Solutions (Are They Worth It?)
Do-it-yourself home projects have been a part of American life for quite some time. Not to mention, the information readily available on the internet now is vast.
A quick search will bring up a plethora of recipes and ideas for carpet cleaning solutions that are considered the best and safest around. Even more beneficial, you most likely have many of the ingredients already sitting in your home.
However, the question remains; are they worth it?
Ingredients
Present-day carpeting is a complex textile, composed of numerous fibers, weaves, and finishes. You’ll need to consider if these DIY mixes are safe to use on your carpet.
There are clear benefits to using these familiar, cheap ingredients. However, do you know how much the creator of the recipe knows about textiles, fibers, dyes, staining, allergens, or carpet cleaning?
Most DIY carpet cleaning solutions use some common chemicals like vinegar, peroxide, dish soap, laundry detergent, ammonia, bleach, isopropyl alcohol, and fabric softener. The instructions usually call for the combination of these ingredients in a bucket in specific amounts, mix them, and add a few ounces of the solution in hot water to use in carpet cleaning equipment.
The majority of these ingredients can be mixed without a problem, however, you should never mix ammonia with bleach, vinegar with bleach, alcohol with bleach, or vinegar with peroxide. These combinations produce potentially dangerous gases. Not to mention, household bleach can damage your carpet and machine. It’s best to avoid any recipe that lists bleach as an ingredient.
Fabric softeners should be avoided as well because they’re comprised of cationic surfactants, and these are known to react with the factory and aftermarket installed stain blockers on the carpet. This negative reaction will make the stain blockers ineffective. As a result, employing a fabric softener means the expensive stain protectant on your carpet will be useless.
Does It Work?
Do homemade carpet cleaning solutions work for deep cleaning the carpets in your home?
Regrettably, after these homemade compounds are mixed into the suggested amount of water, they become highly diluted. This greatly lessens the cleaning power of the solution, these diluted compounds clean carpet only a fraction better than hot water alone.
On the plus side, it’s not likely that you’ll damage your carpet or cleaning equipment. However, these DIY carpet cleaners are not going to give you the results you need.
What’s Next?
We’re all for DIY cleaning and saving money any way you can. However, this particular case is not effective for properly cleaning carpets.
When your carpet is soiled or looking old and worn, you should rely on the professionals to get your carpet back in shape. Professional carpet cleaning services will clean your carpet all the way through to the bottom, removing any and all embedded dirt, dust, and allergens.
Not only do they extract these embedded particles, but they also restore your carpet to a like-new condition. This will leave your floor cleaner and softer while also improving the air quality in your home. When it comes to carpet cleaning, leave it to the pros. Find out why vacuuming will never replace carpet cleaning.