Area rugs are the best, aren’t they? They’re soft on your feet, and they really liven up our living spaces. But, what do you do when the rug you love begins to give off an odor or deteriorate?

Vacuuming is the most accessible method of carpet and rug cleaning. While vacuuming may take care of the dirt we see on the surface, it doesn’t always take care of stains or lingering odors.

Steam cleaning is the best way to take further care of your carpets and rugs. This method of cleaning uses a hot water extraction machine that pulls up debris and/or dirt without leaving any cleaning residue behind. This is important because cleaning residue mixed with the dirt/debris has the potential to breakdown fibers and shorten the life of your favorite carpet. In addition, steam cleaning takes care of bacteria, dust, fungus, and even household allergens.

While dry cleaning may sound like a practical cleaning method, this technique actually has the potential to do more harm than good. To further educate you on dry cleaning and its hazards, we’ve listed the 3 methods used by other commercial cleaning services that you should avoid:

• The Bonnet cleaning method is considered to be a low-moisture cleaning system that primarily cleans surfaces but doesn’t really get the dirt that lies within.
• The Dry-Compound method uses a biodegradable cleaning compound that is distributed over the entirety of the carpet and then scrubbed into the fibers. After a brief drying period, the compound is vacuumed up. Unfortunately, this method is not as effective as it could be since it doesn’t not do the best job attracting all of the dirt to the surface.
• Lastly, The Encapsulation method is similar to the Dry-Compound method, however, an encapsulating (crystalizing) chemical is used instead. The crystalizing chemical hardens any dirt particles that are present. This method requires no drying period before being vacuumed up. While this may sound the easiest, this method has the potential to seriously damage your carpets due to the dryness of the technique.

So, now you know why steam cleaning is the most efficient method to clean and prolong the life of your carpets and rugs. Call Steemer of South Florida today and let us take care of those annoying carpet stains that just won’t go away.