Pesky, I responded on the Decorating Forum, but had another thought. It addition to the steam cleaner manufacturers warning against additives, there is so little water used in steam cleaning that there would not be much effect. You might be better off making up the lavender water and then spraying or lightly pouring it on the floor towards the end of cleaning the room.

This sounds like a serious enough problem to justify using a professional to do it. Good luck.

The diffuser oil is the same thing as perfumers oil. You can actually use "Everclear" (the alcohol you drink) in place of diffuser oil. Really, you can use anything that is 95proof or more. Denatured alcohol from the hardware store has the same proof as everclear and perfumers oil but they add the bad smelling stuff to it so you can't drink it. For my diffusers I use everclear and whatever scent I use for candles. They turn out good for me. When I started making diffusers, I couldn't find diffuser oils so I did a little research. That's why I use everclear. It was the cheapest. Cindy

Be very careful where they are placed as they WILL take off the furniture finish! I had some in the bathroom on a oak finish vanity table a few yrs. ago and after showering, my husband threw his towel up on the shower and in the process knocked over the bottle. When I noticed it later, it had really messed up the top of the vanity and also discolored the tile where it had spilled on the floor. I need to refinish the top yet...maybe in the summer!