Here in Burnsville Minnesota we’re finally past the high pollen season where the trees dump vast amounts of yellow pollen into the air and it gets on everything. Pollen is most visible on smooth surfaces outside such as your car or the furniture on the deck. We find ourselves coated in the stuff when we go outside and coincidentally when we come inside it comes inside too. Pollen is on our clothes and shoes and is collected by our carpets.
Carpets act like a trap collecting allergens like pollen, dust, dirt, pet dander and many of the things that are in the air. Carpets act like a filter in our home, they trap particles and hold them until carpets are vacuumed and steam cleaned.
With the kids out of school and spending more time at home it’s a good time to steam clean your carpets and remove the buildup of allergens and improve indoor air quality.
We can help you remove all those allergens from you carpet making a cleaner indoor environment for your family. Call us at 952-891-3022.
- At least twice a year for light traffic, once in the spring to remove all the buildup of chemicals and molds and once in the fall to remove all the things tracked in all summer long.
- Monthly for medium to heavy traffic and for light traffic in cases where a positive impression is important.
- Weekly for extremely heavy traffic, for lighter traffic areas when a positive impression is critical, in circumstances where health and cleanliness are particularly important, and in cases where outside contamination is heavier due to construction or other adverse outside surface deposits.
- Before open houses steam cleaning can remove odors from cooking or pets and make your carpet look new again.
- Special events held at your business require making the right impression on your guests. Don’t forget to steam clean your carpet when you are sprucing the place up.
- After any high traffic event it is a good time to steam clean your carpet to remove all the dirt brought in. Cleaning your carpet when it is really dirty helps prevent the dirt from being imbedded into the carpet.
- If you have an area in your building that has heavier dirt or grease you may want to clean those areas more frequently than you would an office with less foot traffic.
As the days get warmer we’ll be opening the windows in our homes and offices and letting the fresh clean spring air into our spaces. Now is the perfect time to steam clean your carpet and get rid of all the things you have tracked in during the winter. Carpets are like the catch all to our spaces – they collect everything and store it until the carpets are cleaned.
A vacuum is only able to pick up so much of the stuff that we deposit on our carpets. In the winter dust, mold and chemicals from winter deicing agents can build up on carpets and can be released back in the airspace every time we walk over them. Some of the things that we track in over the winter can also cause odors that simple vacuuming will not pick up. By steam cleaning your carpets in the spring you are not only cutting down on odors you are also removing bacteria, fungus and chemicals that can ruin your carpet over time. Steam cleaning carpet allows you to extend the life of your carpet and make it look and smell new again.
- Use a shoe tray by the door so people can remove dirty shoes.
- Place a shoe scrapper brush near the door to remove any mud deposits before people enter the door. There are all kinds of brushes for residential including animal statues with thick brush bodies used to clean dirt from the bottoms of shoes.
- Place a door mat with large spacers designed to trap mud, dirt and debris at the entryway of a building.
- Install runner mats inside doors to collect dirt and debris from footwear.
Store-bought or homemade remedies for pet stain and smell removal from carpets generally don’t penetrate deeply enough in carpets. Cleaning pet urine from carpet using these tools can be a long frustrating process. Even when you think its done in a few days the smell can come back because the scrubbing doesn’t penetrate into the carpet padding, and in fact makes the problem worse by forcing the urine further down into the carpet. To remove pet urine smell you have penetrate into the carpet without driving the problem deeper.
Eventually after several carpet cleaning attempts using different products you may find a combination that appears to work, but forcing the urine so deep into the carpet that you can’t smell it as strongly can actually cause more problems. This is because some of the urine still remains, encouraging the growth of bacteria. Later when you vacuum you then blow these germs into the air.
The solution is a deep cleaning with an environmentally friendly hot water extraction cleaning.
Go here to learn more.
According to a study sponsored by the Carpet and Rug Institute, an independent laboratory tested off-the-shelf spot removers and pre-spray solutions. 25 products were tested but ONLY 4 cleaned a soiled carpet sample better than water. Some caused the cleaned carpet area to re-soil faster, and some products even damaged the carpet’s color and texture.
In short, it’s better to contact a professional than to use off-the-shelf products to remove spots and stains from your carpet.
Dirty carpet ages more quickly than clean carpet. There are several reasons for this, but the two most important are:
Sand and Abrasive Grit Particles: As these particles enter your carpet they settle toward the bottom of the carpet. Every time someone walks across the carpet these particles then abrade the carpet fiber, wearing it away. Think of it as a billion tiny pieces of sandpaper sanding away your carpet until there’s nothing left. Carpets are designed to hide dirt and grit, so even if your carpet looks clean it may be breaking down right under your feet.
Chemical Residue: Many outdoor chemicals are tracked in on the bottoms of shoes, from oily road sludge to lawn pesticides to pet leavings and more. Indoor sources such as pesticides, smoke residue, and off-the-shelf chemicals such as spot removers and powder-based cleaners also contribute. These chemicals can then bond with carpet fibers, make the carpet look dirtier, attract even more dirt and grit, and in some cases actually break down the fabric of your carpet.
A commercial steam carpet cleaning is the best solution for removing these contaminants and extending the life of your carpet. Often, even a carpet that looks aged beyond repair can be restored to near pristine condition.
According to the American Lung Association, carpet can act as a “sink” for chemical and biological pollutants including pesticides, dust mites, and fungi. This means that whenever you interact with you carpet by walking or otherwise having contact with it, you can disturb these contaminants and cause them to re-enter the air where they can be inhaled. The best solution for this problem is scheduled cleaning with an environmentally-safe service that removes the contaminants from your carpet without aerating them. Commercial Steam Team is your reliable provider for this service.
According to Green Seal, there are several benefits to “Going Green”:
Green Cleaning Helps Occupants Stay Healthy
▪ A clear link has been shown between poor indoor air quality and poor worker performance
▪ Many respiratory illnesses are caused by or aggravated by polluted indoor air
Green Cleaning Protects the Health of Custodial Staff
▪ Usage of safer products helps reduce injuries, decrease Workers’ Compensation claims and lower insurance costs
Green Cleaning Increases the Lifespan of Facilities
▪ Proper maintenance extends the longevity and performance of materials and furnishings
Green Cleaning Preserves the Environment
▪ The cleaning industry currently consumes six billion pounds of chemicals
All of these things also save money both directly and indirectly.
Does someone in your family suffer from allergies or asthma? Allergies can be controlled by avoiding the triggers that cause attacks.
Vacuums are a necessary part of keeping a carpet clean and removing the largest part of dirt and contaminants from a carpet, but for allergy and asthma sufferers, a normal vacuum cleaner might better be described as a necessary evil.
This is because vacuum cleaner filter bags are notorious at letting dirt pass through the bag, whereupon it is immediately blown back into the air to be breathed in and to settle on other surfaces where it can be easily disturbed and put back into the air yet again. Don’t believe me? Try this experiment the next time you change filter bags. Step outside with the filter bag, close the top, and shake it gently. The amount of dust that you will see will be amazing. (To simulate the huge amount of air passing through you vacuum – try shaking it vigorously!)
Studies have shown that removing carpet isn’t a solution. In fact when carpet is removed, allergies increased! Air movement on hard surfaces actually disturbs more particles which then enter the air.
The solution is regular professional carpet steam cleaning of your home and workplace. This removes allergy and asthma triggers by actually removing them without placing large quantities back into the air. This means that the next time you vacuum you’ll be disturbing far fewer particles, and so you’ll have fewer health problems from these contaminants.
