How to deep clean carpet like a pro

Benefits of professional deep carpet cleaning

Carpet is probably the most used thing in the entire house, that’s why it requires constant and frequent maintenance. It gets dirty and messy pretty quickly, especially downstairs, where food crumbs from the kitchen, pets’ hair and debris, outside dirt and dust, brought on the sole of the shoes, etc. makes it look and feel quite unpleasant.  Even if you vacuum your carpets regularly and remove stains as they appear, carpet tends to lose its color overtime. It also gathers the smallest dust specks and fluff pieces that are impossible to get rid of during normal vacuuming routine. That’s why you can’t really be sure your carpet is completely clean and fresh even right after the most throughout cleaning. Besides, all germs and bacteria that accumulate in carpet fibers are even more dangerous to human’s health than dust cluster. They may cause more serious allergic reactions and skin problems.

Of course, you still have to vacuum your carpet floors every single week or even several times a week in the most used areas of the house like living room and hall. It’s even more essential if you have small kids, who’re constantly crawling and playing on the floor. And, the amount of mess and the number of necessary vacuums per week increases if you have pets, especially if you let them walk outside. Combine those two factors with the understandable fact that it’s impossible to live in the house without leaving the ‘signs of residence’ in it – and you get a cleaning disaster. Like you’re never able to let go of vacuum. Sounds familiar to you? I know it does.

The first thing you can do to get your carpet cleaned is to vacuum it correctly. Professional carpet cleaners recommend that it’s better to purchase an upright vacuum cleaner with powerful suction to clean the carpet deeper. Canister vacuum is good in taking care of wooden, tiled or any other type of floor. However, if you’re not ready to splurge on two vacuum cleaners for your household, you should probably opt for an upright one, which features a brush-off setting to clean bare floors.

This version will be perfect for those people, who live in houses or apartments, where most of the floor is covered with carpet. Also, it will be great if you have to do a lot of area rug cleanig. In the end, you can always mop wooden, tiled or linoleum floors. But it’s good to have a tool to clean your carpets more thoroughly. So, if you’ve chosen to use an upright vacuum cleaner, don’t forget to adjust its inclination angle according to manufacturer’s instructions. This will not only help you vacuum the carpet better, but also extend the service of your vacuum cleaner.


Take the shoes off to walk on the carpet. Treat your carpets with special cleaning supplies before vacuuming every once in a while. Clean the entrance area more often and deep clean carpets throughout the entire house 2 or 3 times a year. Following these basic rules will keep your carpets as good as new much longer.

Now, deep carpet cleaning requires special machines only few people have in their households. Most of us prefer addressing carpet cleaning services to perform such cleaning professionally in order to get better results without having to rent and operate those cleaning machines or feeling the harmful odor of cleaning supplies. Besides, it’s so easy to find carpet cleaners who work within your local area on HireRush.com, call several companies directly from the site to figure out their schedule and pricing policy and hire the one you liked the most.

But, if you have sort of professional DIY carpet cleaner, you have to learn how to operate them properly in order to achieve decent results. The matter is that those devices differ from professional ones. Moreover, specialized carpet cleaners take their time to treat the carpets and combine various techniques and methods for that matter. They also know which cleaning supplies and deep cleaning methods suit this or that type of carpets the best and won’t ruin the flooring. So, it just seems much more effective to hire them instead of struggling to deep clean the carpets on your own.

However, if you want to give it a shot and attempt to deep clean your carpets without calling for professionals’ assistance, let’s figure out the best way to handle deep carpet cleaning like a pro.

How to maintain clean carpets on daily (weekly) basis

As I’ve already mentioned, vacuuming on demand is a key factor of keeping your carpets clean. And, that’s also something everyone does without any second thought. Big mistake there.

Aside from choosing the right vacuum cleaner that may handle the amount of tasks it will have to perform, the length and the density of carpet fibers and which has strong suction, it’s also necessary to use it correctly.

First of all, you should start with an empty dust container or clean filters (depending on what kind of vacuum cleaner you have) to ensure strong suction (even if that sounds terribly wrong))). The most common reason of vacuum cleaner malfunctions or even breakdowns are clogged filters that have to be changed. It normally works like magic – just change filters or wash the dust bag and your vacuum cleaner will start working again (of course, if there’re no problems with the device itself). Actually, it’s good to do that at least every 3 month or even more frequently. This will not only ensure better quality of your vacuuming job, but also save your device several years of normal work.

Also, it’s good to vacuum your carpet once a week and twice or three times a week in the most used areas. Moreover, laying a doormat both inside and outside the house will prevent a good half of the dirt and dust from appearing on the carpets.

Another useful tip is to vacuum the carpet slowly enough, so that it manages to suck in as much dust and debris as possible.

Knowing how to clean carpet stains and getting rid of them immediately will increase the chances that you’ll remove them completely. Otherwise, your carpets will preserve the marks of your favorite food, bloody injuries and sneaky chocolate runs. Blotting stains instead of rubbing them is more effective, just as looking for some handy household items like vinegar, ice cubes or dish soap to get rid of particular spots. If those DIY carpet cleanes don’t work, you may opt for spot cleaning products for carpets. They usually come in spray bottles.

Sometimes you can also apply some shampoo of other carpet cleaning substances (more or less chemical) in order to clean your carpets better in between the deep cleanings. Those products lift up the dirt from carpets with foam, which you may remove afterwards.

Don’t miss regular deep carpet cleaning

We’ve already discussed why it’s so important to deep clean your carpets few times a year. Color and renovation and odor removal, as well as repairing holes and tears, restoring carpets after water, fire or smoke damages are among those things highly specialized carpet cleaners and technicians are able to perform.

Deep carpet cleaning plays several functions due to the dirt, dust and odor removal. First of all, it’s highly beneficial for human’s health. Secondly, it makes your carpets look better and last longer. Also, it makes them much safer for kids to play on. Moreover, it’s possible to choose more natural, eco-friendly cleaning products and methods to deep clean your flooring, so you may achieve all those results without applying toxic chemicals.

Find local carpet cleaning services

However, it’s better to deep clean your carpets before their contamination becomes critical. Otherwise, they’ll be too damaged to get back in shape even after a carpet professional carries out the most intensive cleaning and restoration procedures.

Choose a qualified carpet cleaning professional

Professional carpet cleaning is good when it’s really professional. So, when hiring a carpet cleaner, make sure that the company he comes from a reputable company that has a license and required permissions to operate on the market of cleaning services. Its works have to be well-trained. Check their references to make sure that their previous clients were satisfied with the results of their work. It’s good to find a cleaning company you may rely on in future. Stick to its services when it comes to carpet cleaning in future.

Ask your cleaners which equipment and cleaning products they use. Modern equipment and eco-friendly cleaning materials are additional factors, which argue in favor of this or that cleaning company. Personal attitude of a carpet cleaner makes a huge difference as well. If you see that cleaner rushes through the process and clearly does not the greatest job, don’t hesitate to tell him about it and ask to fix his mistakes if you find any. Be polite, but confident of your point of view. You shouldn’t pay a full price for a third-rate job.

Types of professional carpet cleanings

Carpet professionals offer various kinds of cleanings like hot water extraction, better known as carpet steam cleaning, or encapsulation, or bonnet and shampoo cleaning, or cleaning with dry compound, etc.  All those techniques require the use of different machines.

How water extraction method is suitable to clean new synthetic carpets, as older natural ones may be ruined during the process and shrink because of the hot water treatment. It works this way. At first, specialist apply pre-spray cleaner all over the carpet. Then, he has to agitate, rinse hot water and apply pressure using a machine that looks like a weird vacuum cleaner. That’s how cleaning solution and all the dirt, dust and other small debris are excluded from the flooring.  Carpets have to dry after such cleaning, so the better the cleaner manages to balance the water use during the process, the faster the carpet dries.

Encapsulation works a little bit different from the dry compound. Cleaning crystals, which are brushed into the carpet by a special rotary machine or sprayer, absorb dust and dirt from the carpet right away. That’s why it’s possible to extract them from the carpet much faster than ordinary dry compound, so people use it right away.

Dry compound method may be applied both by professional carpet cleaning technicians and ordinary homeowners. Professional cleaning substance is spread evenly all over the carpet. Then, its fibers are brushed through with an ordinary hard bristled hand brush to make the compound get into the carpet and attract the dirt. Once the compound has finished its job, it’s vacuumed off the flooring, leaving it nice, clean and dry. Carpet cleaning specialists use special machine with rotating brushing mechanism to make the process faster and more effective.

So, you may totally apply this method on your own, but make sure to work with compound carefully. Or maybe, you should better hire a professional to be completely safe.

How to use DIY deep carpet cleaning machine

Nowadays you may rent or purchase your own ‘carpet steam cleaning’ machine to conduct deep carpet cleaning on your own. Of course, those are not quite professional cleaners, as they’re not so powerful and they hold less water, but they’re more portable and more effective than ordinary vacuum cleaners.

However, you’ll have to spend more time deep cleaning your flooring with such machines than with the help of professional ones. So, you should probably deep clean your carpets with ‘domestic’ machines more often, before the flooring gets too messy. Your machine might not cope with serious contamination. Also, it’s better to vacuum your carpet before and after you conduct hot water extraction cleaning (once it’s completely dry). Don’t forget to get rid of stains in advance as well.

It’s possible to last longer without professional deep cleaning if you use such machines frequently enough, but you should still book those services every once in a while.