Superior Restoration

The CDC has directed their attention this July to help focus on health consciousness. In lieu of that we here at Superior Restoration feel it important to talk about some of the ways a home can negatively affect your own health. There are a variety of ways a home can turn from a place of comfort to an unhealthy environment. Today, and for most of this week we will be discussing this topic, and giving helpful hints to help improve the condition of your home.

For this first entry we will be discussing why regular carpet and upholstery cleaning can greatly reduce the number of allergens in your home.

It goes without saying that dust is a common allergy for people today, however no matter how much you dust your knick knacks and flat surfaces many of us forget the carpet below us, or even the couch we watch movies on. Dust in our homes is generally comprised of dead skin, dirt brought in by the air and shoes, and other particulates such as pollen. This mixture that we actually breathe every day settles on everything, including rugs.

The easiest way to help control the dust levels in your home is to dust and vacuum regularly, at least once a week. In addition to this the purchase and use of an air purifying machine that remove particles from the air is also a great choice for any family.

From personal experience I can tell you that dust is a problem. I can’t even be in the room when someone is dusting without getting running, itchy eyes and a bit of trouble breathing however just vacuuming alone didn’t cut it. I purchased a top of the line vacuum that was meant to be hypo-allergenic, and had air purifiers in almost every room, but still I suffered. In the end one of the only things that helped was having a trusted, licensed professional crew come into my home and do a carpet and upholstery cleaning.

The difference between just vacuuming and carpet cleaning is simple, carpet cleaning involve steam that makes the dust easier for the system to suck up and away. We’ve all seen the infomercials for home steam cleaning systems, but we can easily say they do not have the same results. Our systems are stronger and tested to have a deeper clean and less risk of harming your carpet. Many do-it-yourself steam cleaners can put too much steam into your carpet and in fact make the situation worse by potentially cultivating mold in the padding and fibers. If you want peace of mind, try using our company.

After I had the cleaning done I noticed within days that my nose was actually clear for the first time in weeks. With a great deal of dust gone from the carpet and upholstery dust didn’t build up as quickly on my tables and surfaces. After about a year of steam cleaning every three months or so I saw significant improvement in my well being. Without allergies keeping my immune system compromised I wasn’t sick nearly as often, and even slept more soundly.

Dust is a tricky thing. There is no way to ever be completely rid of it, but too much of it can result in an unhealthy state of being. By regularly dusting, and having your carpets professionally cleaned about every three months you can greatly improve your health, and that of your family. If you have any questions regarding general cleaning, carpet cleaning, or any kind of loss please leave us a message in our ask box and we’ll get back to you as soon as possible.  

It’s the day after Independence Day and most of us have the day off to recover from what I might suspect would have been a rowdy evening. Looking about your house there might be ketchup stains, drink spills, sticky remnants of popsicles, or chocolate marks on your nice new couch. Now many of you are probably going to go on google and search for home remedies for these stains, but we advise against that.

Okay, sometimes those remedies work but other times they can actually make stains worse. What may be good for one kind of fabric is not good for the other. An easy example of this is bleach. On white cotton bleach is an amazing thing that can keep them bright and clean, however on a black satin that same cleaning power will discolor the fabric horribly and possible eat holes into it. The same goes for stain removal on carpets and upholstery.

When you look up “Red wine removal tips” You’re going to get thousands of results, and all of them different. Some might advise to use lemon juice, and others vinegar, while some might have something outlandish like soaking up the liquid with an antique grizzly bear pelt (I’m totally making that up). However one might be better for a synthetic fiber carpet, while others would be far better for a faux-suede couch. By using the wrong cleaning method you can just set the stain in, or make a whole new problem. For this I’m going to tell a story.

About six months ago we received a call from a local jeweler who has just put a very expensive carpet in their show room. Of course by Murphy’s law that pretty cream colored carpet fell victim to a toddler’s sippy-cup filled with blue kool-aid. Thinking they could handle the stain on their own they went online and found a remedy that called for putting Tide laundry detergent on the stain and letting it dry overnight before using a steam carpet cleaning to lift up the suds.

So they did just that. They got the detergent and put it on the blue stain that was smack dab in the middle of their showroom and let it dry. However the stain got worse. That pale blue stain was now a nearly fluorescent green that could be easily identified through their security cameras. Thinking it was supposed to do that they rented a steam cleaner, and simply made the stain twice as big as it had been before. Angry, the owner called us and explained the situation.

Our technician went out and conducted a test on the stain to discover if there was a way to remove the stain. After almost three hours he did find a way, however the fix would be costly. When asked about this case the technician had this to say:

“You know everyone thinks they have all the answers to cleaning, but they don’t have the experience I have. I’ve been doing this for almost my entire life and I know what to do. What would have been a really simple spot treatment turned into an ordeal that nearly cost them their ten grand carpet. If you look hard you can still see the stain, but that’s the best we could do. I don’t know why people would ever think letting a stain dry would help in any way, it doesn’t.”

And he’s right. Folks if you have a stain on your carpet or furniture do not follow some person’s blog on how to remove stains. You don’t know the conditions, how dry that stain was, what material, or even what temperature it was—- all of which are variables in the effectiveness of stain removal. We’ve been doing this for 33 years now and frankly we know how to clean just about everything. Blood, Kool-aid, wine, cat urine, honey, melted ice cream; we can’t gareentee the stain will disappear completely. No one can offer such a promise, but we will do everything in our power to make that happen. Just remember to soak up as much liquid as possibly without smearing. Use gentle dabs with a clean white washcloth, and then call us. We’ll handle the rest.

Do you have questions on stain removal, helpful tips, or even preexisting stains you might have? Send us a message via our ask box for more information.