The IICRC created this chart as a guide for how often to clean your carpets

ICRC S100 STANDARD AND REFERENCE GUIDE FOR PROFESSIONAL CARPET CLEANING

The following chart from the IICRC S100 Standard and Reference Guide for Professional Carpet Cleaning serves as a guideline for recommending cleaning frequencies for carpet. They consider traffic, soil rating, vacuuming schedules, spot cleaning schedules, and professional interim and restorative cleaning.

RESIDENTIAL CARPET CLEANING FREQUENCY CHART

TRAFFIC-SOIL RATING	CARPET OWNER / MAINTAINER		PROFESSIONAL CARPET CLEANER / RESTORER
	VACUUMING	SPOT CLEANING	HEAVY-USE AREA CLEANING	RESTORATIVE CLEANING
Light Soil	1x per week	Daily or as soon as spots are noticed	Traffic areas every 12 to 18 months	Every 2 years or per manufacturer warranty
Normal Soil ( families with children / elderly )	1 to 2x per week	Daily or as soon as spots are noticed	Traffic areas every 6 to 12 months	Annually
Heavy Soil ( families with pets / smoking )	2 to 4x per week	Daily or as soon as spots are noticed	Traffic areas every 3 to 6 months	Semi-Annually (2x per year)
Extreme Conditions ( large families / multiple pets )	Daily	Daily or as soon as spots are noticed	Traffic lanes every 2 to 3 months	Quarterly (4x per year)

Source: IICRC S100 Standard and Reference Guide to Professional Carpet Cleaning.

After Monster Clean has professionally steam cleaned your carpets, they generally dry very quickly (four to six hours in most cases).

Some factors that may shorten or lengthen drying times include:

Weather
If it is hot and humid or damp and dreary your carpets will take slightly longer to dry. Air that is saturated with water simply cannot accept any excess water from your carpets, and therefore cannot contribute to drying.
The good news is that we are in much more control of our indoor weather than we used to be. Modern HVAC systems “condition” the air, removing excess moisture and allow for direct manipulation of indoor temperatures.

Fiber types
Nylon fibers for example, may absorb 150 times more water than polypropylene which can have some effect on dry time. In reality, this may lengthen dry times by about one hour.

Carpet construction
Berber constructions are tighter weaves, and do not present as large a surface area for evaporation as a pile construction does. A smaller surface area lengthens drying times significantly. Berber carpets may take 12 to 24 hours to completely dry when conditions are less than optimal.

• Here’s what you can do to shorten drying times

 

• Temporarily set your HVAC fan to the “On” position so that it runs continuously is a good idea. Your HVAC fan is probably set to “AUTO” most of the time, which directs the fan to run only when the system is either heating or cooling your home. If you switch your furnace fan to ON after you have your carpet cleaned this will cause your HVAC fan to continuously circulate the air in your home allowing your carpets to dry more quickly. Note that this will not cause your heat or A/C to run continuously only the fan itself.
• Turn on your Ceiling fansIn rooms with ceiling fans, leaving the fan on will help significantly to dry your clean carpet. Setting up other fans, such as box fans will also help, but is certainly not necessary.
• Keep all your inside doors open Even doors to areas which you have not had cleaned. Larger air volumes hold more water, and allow for faster transfer of moisture from your carpets. Leaving doors open allows air to flow naturally through your house, and will allow your carpet to dry more efficiently

We believe an educated consumer is more likely to buy carpet, upholstery and tile & grout cleaning services from MonsterClean.

Steam cleaning does NOT cause mold growth
Scientific lab studies have shown a complex picture of how mold grows in carpet and how best to avoid the problem.

Controlled scientific studies have proven that it is dirt that promotes mold growth much more than humidity. Soiled carpets promoted mold growth, while thorough cleaning reduced the risk of mold growth. Basically put, high humidity plus dirt equals mold.

Clean Carpets vs. Mold

It’s worth noting that if carpet is clean enough, carpet is virtually impervious to any kind of mold growth, despite the conditions. In the studies, clean nylon carpet was subjected to high temperatures and levels of humidity (80 degrees F; 80% humidity) and no mold growth occurred. Even clean carpeting that was known to have active mold spores did not have additional mold growth. Dirt on carpeting grows mold for two reasons. First, the dirt contains mold spores. Second, dirt itself contains moisture. So, the moisture in the dirt combined with the room’s ambient humidity provides a rich breeding ground for mold.

Even worse, dirt is a hygroscopic material, meaning that it readily soaks up any available moisture–whether ambient humidity or surface moisture. In other words, dirt is a moisture-magnet.

A Master Textile Cleaner is a technician who has satisfied all of the requirements for certification as a Master Textile Cleaner.

• The requirements include a minimum three years working in trade after first certification PLUS the following sub-certifications:
• Carpet Cleaning Technician
• Carpet Repair & Re-Installation Technician
• Color Repair
• Odor Control
• Upholstery and Fabric Cleaning Technician
• Water damage Restoration Technician

Every hand knotted rug has a “light” side and a “dark” side.  The color is due to how you view the rugs nap. Depending on whether one looks into the nap or with the nap, the rug will look lighter or darker and the color intensity you see from one end of the rug may be vastly different from what you see on the opposite end.

This phenomenon is a result of the weaving process.  As each knot is hand-tied and pulled down, a directionality is created in the pile, with the nap fibers always pointing toward the bottom of the rug as it hangs in the loom.  Once you have your rug in your home, examine it closely from both ends, as you may wish to turn it 180-degrees to ensure the best possible effect for the room it is in.

Filtration Soiling is identifiable in carpet as distinct lines of discoloration at points where air hits an obstacle. It is caused by differences in air pressure within a room, or between rooms that forces air through the carpet face fibers where pollutants are (filtered) from the air.

Soil filtration lines occur most commonly at the bottom of baseboard moldings (at the edges of the walls), in the crevices of steps, around spindles and under doors. They can also occur in the middle of a room if conditions are right.

Very fine particle soils (micro occlusion soils) that are suspended in the air and oily vapors from kitchens, fumes from wood or oil fired furnaces, scented candles, and cigarette smoke are some examples of airborne pollutant sources that contribute to visible filtration soil in carpet.

Soil filtration lines composed of oxides of nitrogen or sulfur dioxide can combine with ambient humidity over time to form diluted nitric or sulfuric acid that can permanently alter carpet dyes.

It is possible to reduce or slow the development of soil filtration lines. This can be accomplished by preventing airflow through carpet and carpet edges by sealing cracks in the sub-floor, under baseboards and edges/crevices of stairs. Keep air inside the home as clean as possible by working to reduce indoor air pollutants, such as cooking emissions, fireplace smoke, burning candles, cigarette smoke, and emissions from cleaning chemicals. The installation and regular replacement of high efficiency HVAC air filters is essential to the control of filtration soiling.

Follow this LINK to read what the Carpet and Rug Institute of Dalton Georgia has to say about Filtration Soiling in wall to wall installations of carpets.

Silk rugs are a poor choice as a floor covering

As a floor covering, silk rugs are a poor choice because they are much less resistant to permanent soiling than even good quality wool rugs.  Silk rugs when new, are often very beautiful, vibrant, soft and elegant, but they are also highly susceptible to rapid soiling and accelerated wear.

Restoration options for soiled silk rugs are limited in scope, much less effective, labor intensive, and costly.  MonsterClean recommends silk rugs only for use as tapestries, and as floor coverings only on very special occasions.

Water is the universal solvent, and heat amplifies the solvency of water. Anyone who has ever cleaned a greasy stove or oven knows that cold water is a less effective cleaning medium than hot water.

According to “James Swenson”
B.S. 1978, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena CA, Appl. Phys.,from the US Department of Energy:

1. Hot water cleans better because of …

 

1. faster reaction rates – (kinetics) heat accelerates all reactions, even mechanical reactions like when water wicks along the surface of a fabric.
2. speedier dissolving abilities – (due to entropy) even without soap, small amounts of some greases will dissolve in water. In hot water, the amount that will dissolve can be ten times higher.
3. melting – some greases are low-melting waxes, and being melted makes it easier for the soapy water to penetrate, detach, and surround them. Even things that are not quite melted at least get softer.”

With techniques backed by science and equipment that cannot be surpassed for sheer power, Monster Clean is a titan in carpet cleaning.
Power and Science: That’s the Monster Clean advantage.

Carpet is not responsible:

In a 15 year long study conducted by the Swedish government, carpet usage was found to reduce the incidence of allergy or asthma.   In fact, when carpet usage in Sweden decreased by 70 percent, allergy reactions in the general population increased by 30 percent. Shishoo, R. and Borjesson, A. 1996. Allergy claims ‘unproved’. Carpet and Flooring Review (January 5)..

A more recent study (2002) of nearly 20,000 people in 18 nations found that “fitted carpets and rugs in the bedroom were related to fewer asthma symptoms and bronchial responsiveness”, and that “this effect was consistent across (study) centers and more pronounced among house dust mite-sensitized individuals.” Zock, J.P., D. Jarvis, C. Luczynska, J. Sunyer, and P. Burney. 2002. Journal Allergy and Clinical Immunology 110 no. 2; 285-292.

in 2003, a study of more than 4,600 school children in New Jersey discovered that children with carpeted bedrooms suffered fewer missed school days and experienced a reduced need for asthma medication. Freeman, N. C.G., Schneider, D., McGarvey, P., Household exposure factors, asthma, and school absenteeism in a predominantly Hispanic community. Journal of Exposure Analysis and Environmental Epidemiology (2003).