Your carpet, rugs, upholstery, or hard surface floor were cleaned in accordance with generally accepted industry standards of care. Here are a few tips to help make the most of your cleaning:
- Drying Time: Please allow plenty of time for your carpet, rugs, hard floor surfaces and / or upholstery to dry before returning to normal use. Drying times for carpet generally range from 2 hours to 24 hours. How long your carpet takes to dry after cleaning is related to the type and construction of the carpet, the type and degree of soiling and whether we applied any post cleaning treatments. Even more importantly, drying time is always directly related to the ventilation and airflow in the home during and after cleaning. The humidity of the indoor and outdoor environment are also extremely crucial considerations. In some situations, we will employ professional air movers and fans to decrease drying times. One of the best ways to reduce the time it takes for your carpets, rugs, or furniture to dry is to have if professionally deep cleaned on a more frequent basis.
- Damp Carpets: We recommend minimizing traffic on damp carpets, rugs, or hard floor surfaces. Please remember that your feet can be slippery when walking from a damp carpet onto hard surfaces or down-stairs. Wearing indoor shoes when you need to walk on damp carpets will keep oils from feet and socks from transferring onto the carpets. Upholstery should not be used until fully dry.
- Furniture Protectors: We may place foam blocks or foil / clear squares under the feet of furniture to prevent rust or wood stains from transferring to carpets and to prevent moisture from the carpet from wicking into your furniture. Please do not remove these until your carpets are fully dry, we recommend leaving them down for 24 hours.
- Wicking: Carpets usually look wonderful post clean but during the drying process areas may begin to look dull in traffic areas and/or spots can reappear. This is called “wicking”. Wicking is generally caused by heavy soiling deep within the carpet beyond what even the best equipment can extract without over-wetting. As the surface of the fibres dry, soil carrying moisture wicks upwards, drawn by the dry fibres on the surface. This can be present in large areas such as traffic patterns or be limited to smaller spots. Should wicking occur after your cleaning, please give us a call to discuss options. The best way to prevent the likelihood of soil and spot wicking is to professionally deep clean your carpets within frequency guidelines established by carpet manufacturers and health authorities. Please consult with your cleaning technician or call our office for more information.