If dirty, soiled and stained carpets, or scuffed and marked hardwood floors are detracting from your home environment, you may need a deep floor cleaning. The question is, should you hire a professional floor cleaning company, or try a do-it-yourself method to get your floors clean again? Each option has different benefits and drawbacks, and the choice depends on your cleaning needs and desired result. With professional carpet cleaning you are always assured a deep clean and high quality result. But how does DIY compare? Here we compare both professional and DIY floor and carpet cleaning.
The Procedure
Professional carpet and floor cleaners use a number of different expert methods to deep clean your carpet, hardwood floors, tiles and grout. For carpet, professional cleaners can choose from 4 different methods depending on your specific needs, including bonnet cleaning, steam cleaning, pre-spray hot water extraction, and shampoo scrub.
The hardwood floor and tile cleaning methods used by professional flooring cleaners are gentle enough to protect your floors while thorough enough to deeply clean and draw out dust and dirt from cracks and grout.
DIY floor cleaning methods usually involve using a detergent, along with a wet carpet cleaning method like hot water extraction. A homeowner can hire a carpet cleaning machine to use on their own home for a day and then return after the cleaning is completed.
The Depth of Cleaning Needed
There’s no doubt that professional floor cleaning is much deeper and more thorough than DIY hired machines. Professional carpet cleaners know how to target stains and heavily soiled areas, and maneuver the carpet cleaning machine in the most effective way to really get your carpets and floors fully clean. For DIY machines, the result is usually less effective, and is often heavily dependent on your technique while using the machine.
The Cost
Professional carpet cleaning can be very cost effective and great value for the outstanding result it produces. However you are likely to save a few dollars by hiring a machine and doing the hard work yourself. It’s important to know how to use the home machine effectively if you want to do it yourself, as incorrect usage can easily cause water soaking, wet carpets and the conditions for mold growth, which can be very costly to fix.
The Result
Professional carpet cleaning delivers an excellent carpet cleaning result with carpets that can be walked on straight away for ‘dry’ cleaning methods. For the deeper ‘wet’ cleaning methods, some drying time will be required, although for professional carpet cleaning this is usually reduced due to the use of powerful and effective machines. The effects of professional hardwood floor cleaning and professional tile floor cleaning methods are immediate, and the floors can be used immediately.
DIY carpet and floor cleaning machines often use wet methods, however they are less powerful than professional machines. This can mean your carpet takes longer to dry. It’s important to take care while using a home cleaning machine to ensure as much water and detergent is removed from the carpet. If not, chemical residues may be left in the carpet or the carpet may go musty or moldy. It’s also important to maneuver the machine to get into corners in order to pick up as much dirt and residue as possible.
For a cleaner, safer and higher quality finish, professional floor and carpet cleaning is always the best choice to preserve the comfort and beauty of your floors.