Following are tips on how to perform do-it-yourself work at your community.
Q.I recently bought a building with wall-to-wall carpeting in most rooms. The carpets are very dirty and getting them cleaned is costly. I wondered, is do-it-yourself cleaning feasible?
A. There are several DIY methods for cleaning carpets. Some work well. The method that many people use is water injection or steam cleaning (although steam is seldom used). It uses a machine that injects hot water mixed with cleaner into the carpet, then vacuums out much of the water and removes a great deal of the dirt at the same time. This is essentially the same method that is used by some professional carpet cleaners. You can rent these steam-cleaning machines at tool-rental agencies or some home centers. I have used this method and was amazed at how dirty the water was that was removed from the carpets (the machine I used stored the used water in a transparent tank). You need to attach the tool to a source of hot water and make sure the appropriate cleaner is supplied. You also can buy carpet-cleaning machines that use this system. A drawback is that some moisture might be left in the carpet and pad. If the carpet and pad do not dry properly, the carpet might become a source for mold.
Another method, sometimes called dry cleaning, uses powder that is spread on the carpet and sometimes forced into it by a machine. The powder is allowed to stay in place for a given amount of time, absorbing dirt, and is then vacuumed up, leaving the carpet cleaner and brighter. Thick foam is sometimes used instead of powder. A downside here is that the powder or foam is a chemical and the cleaning results might not be as thorough as with water extraction. You can also rent dry-cleaning equipment at some tool-rental agencies. Stains and very dirty areas might need special additional treatment with any cleaning method chosen.
Questions and comments should be e-mailed to Gene Austin at
gaus17@aol.com.