale cleaning isn't its main purpose. I'd put it in the detergent tank just like the regular cleaner was supposed to be used.

[89911]

I have been cleaning my own carpets for years. I use to rent the "Rug Doctor" from Home Depot or Lowes and thought it did ok. What I didn't like is that for every gallon of cleaner you put down, you barely got half of it up with the suction. Yes the water was very dirty, but half of it was still in the carpet. I did research on Consumer Reports and they recommended this model:

Hoover MaxExtract Dual V Carpet Cleaner, Black, F7412900: Amazon.com: Home & Kitchen

It was priced good on Amazon so I got it. It basically does what I need. The most important part of the system is that it has a very powerful and efficient suction system that pull almost all the liquid back out of the carpet, perhaps 75-80%. The Rug doctor would leave so much liquid in the carpets, they would take 24 hours to dry. This Hoover seems to dry in a few hours. It has a self mixing cleaner solution so you don't have to premix the cleaning solution, just add hot water. Disadvantages are that it gets tedious emptying and refilling the solutions. I would say 2-3 passes in a medium sized room and you are emptying. It is great for spot stains, footprints, animal issues, and any areas that you want to clean quickly. I have found that most carpets just need the used area's clean and the days of lifting all the furniture and doing the entire room are less frequent.

[azasadny]

Rent a carpet cleaner and try "Krud Kutter", it does a great job cleaning the carpets. Don't use too much soap or it won't all rinse out and it will attract more dirt after it dries. Good luck!

[rrental]

Go to your local rental yard RentalHQ > Homeand get yourself a professional rug cleaner.

We rent ours very frequently and have very good feedback on them. Stay away from the grocery store rug doctors. They are not that great, and very poorly maintained.

[slakjaw]

Try brake clean man

[widebody911]

Thanks guys! I'm tempted to just hire a professional service to do this.