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| Spray stains on carpets with a special, not too strong stain remover and let sit overnight, before you ‘deep clean’ the carpets, either with a HOST ™ dry clean system or a HAGERTY™ shampoo cleaner.
If you are not sure about the product you bought for stain removing on carpets interacting with the colour of your carpet J, try it out a couple of days before hand on a hard to detect small spot. Otherwise you could get a nasty surprise, if you use it without testing………………………….
HOST extractor vac Cleaner:
This is a large vacuum brush cleaner; very often you can rent it in a furniture store, respectively at specialized carpet stores.
The method of cleaning with this system is easy and quick!
You purchase the special HOST sponges, tiny sponges that are soaked with a cleaning liquid along with it. At first you Hoover the carpet with the HOST, the special brushes will remove dirt and prepare carpet for cleaning. Then the sponges are strewn on the carpet and you kind of massage them into the carpet, where they clean and bind the dirt. After about 30 minutes you pass over the carpet again and Hoover the sponges out. This system ensures that furniture marks are lifted and less visible, also you can step on the carpet immediately afterwards, no need to wait. The machine is a bit heavy to handle at first, but you get soon the knack of it, also the sponges can cause a bit of a mess (look like sawdust), so have a small hoover ready to clean up the rest.
http://www.hostcarpetcleaning.com/
HAGERTY spray-ex system
This is almost solely offered to rent from Drogeries in Switzerland. Along with the machine you can purchase the special shampoo.
Hoover the carpet normally before you start cleaning, then mix the shampoo with water as required, and you can start to work away, by spraying the shampoo on the carpet and extracting it with the next move. You might need to go over the carpet twice……………………
IMHO, the downside on this system is that it gives the carpet less of a lift, see furniture marks, and you need at least 24 hours wait until you can step on the carpets again.
Unfortunately, I was not able to find a website for HAGERTY, only a variety of web pages of various Drogeries popped upJ ©sylv 2005 | |
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On the subject of carpet cleaning, you can rent a Satrap machine for cleaning carpets at Coop Bau and Hobby. The machine rental is 20 francs for a 24 hour period. They provide a sheet of instructions (G/F/E) with some illustrations but the machine is very easy to work. First you must vacuum your carpets with a regular household vacuum.
On top of the machine rental price, you need to purchase the shampoo. The amount needed will vary depending on the amount of carpet you need to shampoo. A one litre bottle of shampoo is 12 francs which will cover an area of 25 m2. It is important to test the carpet in a small, inconspicuous area to be sure it is colourfast.
A few important points: use the correct water temperature for the type of carpet and be sure to mix the correct amount of shampoo with water. The instructions are on the bottle (G/F/I) but unfortunately they are for an amount that is larger than the water tank in the machine so your math skills will come in handy.
You will need a power supply and while the cord is quite long an extension cable should not be necessary but check first.
You will need to dump the dirty water somewhere so keep this in mind before you have thoroughly cleaned the bathroom.
You may need a pitcher or pail to fill the water tank of the machine (shower hose will work too) but keep in mind that once full the machine is very heavy.
If you have a multi level house, start at the top and work your way down. If you have one level but carpet in the halls and stairs, do the rooms first, and save the halls and stairs last.
Don't wear shoes. Bare feet are best and keep a towel on hand to keep drying your feet.
Your house is going to get very humid. Opening the windows will only help if it is dry and cool outside. Drying time will vary depending on the carpet.
Stains are a problem. Before you start, take a good look around the room. If you have post it notes, put them down on the stains. You can buy stain remover at Coop but this product needs to be used with great care or you can remove the colour along with the stain. I prefer to use the carpet shampoo and rub it into the stain.
If the carpets were previously cleaned and stains remained, you will probably not be able to remove them either.
Once cleaned you may notice things such as carpet near a door is faded from the sun. This is particularly obvious if a small carpet was placed on top of the carpet to keep it clean near the door. No amount of cleaning is going to fix this problem.
The more water you can extract from the carpets the faster they will dry. Also, keep in mind that the machine is noisy so you will not be able to use this in the quiet times. If you have already taken lights down, you won't want to work at night anyways unless you have a light source.
It's really not that difficult, though you will find your arms and back may start to hurt if you have a lot of carpet to clean. Try to find someone to help you.
