I had a private carpet cleaner at my last apartment and I wish I knew what his method was called. The carpet looked better than when I moved in. He had a large machine outside that was connected to the carpet cleaning machine inside.

Chem Dry is expensive, however, I feel it's worth it. The method employs a semi-dry method using a special carpet-friendly detergent or enzymes.

I usually call more than one Chem Dry franchisee because they're available in my area to get more than one estimate. I noticed that some of the fees vary.

A few years ago, in another city I used a company that had the machine outside and I believe the method was power scrubbing. He did an amazing job on the carpet and it looked better than when we moved in.

A local person here says he does this method and is charging .22 cents a square foot which is much more than I had previously paid. Is this now the going rate for this type of cleaning? He is also charging me to vacuum the house before he vacuums. I don't recall the previous carpet cleaner doing any vacuuming. Is vacuuming called for with power scrubbing?

I read above that Chem-Dry is a good type of cleaning. What do they charge per square foot?

I need to set this up ASAP and don't know which service to go with.

Any advice you can give me to help me make a decision is greatly appreciated.

I'm not selling you carpet cleaning don't worry, I live way down here in San Diego the Home of Hack Carpet Cleaners.

Let's start with price, do your own research for the national average. I'm a 34-53 cent per sq. ft. kind of cleaner. If you demand a phone quote then it is $40.00 per room. I measure actual sq. ft. cleaned. Why? Fair for you, fair for me. If I was a $20 per room hack then someone will be getting cheated since not all rooms are the same size, not all rooms have the same amount of soiling nor are they all the same type of carpet fiber or installation.

Now about method, there are times that Dry Cleaning has to be used but it is for sure a very sorry way to clean & be a professional in my opinion. I to my discredit spent a lot of years Dry Cleaning. I knew deep down inside that it wasn't really cleaning but a lot of people liked it because it was convenient. I wondered about those children that would play on the carpet that I made look clean but was really filled with soil, bacteria, residue & everything else we drag in from our shoes. Hey, it was easier for me, didn't break a sweat & the material was cheap. I mean a $400.00 Janitors Floor Buffer & some round rags compared to a $15k - $65K unit mounted in a van with all the expensive tools that go with it.

Thanks to the Chem-Dry Folks & the millions they have spent on fear marketing that tell you the consumer that water is bad just paved the way for me. By the way, Chem Dry has gone to Truckmounted Steam Cleaning, they have just re-named it, I'm sure you can figure out why. There are still some die hards around with floor buffers.

So, why would I rather work harder for the same amount of money, spend more on a truckmounted system, tools & constant maintenance cost? Guilt, professionalism & education.

Are you happy with smoke & mirror cleaning where the dirt is smeared around to make the carpet uniformily soiled or do you want your carpets flushed & rinsed out with all the soil removed out to the truck?

Okay, I heard the lady back there that said the last time I had it steam cleaned the carpet took 3 days to dry & all the dirt came back up. How much did you pay & did you go price shopping for the cheapest deal you could find? Was the guy a professional, did you check his company out. Probably not & therefore you got what you paid for.

Professional Carpet Cleaners that operate truckmount equipment have the capability to get your carpets dry today just as fast as the Chem Dry dry cleaning method but also removing the soil for you.

My final point is to use common sense. Would you prefer to wash your hair with the dry method by spraying on a little cleaner & then scrubbing it with a rag? No! You take it to the shower, get it shampooed & then rinsed all out & then dry it.

About Natural carpet cleaning, yes, there are natural cleaners available. Most professionals use them. I use them daily to Steam Clean Carpets, just do a good search like you do for anything and ask questions.

Your home is your personal sanctuary, remove the dirt from your carpet rather than spread it around & leave a chemical residue behind. I would prefer that you would rip it all out in disgust & go with tile & grout or wood floors because we make more money doing that than carpet. Besides creating a very dusty IAQ you have got yourself into a $.80 - 2.50 per square foot cleaning cost depending on the hard floor & it does need maintenance.

I hope this helps, any questions or complaints please feel free to e-mail me

Here I am again! LOL They are not all the same. Some of these people do not maintain the equipment. Truck mounts heat their own water and have a much higher PSI vacuum extraction than we are able to get from any of the home machines. I have them and use them in between the once a year cleaning by a pro and have the sprayed with a Teflon soil retardant. I always have the cleaner do the dual process and shampoo first and then extract with Tannin stain remover. This carpet is white and if they don't extract it enough and move the nozzle slowly enough they are not removing the water. That is when I have the Brown-Out or Wicking as it is called in the trade. Tannin stain remover is nothing more that a low acid rinse which removes the soap residue and prevents the brown out. If it sill browns out due to the fact that the carpet has been way too soaked they just come with a sprayer and spray the Tannin stuff and rake it with a Grandi Groomer. It turns back to white.

I have never had Chem-Dry do my carpets but they cleaned a dry clean only sofa for me last year. I paid $200 for nothing and after they left I want to my local janitorial supply and just bought the solvnet and did it myself. For years I had this old guy clean all of the dry clean only furniture once a year. He would spend 2 hours on the sofa alone. He would take a spray bottle and spray the solvent on white towles and go at it. They were filthy! I did this once a year. When I had Chem-Dry there was no differance. I wasted my $$. Dura-Shield is another non performer. Let's hear back from the carpet cleaner as to what he has to say.

Regardless of what many think, carpet cleaning is a slower process than you may think it is or are used too. Removing the soil & contaminates is the focus rather than polluting the indoor environment & adding to the chemical mess in the carpet - chemicals & soaps, and that goes for the Chem-Dry soup that is claimed natural.

The pre-condition that is applied is flushed & rinsed out of your carpet along with the suspended soil & all those residues. This takes time to do it right. I know, you may have seen a guy knock out a living room in less than 5 minutes. This will cause problems since all of the dirty water has been left behind & yes wicking issues will happen along with browning.

Browning is caused by several things but mostly because the carpet & residues were left behind. Many franchise companies will load up the fresh water tanks or metering system with an emulsifier instead of a carpet rinse to prevent browning. Speed cleaning with an emulsifier instead of a rinse IMO is the way of a hack. Your carpet backing may be made of jute & if left soaked then you will get browning.

If you use the underpowered home carpet cleaning machines & chemicals then you are creating additional problems. My advise would be to apply a pre-conditioner to the carpet & then clean very very very slowly with fresh water.

I never use an anti-browning agent or spray acid on the carpet because I don't like leaving any residues behind except soft water. If the carpet cleaner has the correct equipment, knowledge & dedication then he or she will leave you with a slightly damp to dry carpet that is soft & not crunchy and therfore will have zero browning or wicking issues.

Now, how to find this kind of carpet cleaner? Research, aski friends or relatives, call some owner operated companies & ask them a lot of questions and ask for 3 most recent new people they cleaned for.

When the cleaner shows up, does he or she arrive in a rat nasty van with crusty equipnet & tools thrown all over the place or a nice squared away van that is organized? Should tell you a lot about the person/company.

My personal guarantee is that if you don't like my cleaning that I will clean it again, still not satisfied then I'll return your money. There is nothing wrong with asking about the procedure that will happen, looking at the cleaners they will be using and watching them perform the work. I just wish more new clients would treat me suspect until they have witnessed my product but instead of leave me alone with their home with a check or cash.

Lastly I will point out that the price will normally have much to do with the job that you will get. If you think that the $14.00 per room guy will be motivated to provide you with the best equipment, tools, products and effort then you are greatly mistaken in most cases. It does cost to stay in business and come out with a decent salary. I am compensated by my hard work and can stay up to date with equipment & products to give you the best service & quality available. To those that call me & believe they should only pay $99.00 for the whole house I don't entertain and so they find the company that will and it is there where the problems & stories come about.

Please feel free to e-mail if you have any questions
gary@miracleserv.com