Carpet Cleaning

[Mrs D]

Have you ever rented a Do It Yourself carpet cleaner? Is there a difference in where you rent it from (grocery store versus hardware store)?
Or have you paid to have a company come clean your carpets? Who did you use and would use again?

My living room carpet is not even 3 years old but the kids spill and get crumbs everywhere and it looks trashed (my fault for letting them snack at the coffee table). While we *could* afford to pay a couple hundred dollars to pay to have it done I wonder if I could get good results from a rental machine? Or is it even worth it?

 

[smokeyblue]

My parents used to rent a Rug Doctor all the time. They have white carpet and it always turned out nice. It's very easy to use and worth the rental price.

They've now bought one of the higher end Bissels so they don't have to rent anymore and it also works well. It might be worth the investment, especially with kids.

 

[DisneyAndRedSox]

We have cream colored berber and rented 2x, it looked cleaner but not like new. We just had them done professionally last week (DH won a $100 gift card) and there is a huge difference. DH's office was the worst and when we would do it ourselves spots would always reappear. None reappeared when it was done last week.

The guy told me that when you rent, sometimes it doesn't extract all the soap and ends up attracting more dirt and looking dirtier.

 

[dawson5]

I'm doing mine right now. Have to return it before noon. I'm trying to get the high traffic areas mainly. I figure in the spring I'll have it done professionally. If you do it, I would pretreat the high traffic areas and go over them repeatedly. I actually take a bucket with solution, hot water and a scrub brush to get it. I would also rinse. They don't tell you to do this, but if you do a bit of research you find that the detergent residue attracts dirt and your carpets look dirty not long after doing it.


Also, if you sign up for an email through rug doctor, they send you a $5 off coupon that you can print and use immediately.

 

[The Moonk's Mom]

You may also want to check what type of cleaning the manufacturer of the carpet recommends you use. (Dry or Wet) My new carpet is only supposed to have them dry chemical cleaning...something about water not good for the backing...I was told why, just can't remember...just remember I was told to never use a wet vac on my carpet or a steamer company.

 

[JamesMom]

I have two boys ages 4 & 6 and my carpet always looks like a bomb hit it so I rent the Rug Doctor for $30 and buy detergents $20 about 3 times a year.
It looks great to me for the price. I had Dalworth come and do my whole house about 4 years ago and it cost $200 to do a thorough job --too much in my book for as frequent as I need it.
Takes about 1-1.5 hours for the main living areas and about 3 hours for the whole house (which I do 1x a year). That is with a soapy initial run followed by a hot water only rinse. The carpet stays great for about a month until the kids start spiling stuff again.
I do it myself for economy $120 a year to d-i-y or $600 a year for Dalworth...

 

[Soon2B4]

How bad are they? Could you possibly pay 1x a year for a professional and do it yourself between pro cleanings? Right now Stanly Steamer is having a special here. I book a cleaning for a house we are closing on in a few weeks. It will be around $300 -$400 for a 3300sq ft home. They quoted me around $250 but some of my rooms are bigger than they are allowing for in the quote.

When I worked at a grocery store in high school, a lot of people rented our rug doctors.

 

[Mrs D]

Thanks for the feedback. I think I'll try it myself to see how it goes; it's gotta be better than it is now. After that we may have to bite the bullet and have it done professionally.

 

[melafive]

I actually prefer to rent over hiring. Maybe it was just the people we used but I had much better results from the rug doctor. You do have to rinse with water after you use shampoo so it wont attract more dirt. I liked it because we could really concentrate on the high traffic areas. We own a carpet cleaner too. I actually planned to clean the carpets but realized we ran out of soap. So I decided to see if there were any home recipes. I found vinegar and water did the trick.

 

[deva]

The guy told me that when you rent, sometimes it doesn't extract all the soap and ends up attracting more dirt and looking dirtier.

Agreed. Get it done professionally and it will look much better. Also make sure you use a company with truck mounted equipment. It is much more powerful - gets the carpet cleaner and extracts more water so less drying time.

 

[Mom2Ben02]

I use a rug dr all the time - my neighbor owns one. I use this recipe for the solution, and I will never go back to the purchased stuff!!

http://www.recipezaar.com/Carpet-Cleaner-for-Steam-Cleaning-Machine-101568

 

[Mrs D]

Well, I think I'll give the Rug Dr. a try. I've never used one before. Then I'll go from there.

The homemade vinegar/ammonia/dish soap recipe looks good. Anyone else use that?

 

[abcboys]

We've done both. The rug doctors are okay, but I would stay away from any soaps used to clean. Like others said the soap just attracts dirt and it will look dirtier quicker. Just use really hot water and a little vinegar if need be.

Earlier this year I broke down and hired a professional cleaner. It was expensive. $280 for bedroom, huge living room and hallway. But it looks sooooo much better!! A lot better than I could have done at home. I have some pictures of half the room done and half not done and I can't believe how dirty it was. Our problem is everyone stopped taking off their shoes before they walk thru the living room so now its back dirty again. The people I hired have a truck mounted system and I think those are suppossed to be the strongest cleaners. It didn't take them very long with such a strong system and it was literally dry in no time. If I can afford it I plan on having them come again next year.

I would like to buy a machine to use in between the times the professional guys come. It just seems like the rug doctors and home machines never really get it that clean. Yeah, it looks clean on the surface but just a few weeks later its back dirty again.

I am a very cheap person so it was hard for me to fork out the money to have this done but the carpet is only 3 years old and I wanted to keep it nice.

 

[Shelly F - Ohio]

OP said she has a few hundred dollars to spend cleaning her carpet. THen why not buy a carpet cleaning machine that you can use over and over again. I bought mine 7 years ago and have gotten my moneies worth. I have the Hoover Wide Steam paid like $299 for it.

 

[Cruise]

I found vinegar and water did the trick.

We've done both. The rug doctors are okay, but I would stay away from any soaps used to clean. Like others said the soap just attracts dirt and it will look dirtier quicker. Just use really hot water and a little vinegar if need be.

Could either of you recommend with what ratio to use the vinegar to water? I'd love to do that rather than soap. I've never rented a carpet cleaner before, but would like to this week while DH is out of town.

 

[melafive]

I'm not sure what others use but I just filled the solution cup full of vinegar and the rest water. HTH.

 

[DMickey28]

I bought a Hoover Steam Vac two years ago and LOVE it. It's worth it to me with a 2.5 year old and a big ol' hound dog. We have lived in apartments and those carpets are crap so they would get pretty bad pretty fast. It always did a great job cleaning them.

Before we bought them I would rent the Rug Doctor when we would move out and while it does a great job I don't see it as any better than my Hoover. To me the Hoover is easy enough to pull out when we where potty training the dog and he would sprinkle on his way to the door!!

 

[emh1129]

I would recommend buying your own.
I have used Rug Doctor in the past and was fairly pleased with the results, but it's a pain picking it up, returning it, etc.
We had Stanley Steemer come once and they did a good job but it was expensive.
For $150, we bought a Hoover SteamVac. I looked around and read tons of reviews and I have been VERY pleased. It really did just as well as Stanley Steemer (although our stains are just juice spills, etc. not pet stains or anything..)
I use it every other month or so, just to keep the high traffic areas looking nice.
It's really easy and we have saved so much money just owning our own.

 

[Cruise]

I'm not sure what others use but I just filled the solution cup full of vinegar and the rest water. HTH.

Thanks. I didn't realize there's a solution cup that can be used for measuring. Told ya I hadn't done this before!

I bought a Hoover Steam Vac two years ago and LOVE it. It's worth it to me with a 2.5 year old and a big ol' hound dog. We have lived in apartments and those carpets are crap so they would get pretty bad pretty fast. It always did a great job cleaning them.

I would recommend buying your own.

For $150, we bought a Hoover SteamVac. I looked around and read tons of reviews and I have been VERY pleased. It really did just as well as Stanley Steemer (although our stains are just juice spills, etc. not pet stains or anything..)

Ok...so now I'm thinking of just buying one if I can find a good deal on one. I was looking at the Hoover site and they have several SteamVacs. Does the low-end $110 get the job done? Or would I end up wishing I'd spent more on one of the higher end ones?

 

[ColoradoMom!!]

OOoooo great thread! Those of you who use professional, and have a name, please share it!

Do you move all your furniture - or just everything but the sofas?

We have new carpet, and then some that we have decided to replace instead of clean, but it is taking a bit longer to do that, so I am thinking of trying to clean it.