For all the many advantages that carpets offer, they do have a tendency to collect and absorb dirt, liquids, smoke, and odors. To keep your family safe, your home smelling fresh, and your carpet well maintained, you should have a deep cleaning done about once a year. Dry carpet cleaning is an alternative to traditional carpet cleaning. Because this can cause a brief disruption to your life, it is reasonable to ask how long the process takes.
Does Dry Carpet Cleaning Take Less Time Than Traditional Carpet Cleaning?
The main difference between the two is in the drying times. It is important to avoid walking on wet carpet or moving the furniture back in place until it has dried. Otherwise, you could damage the carpet or track dirt on it. The dry method of carpet cleaning uses significantly less water than the traditional method and therefore takes less than an hour to dry.
How Long Does the Actual Cleaning Process Take?
Generally speaking, it takes between 30 and 45 minutes for a professional to clean the carpet in a single room. If you are having more than one room cleaned, you should budget about an hour for each, which allows a few minutes for hallways and staircases that may also need attention. This is only a general rule, however; there are different factors that can affect how long it takes to clean a carpet.
What Factors Affect How Long Dry Carpet Cleaning Takes?
If certain factors are present in your home, cleaning the carpets can take longer than average. This is true whether you use traditional carpet cleaning or have the dry method done.
The Carpet’s Condition
As you might imagine, the more soiled your carpet is, the longer it takes to clean it. On the other hand, if your carpet is only lightly soiled, cleaning it takes a lot less time. The longer the interval between deep cleanings, the more chance a carpet has to collect dirt and absorb odors. If you have your carpet cleaned on a regular basis, ideally once every 12 to 18 months, it does not have as much time to get dirty, and each cleaning may take less time.
The Presence of Pet Stains
Pet urine contains chemicals that can produce powerful odors. Worse, the thin liquid can soak right through the carpet into the padding underneath. Pet stains may require an extra treatment to remove, which increases the amount of time needed for dry carpet cleaning.
Fortunately, you do not have to wait until your carpet is due for a deep cleaning to have pet stains and odors removed. In fact, it is in your interest to have the stain removal performed as quickly as possible to prevent permanent damage to your carpet.
What Your Carpet Is Made Of
Carpeting can be made out of either synthetic or natural fibers. Natural fibers can be either plant-based or animal-based, with wool being an example of the latter. Natural fibers such as wool may need special handling and therefore take longer to clean. For example, wool cannot be exposed to water for long periods of time. Dry carpet cleaning is better for wool because it uses less water and doesn’t take as long to dry. Wool can also be damaged by strong soaps or detergents. Again, the dry method of carpet cleaning is preferable because it does not involve any harsh chemicals.
Carpets made of any material can benefit from regular cleaning, but if you have a nylon carpet, cleaning can be said to revive it in a literal sense. Nylon, a synthetic fiber, contains a hydrogen molecule in its chemical makeup. Cleaning reactivates this molecule so that fibers that have been flattened down will bounce back. It doesn’t make a difference to how long the actual cleaning takes, but it does argue well for having it done regularly and often.
The Size of Your Home and the Size of Each Room
It stands to reason that the more carpeting you have, the longer dry carpet cleaning takes, and this is usually true. A five-bedroom house probably takes longer to clean the carpets than a three-bedroom house. On the other hand, if the rooms in the three-bedroom house are unusually large and the rooms in the five-bedroom house are exceptionally small, it may take close to the same amount of time to clean the carpets in each.
Similarly, a house with three bedrooms of average size arranged around a sprawling living room may take as long or longer to clean the carpet than a five-bedroom house with average-sized rooms. This, of course, assumes that the carpets in each are only lightly to moderately soiled and that there are no pet stains to deal with.
What Additional Services Does Safe-Dry Offer?
In addition to dry carpet cleaning, we offer additional treatments to keep your carpet as clean and safe as it can be for as long as possible. In addition to pet odor and stain removal, we also offer Allergy Relief Treatment. This is a special treatment that removes 98% of indoor allergens, such as pet dander and dust mites, immediately. This is not a substitute for other Environmental Control practices, but it is a supplement to them that can produce noticeable results almost immediately.
What if you could protect your carpet from stains in between cleanings? You can when you add Safety Shield Carpet Protectant, which helps to prevent staining agents from settling into carpet fibers when you spill something.
Additional treatments may increase the amount of time it takes to clean your carpet. On the other hand, they help to keep your carpet cleaner, which helps to make the next cleaning quicker and easier.
Why Is Professional Dry Carpet Cleaning Superior to Do-It-Yourself Cleaning?
DIY carpet cleaning is not as powerful as professional and often does not extend deep enough into the fabric to reach the worst stains and odors. Additionally, it might damage your carpet. At best, it is appropriate for occasional spot cleaning, but it is not a substitute for regular professional dry carpet cleaning. Contact us to make an appointment.
