Carpet Cleaning FAQ
Most carpet cleaners use hot water extraction or "steam" cleaning; they, in essence, soak the carpet with hot water and chemicals and try to suck up the dirt and water together. The problem is that it leaves quite a bit of the water – and dirt – in the carpet, which can sink in deeper. On top of this, it can take 24+ hours to dry.
Then there’s the Spinning Bonnet method – or, more accurately, a floor buffer. These buffers are great on tile, but because they scrub downwards, they can’t effectively clean carpets. As a matter of fact, they generally only clean the top third of the carpet while most of the dirt and grime gets pushed further into the carpet. Then they have to rake the carpet back up after they’ve compressed it, so that it looks presentable.
Oxi Fresh avoids the problems of both of these methods. Rather than using tons of water when we clean, we use carefully controlled amounts mixed with our powerful, but safe cleaning solutions. This serves to effectively break up the dirt and stains and still allows your carpets to dry in an hour. And instead of using downward-scrubbing floor buffers, we use machines with pile lifting technology that lifts dirt and stains up and out of the carpet. This leaves you with a deep cleaned, fast-drying, and non-compressed carpet.
If you’d like to read more about what makes Oxi Fresh different than other cleaners, click here.
Now that’s a hard question to answer – because there’s just so much I could say! To start with we save water – we use 95% less water per cleaning that a traditional steam cleaner. Next, we save energy when we clean for three reasons:
- 1. We don’t leave our cars running to power our equipment like many cleaners.
- 2. We don’t need you to leave your windows or doors open to help with dry times since they dry in 1 to 1½ hours with us.
- 3. We use energy efficient cleaning machines.
For our cleaning system, we also use cleaning solutions that are non-toxic and safe for the environment and require that our franchisees recycle their empty cleaning bottles. Of course, in all of this, we are also making your home greener by removing contaminants, dust, and mites.
If you want to know more about how we’re green, just follow this link. Or if you would like to see our green associations, click here.
Think of scheduling carpet cleanings like you would a dentist appointment. If you only go when your teeth hurt, you’ll end up with cavities, pulled teeth, etc. Soon you’ll have more fillings and false teeth than real ones. Likewise, if you wait until your carpets get really dirty, you’ll end up with serious stains, ground-in dirt and oils, and significant traffic areas. Instead, get it cleaned every 6-12 months. Just like regular dental check-ups, regular cleanings will help prevent serious problems from forming, catch any problem areas before they can get significantly worse, and add years to the life of your carpet!
There are a lot of those small carpet cleaning machines at grocery and hardware stores, and they can get some stains out. Keep in mind, though, that those carpet cleaning machines use a lot of soaps and chemicals that, while they can make your carpets look good, can leave a film on the carpet itself. This sticky film captures dirt, dust, and hair, which means those carpeted areas will get dirty again – and faster than before.
That’s the nice thing about going with Oxi Fresh. Our professional chemists have designed cleaning solutions that are not only excellent stain removers, but also don’t leave any sort of film. Plus, our cleaning technicians are experts in carpet cleaning and can get those carpets looking fresh and clean with a minimum of hassle for you.
One of the greatest things about Oxi Fresh is that our carpets dry in about one hour! That means you can be back on your carpets quickly and with a minimum of fuss.
Oxi Fresh’s basic cleaning system is safe for pets and children due to it’s safe, non-toxic cleaning solutions. These solutions are not only safe for people, but also the environment. Of course, they also do a great job.
In addition to cleaning carpets, we also clean upholstery and, in some areas, tile and grout.
The Oxi Fresh Carpet Cleaning process is extremely effective at getting rid of most everyday sort of stains – dirt, high traffic areas, even pet urine stains. Even for more tricky substances like coffee, sometimes just a normal cleaning will get rid of them.
Now, if the stain is more advanced – like ink or rust – or older, our normal process may only be able to lighten those ares. Thankfully, we also have a Spotter Kit available to help us get rid of the more difficult, persistent stains. Ask a representative about the Spotting Kit if you think your home needs it.
What you might be dealing with is a process called "wick back." In this situation, stains have sunk deep into the pad of the carpet, whether from the original spill, or due to the carpets for being wet for more than 4 hours – which allowed the staining material to sink further down.
When the stain gets into the pad, the situation becomes difficult. Why? Well, think of an oil wick candle. The end of the wick is placed in the oil and then the wick naturally absorbs the oil and carries it up to the top of the wick. Likewise, when the dirt and oils are in the pad, the carpet fibers act as a wick, absorbing the stains and lifting them up. Thankfully, Oxi Fresh usually doesn’t have to worry about wick back, since our carpets dry about one hour after a cleaning.
Well, bad smells in carpet can usually be traced to pet urine or some sort of food stain – or, more specifically, the bacteria living off the stains that cause the odor. These little guys eat the staining material, breed on it, and product that terrible smell. Thankfully, we here at Oxi Fresh have a solution: Odor Destroyer! This amazing product is an bio-enzyme that will quite literally eat the bacteria – eliminating the cause of the odor.
Generally our carpet cleaning technicians will be able to move small furniture for you – like chairs and coffee tables – but they can’t move anything heavy or large. Anything like that would need to be moved before hand if you would like it cleaned under. Keep in mind, though, that we can always clean around objects and that we don’t need the room clear before we can start.
The quotes we give you are very accurate, unlike many cleaners. They’ll often quote you for a “room,” only to find out when they’re there, a room is 50 sq ft. and doesn’t include pretreatment. A lot of carpet cleaners are masters of this bait and switch.
An Oxi Fresh quote is per room, but we tell you the room size – which is quite large – and breakdown the other aspects of the quotes for you to give you a very accurate total. And since our total already includes things like pretreatment, something other carpet cleaners charge hidden fees for, you can rest assured that what you were quoted is what you pay – unless of course, you decide to add something yourself.
Oxi Fresh Carpet Cleaning is proud to stand behind its seven day redo policy. Although we are very confident that we can get our your spots and stains the first time, we’re always willing to come out within a week of the appointment and fix those areas up for you that we may have missed.
Oxi Fresh Carpet Cleaning started as a one location business in Denver, Colorado in 2006. Since then, Oxi Fresh has grown rapidly and steadily, expanding to nearly every state and hundreds of locations. And this growth has been possible due to the strong Oxi Fresh team and customers who love our cleanings.
If you’d like to know more about Oxi Fresh’s history, here is a great time line to help you out!