Stubborn dust trapped between the carpet and the skirting boards.

Very often I come across  a carpet that has years of dust trapped at the edge beside the skirting boards.
This is usually as a result of your Maid ;)) not vacuuming  along the edge of the carpet with the long slim edge tool that came with your vacuum cleaner.It eventually builds up and becomes apparently  impossible to remove.
This week I had to deal with this myself when cleaning a carpet.Despite huge industrial suction power I was unable to remove the dust (as shown in the photos below) using my machine.
The method that works for me is to use a damp microfibre cloth (my favourite cleaning cloths available in  all good hardwares and supermarkets).I dampen the cloth and push it into the groove between the carpet and skirting board moving it briskly left and right  which loosens and removes the dust and dirt very quickly ,then it is just a matter of vacuuming up the dust.  Job done!
Next time your Maid ;))  is vacuuming the carpets give her a damp microfibre cloth to do the edges first:
Photo 1 shows the black line along the edge.Photo 2 the dust being removed and finally in Photo 3 Success .
Declan

Cats and Dogs Odour

If your Fabric covered Sofas, your Carpets or Rugs/Mats smell bad from pet odour etc,you can Deodourise them yourself.
Deodorising your carpet and rugs is easy. 
Buy some Baking soda, (also known as Bread soda, bicarbonate of soda or sodium bicarbonate) at your local Tesco/Aldi/Dunnes (should cost  about  €1). 
Test a small area of the fabric or carpet first.
Sprinkle the dry baking soda on to dry rugs,carpets or Sofas and work it in with a brush.
Then just vacuum it out.It will remove the bad odour.Job Done!
This method works as well as any of the proprietry carpet powders or carpet deodorisers you might buy at the super market, as they are are also made from similar ingredients from baking powder! 

Declan

Carpet and Sofa Cleaner: Cats and Dogs on your sofa

Carpet and Sofa Cleaner: Cats and Dogs on your sofa: "If you allow the family pets on to your fabric covered sofa,you are making work for yourself. Your sofa will be very quickly ruined with pe..."

Cats and Dogs on your sofa

If you allow the family pets on to your fabric covered sofa,you are making work for yourself.
Your sofa will be very quickly ruined with pet hair and pet odour unless you Vacum the sofa Every day !!
This is the Only way to keep the sofa clean hygenic and safe for  the rest of the family.
It may be that you have allowed the dog or cat on the sofa and now you find it is covered in pet hair,because you neglected to vacum it regularly.

You may have discovered that it is now near impossible to get the dog hair off!!!

Well you can with a bit of work,....
1.Get the vacum cleaner out and attach the small upholstery brush attachment and vacum in small circles, scrubbing with the brush attachment as you vacum.Work over the whole area affected by the dog hair to remove as much of the hair as you can.
2.Get a microfibre cloth(cheaply available in Tesco Aldi Lidl etc.)dampen the cloth in cold water
and rub it across the hairs,this will loosen and gather a lot of the hairs into small bunches
3.There may still be stubborn hairs caught in the fabric,get a rubber kitchen glove(Marigold brand are good)
put it on your hand and use a dragging action across the hairs on the sofa,the hairs will stick to the glove.
4.Vacum again.
This procedure will get 90% of the dog hair from the fabric,follow this up with daily vacuming
and you will get on top of the situation over a few days.
5. Keep the pets off the sofas or get in the habit of vacuming the sofas everyday.
This procedure also works very well on Carpets rugs and mats.
Next time Ill tell you how to remove odours from your carpets rugs and sofas between  professional cleans.
Declan

Extend the life of your furniture

One thing that I notice with most sofas and arm chairs that I clean,is that one arm chair in a 3 1 1  suite usually suffers more with wear than the other chair.
Often in a family  household the armchairs are taken one each  by the couple,the man of the house will use the same chair all the time and his wife or partner will use the other chair all the time.
Now very often one person(usually the male)will be more rough on the arm chair than the other.To be frank I can often spot the mans chair as soon as I enter a room to clean a suite.The mans chair will be more dirty than the other armchair and very often more worn on the arms.
It is therefore a good idea to swap over chairs every 3 to 6 months,it means actually moving the chairs themselves,because the chairs are chosen for their position in the room,so the mans chair is put where his partner sits and his partners chair is moved to where the man normally sits.This ensures both chairs wear evenly,so instead of one armchair being worn down over say three years both chairs will suffer more gradual wear over 6 years.
Also it is a good idea to turn the seat cushions and if there are back cushions turn them regularly on both the armchairs and of course the sofa.
Declan

More about cowboys

On Thursday I cleaned a fabric sofa and two armchairs for a lady in Ballyfermot,she was delighted with the cleaning and deodourising and told me about her previous experience.

About 18 months ago she phoned a carpet/sofa cleaner to come and clean her sitting room suite.
This is what the woman told me.
"he arrived with what appeared to be a ### (a well known brand of household wet and dry vacum cleaner),and proceeded to clean my suite.It was was as dirty when he finished as it was when he started only very very wet."
What amazed me was that she paid him anyway.
The lady only phoned me because her daughter recommended me after I cleaned her carpets,till then she thought carpet/sofa cleaning was useless!!!
I always do the worse part of a sofa first then get the customer to inspect it to ensure that she is happy with the standard,of cleaning.
I do not want a customers money unless they are happy with the service.I want their recommendation,and their repeat business.
Declan

Leather sofa cleaning

Well! At last I have found a leather cleaning method that does what it says on the tin!
My new method is greener as it uses less chemical less water and leaves the leather dry naturally within 20 minutes.
This method is easy on the leather does no damage and leaves the leather sofa absolutely like new.
Does it get any better? Yes it does as  it costs even less than the other methods I used previously.
Phone me now at 086 086 5525 and make an appointment to get the life and sparkle back into your leather sofa or armchairs.
www.carpetcleanexpress.ie


Declan

Beware of Cowboy operators

I was informed by a customer today,that she had a man out to clean her fabric sofas last month.
He turned up with a bucket of soapy water and a brush and proceeded to clean her sofas,with soapy water!!
No machine whatsoever.This meant he soaked and soaked the sofas with water and had no way or means to
extract the moisture!!!!!
The lady told me that after 3 days of waiting for it to dry,she had to carry the sofas into the garden and leave them to dry in the garden..

Please please please...after you enquire on the phone from a company what the price is ASK how they intend to clean your sofas and or carpets.....Cheap cleaning may mean dodgy work and methods
Declan

Remove candle grease/wax from your carpet or rug

Another great carpet cleaning technique.
Get a clothes iron and an electrical extension lead and plug it in close to the candle grease. Set the iron to a warm setting (not too hot).
Do not leave the Iron on the carpet!!!!!
While the iron is warming get an ordinary kitchen knife and warm the blade with boiling water.
Using the back of the blade (the blunt side) scrape away as much of the candle wax as you can.
Now get a white "Terry Towel"or some brown paper or brown paper bag (ensure there is no writing on the paper, you do not want to be transferring ink stains to your carpet) and place it over the remains of the candle wax in the carpet and rub the iron across the towelling or brown paper a few times, this will melt the candle wax which will be blotted up into the towel or brown paper. A towel usually works best.
Please ensure the iron is not very hot so as not to damage the carpet fibres.

Remove Chewing Gum from your carpet or rug

A carpet cleaning technique for removing chewing gum from a carpet.

Warm an ordinary kitchen knife in a mug of boiling water, then use the blunt side or back of the knife as a spatula to remove as much of the gum as carefully as you can.
Next get some ice cubes and place them in a plastic freezer bag, rub the bagged ice across the remaining gum, this will cause the gum to harden and go brittle.
Now use the blunt side of a kitchen knife to scrape or chip away at the remaining gum.
Patience and time is the key to success here. 

Declan

Quality and still Reccession busting!!!

Well my policy of giving lower prices whilst maintaining my high standards of carpet cleaning is paying off!!!
This means my customers get a great deal and get more value for money and I get enough business to stay successful.
My prices are among the best available in the Dublin and Kildare markets.
My customers are delighted with the quality of my cleaning.In fact some of them are shocked at how clean their carpets are when I am finished.
My favourite qoute of the week,Mick Delaney,a customer in Dublin 8 "OMG! I was going to throw out that stairs carpet and replace it! It would have cost me more than €500 and now it is clean and fresh for only €59...."
The best thing is this particular customer is a landlord with quite a few properties,so more work from this man in the future