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Brisbane carpet cleaning update

Brisbane carpet cleaning update-Your carpets need protecting!

Do carpet and upholstery protectors such as Scotchguard, Teflon or Rhinoshield represent good value for money? Do they work well? Please read on and I will endeavour to answer these questions.

Over the years it has amazed me how much easier it is to remove soiling when I re-clean a protected Brisbane carpet annually. Generally the stains or spots on the carpet are much easier to remove also. In addition my client has had more reaction time to blot up the spills. Consequently this means a protected carpet usually presents me with less spots to work on.

One thing I make sure my clients understand is that a carpet protector is not “bulletproof” or “magic”. Good quality protectors guard against soiling and staining. Carpet and fabric protectors also improve the release of spills and soils and they can even facilitate your carpet lasting longer. Protected fibres essentially have a barrier to lessen the abrasive ability of soiling within carpet. Soiling in carpet is like sandpaper rubbing away at your wool or synthetic fibre over time so by having this barrier you slow down the wear and tear.

Another question I am often asked is “does my Scotchguard wear off?” Yes it does and consequently needs re-application from time to time. A top up to the original treatment usually suffices after each clean. These top ups represent great value as Aqua-Pro do top up treatments at a discounted fee.

So in summary: Carpets, clothing and in fact any textile requires proper care. Abusing it will cause visible and permanent wear. Carpet protectors, proper care, regular vacuuming and periodic professional cleaning by competent Brisbane carpet cleaners will facilitate a long life for your flooring investment.

Sidenote: In this article I have mentioned product names such as Scotchguard, Teflon and Rhinoshield. Which one do we use and why?
We use Rhinoshield as it has an additional ingredient that is extremely important. This ingredient is not found in many carpet and fabric protectors. Rhinoshield in its formula incorporates dye blockers that also attach to your fibre. These dye blockers fill in the dye receptors in many carpets that cordials and soft drinks love to bind with which means a carpet protected with Rhinoshield stands a chance against one of the hardest groups of stains- dye stains! Does your Brisbane carpet cleaning company offer protection for your carpet? Do they use a protector with dye blockers built in? Aqua Pro can help.

Thanks Mark from carpet cleaners Brisbane.

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Carpet cleaning Brisbane and allergies

Indoor air quality is a new and very interesting science. It seems when I was growing up air quality was all about the outside air and emissions from industry and consumers. Whilst outdoor air quality is more important than ever there is also a focus on indoor air quality as we spend a lot of time indoors in Brisbane.

It could also be argued with reference to new construction techniques that the turnover of indoor air with fresh air from the outside is slowed with more air tight construction. This results in indoor air becoming more polluted.

Let me now cut to the chase……………………. Why does having carpet inside your home help with the air quality. Carpet is like a sponge or a filter. It captures pollutants and traps them much more efficiently then hard floors. This wonderful filter holds the allergens out of the air that we breathe. Allergens and pollutants on hard surfaces such as polished floors, vinyl and tiles tend to redistribute when disturbed either by foot or broom.

I don’t intend for my blog to become a scientifically referenced thesis so will not back up the above statements with citations to various studies worldwide but it makes sense- doesn’t it? Clean a glossy polished timber floor and you can see the dust sitting on the surface the next day. Vacuum a carpet thoroughly and it takes a long while until the dust is visible again. Your carpet being the wonderful filter it is traps dust and other contaminants and is doing its job!

The bad news is that this carpet filter needs professional cleaning periodically by Brisbane carpet cleaners like Aqua-Pro Services. Owning and using regularly a high quality vacuum will lengthen the time between visits from your carpet cleaning company.

In concluding, carpet is of benefit to some allergies through its ability to trap pollutants. In addition a carpet not maintained properly has a reduced ability to collect and filter indoor nasties. Therefore a clean carpet is the most efficient it can be at keeping your indoor air quality the highest it can be.

Bye for now. Mark -Brisbane carpet cleaners.

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How long will my carpets take to dry after cleaning?

The time frame for carpets to be totally dry depends on several factors, such as the level of soiling and the cleaning method used. Generally, it can be anywhere from 30 minutes to 12 hours. The Australian Standard states that up to 24 hours is acceptable.

If you use steam cleaning or hot water extraction by a professional, drying should take 2 hours to 12 hours. Take into consideration the following factors to determine how long it will take for your carpet to dry, and what you can do to make it dry much faster.

The type of fibre– This is by far the most important thing. Wool carpets take a lot longer to dry then synthetics. Wool carpets are about 30 % absorbent compared to the few percent range for synthetics.

Thickness and Weight of the Carpet – The thicker/heavier the carpet, the longer time it will need to dry.

Exposure to Air – If your room doesn’t have windows, or if the windows are shut, to create ventilation, evaporation will be lessened. Turn on the fan in your room to improve air circulation, making your carpet dry faster. During warmer months, turn on the air conditioner instead.

The Humidity and Weather conditions – Obviously the higher the humidity the longer it will take for carpets to dry. Is it a hot fine day or a cold wet day for example?

Now, if you really need your carpet to dry at a much faster rate, opt for professional carpet cleaners that offer speed drying services on top of state of the art equipment and years of experience.

Thank you.

Mark the Brisbane carpet cleaner.

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A safe and easy guide to stain reduction and removal from carpets

Red wine spills. Cordial catastrophes. Tomato sauce trickles. Don’t you just hate these colourful stains on your plush carpets? Like it or not, a party almost always guarantees a colourful, blotchy carpet. Good news is, you can do something to remove stains from your carpet, and or prevent them from ever reoccurring.

Here’s a safe, practical guideline that you can follow to help you out:

  1. Place doormats at all entrances and oblige everyone to wipe their shoes before stepping into a carpeted area. Doing so will not only save your carpet from wear and tear, but will also keep dirt and other pollutants from sticking on it.
  2. Act fast and attend to the stain right away. This means not letting it set while waiting for your guests to leave. Speed is a key factor here—the longer the delay, the more time the stain has to spread, and the harder and more time consuming it is to remove.
  3. Blot as much excess liquid as you can. Don’t soak, wipe or scrub it. Doing so will only damage the carpet fibres and cause the stain to spread. Just blot it gently using a clean white towel or paper towel to remove the stain. After sucking up the liquid, rinse the spot with water and blot again until dry. Repeat the process as needed.
  4. Gently scrape off any solids with a spoon or spatula. Wash the remaining spill and blot dry. Dried solids, on the other hand, can easily be broken up and vacuumed. Repeat until the stain is gone, then rinse with water and blot dry.
  5. To eliminate greasy stains, apply a volatile dry solvent like thinners to the spot using a white towel. Thinners are very strong and should not be used if you are sensitive to chemicals. Blot from the edges to the center. Continue dabbing until spot is clean. Remember to always patch test any cleaning agent on a hidden part of the carpet to avoid carpet damage or discolouration. CAUTION: If this step looks a bit difficult consider using a professional.
  6. Since stubborn or old stains may not respond well to DIY efforts, you may need to hire a commercial carpet cleaning service company. It’s highly recommendable and worth the extra cost, saving you a bigger cost of buying a new carpet.

Simply follow these steps above should you encounter unwanted stains to ensure your carpets are constantly in good shape, looking fresh and fabulous.

Also consider that some carpet fibre types actually get dyed by the staining agent and are essentially that colour for good ie. Permanent. Happy blotting!

Bye for now. Thanks for reading.

From Mark the Brisbane carpet cleaner

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Which method of carpet cleaning gets the best results?

Carpet is such a wonderful addition to any Brisbane home but just like all textile products, the beauty and life of a carpet hugely depends on proper cleaning and maintenance. Generally, proper carpet care involves regular vacuuming and cleaning using these methods: shampooing, foam cleaning, dry cleaning, bonnet cleaning, and steam cleaning or hot water extraction.

Now, the question is, which one of these methods deliver the best results?

Most carpet manufacturers, including professional carpeting and cleaning organisations, are unanimous with their answers. They deem that steam cleaning or hot water extraction is the most thorough way to clean even the dirtiest carpet. Steam cleaning is the most common technique used by professionals. In fact the Australian Standard even states that other methods are only interim cleaning methods and that hot water extraction is the primary method.

Steam cleaning uses a hot water cleaning solution that is sprayed on the carpet via a high pressure jet spray. A truck-mounted or portable machine is then used to thoroughly extract the solution (together with the dissolved dirt). However, note that the truck-mounted equipment is more powerful than the portable one and should be used where possible.

Steam cleaning also consists of a number of phases—from pre-vacuuming to eliminate the dry soils in the carpet before wetting and turning to mud, treating stains and spots (if any), pre-spraying with a cleaning solution, agitation (hand or machine operated) of the cleaning solution into the carpet, hot water extraction, rinsing with a neutralising aid, and speed drying.

But why is it considered the best? Because only steam cleaning does the following:

  • The high amount of heat it emits kills bacteria, molds, fungus, and dust mites, making it the most hygienic process to clean carpets.
  • It doesn’t leave any residue if done correctly, making your carpet soft, fresh and clean.
  • It is the only method that has the vacuuming process used the entire time which means more “nasties” are removed from your carpet.

As we all know, carpets are very expensive—so you want them to always be in great condition and to last as long as possible.

Highly recommended by professionals, steam carpet cleaning is the best way for you to maintain your valuable investment in soft floor coverings.

Bye for now.

From Mark the Brisbane carpet cleaner.

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Brisbane Carpet Cleaning and Brisbane Pest Control

This blog post has been written to give a summary of what Aqua-Pro Services do throughout the year as one of Brisbane’s best and busiest carpet cleaners. We are also a premier Brisbane pest control Company when it comes to cockroaches, silverfish, fleas and redback spider control.

Let us start in January; Up until Australia Day we are busy carpet cleaning and pest controlling Brisbane schools and offices 7 days a week.

February and March; We catch up on all our residential carpet cleaning, tile and grout cleaning plus pest control to Brisbane homes. We say “Thank You” to our patient and loyal clients for waiting through December and January! February can also result in extra weekend work at Brisbane Schools due to some schools not getting external pest control against redback spiders in the warmer months of the previous year. The redback spiders breed like crazy from October and by February due to the schools being closed over the holiday break, the spiders take over! They need a thorough pest management treatment which is where we can help. Brisbane Schools please note… get your redback treatment done in September, October or November if possible on the weekends to stop the breeding cycle and reduce your spider population dramatically.

April; This month is usually a mixture of residential and commercial services. Over the Easter holidays we of course do carpet cleaning and pest control at Schools all over Brisbane.

May and June; These months traditionally are a little quieter for the Brisbane carpet cleaner. As we offer speed drying of your residential carpets in these cooler months we still keep busy enough. Tile and grout cleaning in Brisbane in these months is popular, particularly in offices with stone tiled floors.

The end of June and early July we are back into Brisbane Education Facilities.

July and August; These months are similar in weather to May and June therefore are similar in our service mix and work volumes.

September; The beautiful Brisbane spring weather hits this month. Spring carpet cleaning of Brisbane homes becomes very popular as does pest control preventative treatments against cockroaches, silverfish, fleas and spiders. The end of September and early October we are once again busy carpet cleaning and exterminating pests throughout the schools of Brisbane.

October and November; these months are very busy so please book ahead or you may miss out!

December is all about preparing for the busy period ahead for the many schools, colleges and offices we carpet clean and pest control from early December through to Australia Day. In fact we do not do any residential (domestic) Brisbane Carpet Cleaning or Pest Control in this period from the second week in December through to the third week in January.

 

Thanks until next time.
Kind Regards
Mark

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Brisbane Upholstery Cleaning Detective

I received a call recently from a client from Stafford Heights regarding a butter coloured corduroy lounge or sofa a friend of hers had purchased 3 years or so ago from a big retailer at Everton Park. Now my company gets many calls about upholstery cleaning but this one intrigued me as the colour had changed in parts of the lounge suite to a bluish tinge.

I thought it was time to become a bit of a detective and try to get to the bottom of why this colour change may have occurred so that I could help my client out. I booked a time to have a look at the lounge at no cost or obligation to my Stafford client.

Now this was an interesting situation. My client had been given the lounge (as a present) from her generous friend. Before the friend had the lounge delivered to Stafford he had it cleaned by another company hoping that the bluish tinge would disappear. As the lounge cleaning detective I had to factor this in to my thoughts as inexperienced cleaners can sometimes damage fabric through negligent chemical use. It was perhaps part of the puzzle anyway? Let us delve a bit further………………….

My upholstery cleaning fabric colour change checklist:-

What is the fibre type and how was it dyed?

Where exactly on the lounge was the colour affected?

What dry cleaning or hot water extraction chemicals may have touched the lounge or upholstery? Have they left negative residues?

Could neutralising the fabrics PH help?

Were optical brighteners used?

Could dye transfer from other fabrics ie. clothes etc. (crocking) be to blame?

Is there a possibility that perspiration / body oils (particularly in medicated people) have reacted with the dyes?

Does it look different under natural versus artificial light?

Is the fibre shape consistent or has it changed in the colour changed areas?

Is there a backing material showing through only in the effected areas due to wear and tear?

Anyway you get the picture. With upholstery cleaning of Brisbane lounges there are many things to consider even if there is no problem with the colour.

So what did I come up with?

I believe the generous friend had transferred over time colour from his favourite clothing which was blue denim jeans. He was also known for his heavy perspiration and was on many prescription medications.

In this case I did not have good news for my wonderful Stafford Heights client but this is an unusual situation after all.

Not all problems of carpet cleaning, upholstery cleaning or tile cleaning have a solution.
Sometimes the damage is done.

Cheers for now!

Mark from Aqua-Pro Services

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Choosing The Right Carpet Fibre For Your Brisbane Home

Are your carpets coming up to replacement time?

Fibre choice at this time is arguably the most important thing to consider when ripping up the old, tired carpet and replacing it with beautiful new carpet.

Being a Brisbane based carpet cleaner operating from Everton Hills means that I do a lot of cleaning in suburbs around me like Mitchelton, Bridgeman Downs and Albany Creek.

In many of these homes the homeowner is preparing for an upgrade as the carpet has been down for 10 to 20 years and has seen better days. So what is the question I get asked a lot when carpet cleaning these homes? You guessed it………..”What type of carpet do you recommend for my home when I replace this one?”

Part 1- Carpet Fibre Choice.

You will have to “stay tuned” for the other installments of how to pick the best carpet for your Brisbane home but for my money fibre choice is Number 1.

We have 2 choices:

Natural or Synthetic Fibre.

An example of a natural fibre is Wool. Some synthetic fibres are Nylon, Polypropylene (Olefin) and Polyester. And of course there are the blends of both synthetic and natural fibres.

Personally I don’t like blends that much even though they do bring the positives of both groups together they also bring the negatives as well and sometimes they can be “polar”. So let us rule blends out.

Wool carpet has many great qualities. It is soft and luxurious, fire resistant and resilient.

But on the dark side……..it has high absorbency when “steam” cleaned which means in humid old Brisbane it takes a long time to dry relative to other fibres. It also loves to “own” stains in my opinion and due to the fact it is a chemically sensitive fibre carpet cleaners are restricted in what we can use to try and get stains out. It also smells a bit like “wet dog” when it is cleaned due to sulphur compounds hitting your nostrils. In addition, last but not least there is a little moth in Brisbane that loves eating the stuff. This little pest over time can destroy a Wool carpet. So I would like to rule Wool out- sorry Wool lovers!

In the “cheapy” synthetics we have Polyester and Polypropylene / Olefin. You do get what you pay for when you buy carpet and these cheap fibres do not last that long due to low resiliency. They also have “wicking” problems. Wicking occurs when through capillary action dirt and staining materials can resurface soon after cleaning. Olefin also has static electricity issues when the conditions are right and it, as well Polyester, loves oily soils and does not like to give them up. I think these fibres generally do not represent true value for money so I am going to cross them off my list also.

Let us now move on to Nylon and my favourite Solution Dyed Nylon. Nylon has come a long way. It has been changed along the way which is why you hear the term “fifth generation” Nylon. The shape of the extruded fibre has been changed to hide soiling. Also anti-static and stain protection qualities have been added. Acid dye blockers were the last generation change in Acid Dyed Nylon which means acid dyes like those found in soft drinks no longer present the same risk of staining that they used to.

Acid Dyed Nylon is ok but Solution Dyed Nylon is my pick for fibre choice. The dye is 100 % through the whole fibre. The colour of your carpet is actually the colour of the carpet! Solution Dyed Nylon has colour fade resistance, great stain resistance, is hard wearing and great to clean and dries relatively fast. It is by no means “bulletproof” or even totally “party proof” but it won me over. Recently we renovated our Everton Hills home and put 6 rooms of Solution Dyed Nylon throughout the house in bedrooms and the office. I chose it over the other fibres for the above reasons and put my money where my mouth is so to speak.

I hope this has provided some useful information on carpet fibre selection and stay tuned for the next installments.

Cheers for now!

Mark from Aqua-Pro Services

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