Cleaning old Carpet and the Lifespan of Carpeting
Learn why older carpeting doesn’t look as clean after a cleaning as new carpeting and understand the lifespan of different types of carpeting.
The Importance of Maintaining your Leather
I have been studying, practicing and teaching leather care and restoration for seven years. Today I spent some time on a presentation that I did a couple years ago for our technicians. I was updating some pictures and I was scouring the internet for comparable images....
Painful day of Discrimination and Cancellations
Tuesday was a rough day for the team. I feel compelled to post about it because we all felt the pain. When you work in the service industry, you gain a very high respect for the time of others, and you honor your commitments with other providers. When people flake on...
Not Clean Enough – We made a mistake!
Sometimes we make mistakes, and this spot resurfacing was one of them. See what we did to correct it and save face!
The Sticky Truth about Glued Down Carpeting
Today was one we don’t see every day, but we see it occasionally - mostly in commercial jobs, but those are usually a little different. Our Senior tech went to what he expected to be a standard cleaning. Six rooms and a set of stairs. The hidden gem was the carpeted...
Cleaning Grass – Sisal, Jute, Seagrass and Hemp Rugs and Carpeting
We see a moderate amount of grass type rugs and wall-to-wall carpeting. We also see a lot of posts promoting them as an easy to clean and sustainable option, both concepts which we support heavily, but the latter about which we raise an eyebrow. While wading through...
How to Clean a Jute Rug
Yesterday Adrienne took a call from a customer who has a water stain on a Jute Rug. I swear, every call gives me an idea for a blog post. Jute rugs are not a hot trend right now, but they are a timeless and stylish rug that we see often. Jute rugs are made from an...
Viscose still trending. Why we hate it.
Hate is a strong word, but this fiber earns it. Back in 2019 I wrote a blog post about viscose rugs. It remains one of our most visited posts to this day. Why is that? Of course I can only speculate, but when you are dealing with a fiber that turns yellow when exposed...
Water as a cleanser?
Today I had a call from a customer who spilled wine on their carpet last night and he wanted to know what to do. Way back, when I was in a training for upholstery cleaning, something the instructor said resonated with me and has stuck with me ever since. Water is a...
Overusing Cleansers – How much is too much?
Yesterday morning, as I watched my husband use about 1/4 cup of Windex to clean a counter less than six feet long, a blog topic came to mind. I recalled a year prior when I was staying with our manager for a weekend retreat of sorts. Her husband did a load of laundry...
Water Stains on your Carpet and Upholstery and What To Do About Them!
Water Stains are a common problem in our industry. These are caused by both homeowners and by novice technicians. In the images below, the customer spilled something on the carpeting, and then doused it with water to try to clean it up. This was still very wet when we...
Upholstery Cleaning Codes We Ignore
Today, our notable call was from a young lady named Erin who has an ottoman on which she attempted some DIY cleaning and now has compounded her problem. Not uncommon! The unique thing here is that during our call she referred immediately to the cleaning code that is...
Dryer Vent Access and our Quest for the Exhaust
Never a dull moment - today our tech went to a dryer vent cleaning job. We love dryer vents because they are relatively simple to do with the right equipment and having clean ducts makes a big difference in safety and efficiency of your dryer. Our office team is...
Wool Carpet and the Wet Dog Smell
I am open to suggestions for a better title to this post, because while wet dog is one of the smells we talk about here, it isn't the main one. Our gem from yesterday was a customer, Jane, who had invited a carpet cleaning company out that wasn’t us. That was her...
An Education in Spots and Stains.
While we consider ourselves excellent at setting proper expectations with our customers, we do still get those who hear what they want, and don’t read the notes that we provided in their inspections. On the front end, we always explain that stain removal is unlikely,...
Will My Aging Leather Sofa Improve With Cleaning and Conditioning?
Fielded a question from the team today about a leather sofa. This came through an email from a customer Nicole. Nicole has a new baby, and as most new moms do, she is looking to get things cleaned up and sterilized before baby begins to move. She emailed us these...
Lingering pet odor from a previous owner
On Friday my most memorable conversation was with a customer who had just moved into a new condo. The woman, I will call her Leslie, said that it seems that there is a closet in the hallway that has been used for a litter box, and it’s still quite an overpowering odor...
An AirBnb Rental Gone Bad and Why Self Treated Stains Won’t Come Out
It’s the age old service company frustration. As a homeowner myself I am as guilty of it as everyone else. You mess something up, you try to fix it yourself, you make the problem worse… and then you call in the professionals. So now the professionals have to deal with...
Why is upholstery more expensive to clean than carpet?
Today we had a customer call and ask why we charge more for upholstery than we do for carpet - sofas are much smaller than rooms, after all! It was a funny question for me, but as I was explaining it to my team, Isabel told me to put it in the blog. So here goes! My...
Our Sonoma Italian (Leather) Job
Today, one of our technicians went for a leather cleaning and conditioning job in Sonoma. The piece was a high-end Italian leather - no problem - but it was a suede. Suede is an unfinished leather, meaning that it has no manufactured pigment applied on top of the dyed...
Carpet Cleaning Chronicles
Last week was our first employee meeting of the year. Isabel prepared the year in review and we found it to be somewhat unremarkable. We’ve had so much change in this business since the epidemic and having a solid year but with nothing remarkable feels a little...
Natural Carpet Cleaning: An In-Depth Guide for Eco-Conscious Homeowners
If you're like 78% of the world, you're ready to live a more eco-friendly lifestyle. This can include everything from recycling more to using greener cleaning practices. In particular, consider switching to natural carpet cleaning. There are many benefits of this...
The Interior Design Guide to Successfully Layering Rugs
Are you tired of a dull and lifeless living space? Do you want to add a touch of creativity and uniqueness to your home decor? Look no further than the art of layering rugs. Layering rugs is an interior design technique that can transform a room by adding color,...
How To Clean Leather Couches Like a Pro
We're sorry to tell you this, but your sofa could be harboring more germs than your toilet seat! Surprising, right? Along with other household items such as refrigerator handles, toys, and laptops, sofas are one of the most contaminated places in your home. The...