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.
    
        Unfortunately, the majority of people have a very poor vacuum cleaner. Cheap vacuums may take up the light soil, the lint and hair on the surface, but the majority of the heavy particles and the embedded microscopic bacteria, and the "ground in" soiling from high traffic areas still remains. They just do not have the motor power, the high end rotating brush's speed and strength, the superior suction, or they may simply lack the proper design to do the job. Sometimes it's the person that is doing the vacuuming though. Vacuuming fast is bad, slow is much better, and does a much more thorough job at removal of the dirt.

        What type of vacuum is the best? Well there's no real answer to that, but Hepa is better than a normal vacuum, not to say that you require a top of the line, Leeds approved, Hepa vac. Kirby or a top of the line Dyson is about as low grade of a vacuum cleaner as you will want to use. 2  we recommend are the Sanitaire which is Electrolux's commercial brand, and the Pro Team line. Anything less quality and you will be missing a lot of dirt. A good vacuum, used by someone who knows how, should remove about 70% of the dirt in a carpet. This is exactly the reason that if you have carpet it should be cleaned by a Professional Carpet Cleaner. It should be vacuumed, it should then be cleaned, it should then be dry stroked to remove as much water as possible to facilitate a faster drying time. It is a great idea to also dust all horizontal surfaces prior to our arrival also. Hey! If you are gonna do it, then lets do it right!

Whose vacuum to use to complete the pre-vacuuming?       
        Now that we so eloquently stated the case for a pre-vacuum, we must ask the question who should do that vacuuming? And with whose vacuum? The home owner with their vacuum or the carpet cleaner with his vacuum. Unfortunately every homeowner does not have the same idea about cleanliness. That vacuum that your carpet cleaner is bringing into your home is the same one that may have been used on another home's Bacteria, or Fleas, Mites, Body fluids, Fecal matter, Urine, Insects - dead and alive, we're not trying to scare you here, but you do know that some people have carpet in their bathrooms right. And I can testify that I have been in houses that are - YUCKY! Carpet vacuums have a rotating brush that rotates against the fibers of the carpets. The Vacuum's beater brush rotates against the carpet's fibers so as to loosen the dirt and debris from them so they can be removed by suction. Some of that debris stays attached to the beater bar's brushes, and could be transferred into your home. Just because you can't see it doesn't mean it is not there. According to the statistics from 2013 the total California households with pets was at 53%.  For sure most of them do not have fleas. But if the carpet is in one of those 53% percent of Ca. homes with a pet and it does have fleas, then those fleas are going to be transferred into your home. Now wouldn't you feel better about vacuuming your carpets, with your own vacuum.
         Hope we've made the case and you see the benefit that the carpet should be vacuumed just prior to the steam cleaning, and that the vacuum doing so, should be the home owner's. So in conclusion this qualifies as one of the tasks that should be completed prior to the carpet cleaner's arrival! If you want to learn the practical things about carpet cleaning that you may not know, then subscribe to this site! And get 2 articles by us every month!