Is Carpet or Wood the best floor for your pets?

        There's really not a good flooring surface for those four legged pets. The clawed variety called Dogs and Cats.

Carpet Vs. Wood Floors!

         Most people often think that hard wood floors are better than carpets when it comes to cleanliness from pets, but the truth is that hardwood has it's own set of problems. Dander still gets down into the areas between the boards, and over time creating odors, and sometimes unsightliness if it builds up to the point where you can see it on the surface. Then there's the issue of the animal's claws which are 100% sure to cause damage to the surfacing of your wood floor boards. That is unless you have them removed, and please, you should never do this to any animal. We are animal owners here, and they are members of our family, I personally consider it akin to mistreating a harmless child. Here is an article from the Humane Society on the matter - "Declawing Cats: Far Worse Than a Manicure".
         Wood doesn't hold as much dirt or allergens in it as carpet does, but rest assured it does hold some in. And it holds onto odors, really hard. It is equal to carpet or even worse in this respect. Is vacuuming a hardwood floor any easier than vacuuming a carpet. Not really, and then you will still need to damp mop the hard surface.

Why Vacuum the Carpets before Steam Cleaning?

Always vacuum before the Carpet Cleaner arrives!

  The cleaner, that the carpet is prior to steam cleaning, the cleaner it will be after the steam cleaning has been completed. And that's it for today's tongue twister! That's also makes the case for being  the number 1 reason for vacuuming prior to steam cleaning.

Why Vacuum before Steam Cleaning!
        Consider that the carpet technician's pre-spotting treatments, and high traffic sprays will not have to be wasted breaking down general dirt, spots, stains, and soiling that can be more easily removed by a simple vacuuming. Another good reason from our prospective is that when steam is added to dry dirt, it turns it to mud. Mud, while it will come out, it just takes longer, and more energy and the effectiveness of your cleaning spray is expended in doing so. A good vacuum, used by someone who knows how, should remove about 70% of the dirt in a carpet. Therefore the odds go up that when that same carpet is now steam cleaned we will be able to extract a lot more material than on a carpet that has not been vacuumed.

What are they and where did those dark lines around the baseboards come from?

The fine soiling of Filtration Lines!

Filtration lines are what they are called.
        You first notice the edges of your carpet getting  a little dirty, it happens slowly and then one day you realize that they are really dirty, and it just kinda crept up on you. Sometimes in months but most likely years. This has nothing to do with the carpet itself but the pollutants in your homes air, and the air movement along the walls, through any flooring cracks, or joints, and wall cracks. Also movement from the upstairs to the downstairs. Filtration soiled areas are most likely to appear around the edges of a room up against the baseboards, underneath closed doors, or where the doors stay in one position for a long time period, and along the edges of your stair steps. Your stairs are often the worst of it, as the concentration of air flow is normally from upstairs to the downstairs areas. Often when you have them in the above listed areas, you may see soiling in some open areas too. Mostly along the seams where the joints of your sheets of plywood sub flooring are located.    
        Filtration soiling can be very difficult to remove, due to the fact that it is made up of very fine particles

Why do spots sometimes come back when I have my Carpet cleaned?

Carpet Stains reappeared in this Carpet!

It happens, the Carpet Cleaner leaves and a day or two later or perhaps a week or two and then a stain reappears.

3 Reasons Why Stains May Reappear.

Cleaning Too Fast: This is totally on the Technician. Sometimes a spot will reappear as soon as the carpet is dry. This is normally because the cleaner was moving the wand over the carpet too fast and the hot/steaming cleaning solution did not have time to flow down into the bottom of the carpets fibers before being sucked back into the suction stem of the wand, and out to the holding tank.  In other words he didn't go slow enough to get the dirt out of the carpet. He just got the tops of the carpets fibers. Therefore the dirt from the bottom part of the fiber came right back to the top of the carpet fibers as it dried. Otherwise known as Carpet Wicking. And surprise you still have the stain. Even though it was gone when the carpet was initially cleaned.