What to Look for in a Professional Cleaning Service

by | Jan 2, 2019 | Cleaning Tips

 

What to Know Before You Book a Professional Carpet Cleaner

carpet cleaning services
  If you are looking to move away from DIY cleaning with rental vacuums and steam cleaners, then the next obvious step is to develop a relationship with a carpet cleaning company you can trust. Like any industry, however, finding a company that you can trust means understanding a bit more about what they do before jumping in to hiring them.   Here is some basic information you should have on hand about your local carpet cleaner before you start hiring them on the regular.

Estimates, Inspections, and Overhead

 

Any carpet cleaning service worth your time should offer free inspections and estimates. This is for a few reasons:

 

  1. A professional cleaner should be able to tell you what a job costs by looking at it. This speaks to their skill and experience as well as their transparency. If you can’t count on a company to be honest, transparent, and accurate, then that should be a red flag. 
  2. A cleaning company shouldn’t be afraid to show you their prices, including labor and fees. Sometimes, a company will provide an estimate based only on your floor and the square footage but won’t include any other costs that might be part of the equation.  
  3. Anyone who charges you just to come out and bid on a job is trying to make money for free. While “time is money” might mean something in other industries, anyone who can’t spare the time to try and win you as a customer isn’t going to give you the attention you deserve.

  Find a company that offers free estimates and inspections and will include all additional costs (in writing) with their bid. 

 

Cleaning Methods

  Before hiring a carpet cleaning company, you should understand the different cleaning methods available, and which ones they use. The best home carpet cleaning companies will typically be able to use multiple methods, depending on the job.   

  1. Steam Cleaning is a common approach to cleaning carpets, and one that you are probably most familiar with. This is when the cleaner uses the big vacuums with hot water and chemicals to saturate your carpet, break up dirt, and suck it all back up.  
  2. Encapsulation is different from steam cleaning in that instead of using water, a cleaning agent is placed on the carpet dry. The detergent will crystallize around and “encapsulate” dirt and debris, which can then be removed with a brush of vacuum. 
  3. Bonnet cleaning is the process of using spinning brushes soaked with water and detergent to rub and clean the top of a carpet quickly. You often see this in commercial cleaning or for very thin carpets that get a lot of regular traffic and need to dry quickly.  

  For your money, steam cleaning and encapsulation are going to be what to look for. The first is your traditional, deep-cleaning method for annual carpet cleaning needs. The second, however, can be great for deep stains or regular cleaning where you need the carpet dry fast.

 

Price, Service, and Satisfaction

  Price is always a consideration when it comes to shopping for a carpet cleaner. A quick pricing guide might suggest a good median price of $25-$75 per room, depending on the size. This obviously depends on the condition of your carpet, the kind of cleaning you want, and when you want it.   In terms of service, we mean that in two ways. First, look at the service that the company provides. Read their testimonials on their website and read reviews on sites like Lynda.com. Check our local business review. A good carpet cleaner should be able to boast that they work quickly, clean well, and provide excellent customer service and satisfaction.  Second, check out the services that the company offers. A good company will clean your carpet. A great company will also 

  1. Clean your hardwood floors. 
  2. Clean your upholstery on your furniture.  
  3. Clean area rugs old and new. 
  4. Scotchgarde upholstery and other fabrics. 
  5. Have special understanding and treatments for heavy-traffic areas or for pet mess and odor. 
  6. Clean tile and grout. 

Great carpet cleaners can clean multiple floor types, so you can rely on them for multiple jobs. This shows that they are probably experts at what they do, because they can handle several different kinds of surfaces and materials with a professional understanding of what each surface needs.  

 

Pick the Best Carpet Cleaner for Your Job

  When hiring a carpet cleaner near you, make sure that they are near you, they price competitively, and they have competence in several kinds of surfaces and cleaning methods. A solid cleaner will run seasonal deals and have solid pricing based on room or square foot, but they should have no problem coming to your home and reviewing your job for free. Better still, they should provide you with a quote for free, in writing, prior to the job, and that quote should include all the fees and labor as well.   Now, some of these criteria change depending on if you are looking for home carpet cleaning or commercial carpet cleaning for your business. But not many, and any commercial cleaner should be able to do the same exact things as their residential counterparts (in addition to any industrial or heavy commercial cleaning.   In either case, if you follow these basic guidelines you should be able to link up with a cleaner that can tackle any job you have…one that you can count on year-round.