IICRC Certified Carpet Cleaning Sarasota

Many, if not most, industries require certification and training, and why wouldn't you want them to? When your toilet is leaking water all over your bathroom, would you want a plumber that is learning on the job, figuring things out as he goes? Did you know that although wonderful training and certification programs are available for carpet cleaners, that certification is currently not required? And even worse, many choose not to become certified. Besides certification, what are some things that distinguish one carpet cleaning company from another?  Exhibit A: You might have experienced a carpet cleaner that was uneducated, uninformed, or possibly even downright unscrupulous. Selecting a Professional Service Company The above picture was taken by me at my neighbor's house. I'm always interested in the carpet cleaning companies people choose and why. Notice anything strange? Would you appreciated it if they pulled their service vehicle onto your grass and sidewalk?  Or worse, if you referred this company to a friend or client and you found out this happened to them...how embarrassed would you be? I didn't ask my neighbors how the experience went. But do you think it was the most outstanding service experience ever? If this type of attitude was taken towards parking, how do you think things might have gone inside the home? Do you think they respect the customer's property? Have you or someone you know been the victim of a nightmare carpet cleaner? Do you think this company may have been selected based on the cheapest price, or on the quality of work as recommended by others? What kind of things can a service company do to provide a better experience and provide the comfort and assurance needed when inviting their technicians into your home? Some of the systems we've put in place are: background and drug tested employees, neatly uniformed technicians with dress and grooming guidelines, clean organized vehicles and systems to ensure on time service, full insurance, extensive training programs and certifications, pre and post inspections and walk throughs, and so much more! We have a free downloadable consumer guide on our website, www.CleaningManatee.com with a list of questions that will help you choose a cleaning company. One important factor is the education in their industry that the company has. We always recommend using an IICRC Certified cleaner. What is a "Certified" Carpet Cleaner? In shopping for carpet cleaning, you may have noticed the word "certified" used in advertising. You may have seen a logo being used to feature certification. What does this mean to you as a client? Would you be surprised to learn that most carpet cleaning companies have no formal training? That they are not required to be licensed? That there is no requirement to have any certification whatsoever? Is training and certification important? After all, isn't carpet cleaning a "menial" task that anyone can perform? Actually, a carpet cleaning professional is working with one of your most valuable assets, your floors. They are also working in your bedrooms and around your family and possibly valuable possessions. Would you want to entrust this task to the lowest bidder? Of course not. Unfortunately, our industry is full of individuals that only care about how much money they can get from you, and nothing about the life of your carpeting, or the service experience you receive. They are not concerned with following up, in fact, they will likely be difficult to reach again if you have a problem. Some just do not care about the industry in which they work. Have you ever noticed that in many states, air conditioning companies, plumbers, and pest control companies are required to be licensed? This is not so for carpet cleaners. Fortunately for you, and for me, there are many fine people in the carpet cleaning industry that realize the standard must be raised. The most recognized organization in this effort is called the IICRC (Institute of Inspection, Cleaning, and Restoration Certification). This organization provides certification courses and exams for the carpet cleaning industry. Our company has found them vital, and we attend them in addition to our rigorous in house company training. By attending these courses, carpet cleaners are taught about fiber identification, carpet construction, cleaning chemistry, cleaning methods, and professionalism. In order to receive certification, classroom work, hands on training, and a passed written exam are all required. Travel and expense are involved in these courses. That's why low price cleaners don't (or can't) participate in this training. Yes, they must make many sacrifices in quality to be able to charge a low price. These valuable training concepts equip our technicians to choose the proper procedures for cleaning your carpet. A certified firm such as Overturf's is on the cutting edge of technology and change in our industry. A certified firm knows the right way to apply cleaning procedures and chemistry. A certified firm is working together with other certified firms to raise the standard of carpet cleaning in general, therefore providing you with a higher quality product. Special Note: Never use a carpet cleaner that is not certified by the IICRC.

Lakewood Ranch Tile and Grout Sealing

Why is it so important to make sure your grout is sealed, whether it's new or old?

A lot like waxing your car, the sealer for grout forms a protective layer over your grout lines. This layer keeps the dirt and liquids from settling down inside your porous grout.

How do they get so dirty in the first place? After all, you mop your floor regularly.
Water seeks out the lowest point. So when you mop your tile, the dirty water settles into these grout lines since they are at a lower level than the tile. Basically, the dirt goes right from your tile into your grout lines! The water helps it seep below the surface and dry into the porous grout. This can make it difficult to remove. Have you ever tried to clean the dirt out of these grout lines yourself? It's a nightmare isn't it? With a toothbrush, a strong cleaner, sore fingers, and plenty of time you might see some good results!

Sealed grout is waaaay easier to keep clean. Without the dirt penetrating the surface of the grout, your grout lines clean up nice and easy. The likelihood of spills causing a stain reduces dramatically.

We would be happy to talk with you about implementing a program to clean and maintain your tile and grout. To speak with us about it, call us at 941-301-9555 or visit our main site at www.CleaningManatee.com to get more information.

Caring for Your Oriental Rugs

How to Care for Your Oriental Rugs

For every day care & protection of an Oriental or Area rug, always do the following:

• Rotation – To insure even wear, your rug should be rotated once a year. Depending on the traffic, you may decide to rotate anywhere from every six months to two years.
• Vacuuming – Oriental rugs, like most carpeting, should be vacuumed on a regular basis to remove dirt and restore life to the fibers. Don't wait any longer than once a week to vacuum. Be sure not to vacuum the fringe with your beater bar! Use the end of a vacuum hose from a canister vacuum.
• Padding – A quality pad under your rug protects it from dirt, wear and slippage. Overturf's Cleaning can help you order a high quality rug pad.

Spot and Spill Procedures - Be sure to safely and immediately clean up spots and spills before they set.

- First, soak up any excess liquid by blotting with a clean, white absorbent material. Do not brush or rub the stain.
- Next spot-clean with a mild detergent white vinegar-water solution. Do-not over wet.
- Rinse the area thoroughly with water and a small amount of vinegar. Avoid wetting the rug’s backing.
- Blot dry until most of the moisture has been absorbed. Allow to air dry. A fan or cool hair dryer can be used to speed up the drying process.

For stains that do not come out using these methods, ask our Sarasota rug cleaning specialists.

(941) 301-9555
Overturf’s Cleaning
www.CleaningManatee.com

Maintaining Your Furniture

   Are you taking care of your upholstery?

With so much to take care of in our homes, it often doesn't get cared for properly. Sometimes by the time we think of having it cleaned, it can be too late, damage has already been done.

How to Care for Your Upholstery

Following these simple guidelines will help keep your upholstered living room, dining room, and bedroom furniture looking like new.

• To avoid fading, keep upholstered home furniture out of direct sunlight.

• Vacuum upholstered furniture as often as possible. Even if your home furniture has seen little use, the abrasive action of dirt and dust particles can wear on the fibers of your upholstery fabric. For high-use furniture, it’s a good idea to frequently beat the cushions and then vacuum and rotate them.

• Do not place newspapers directly on home furniture upholstery fabric, since ink will accumulate and is difficult to remove.

• Never cover your upholstered furniture with dark-colored blankets, sheets, etc., because the colored dyes can rub off onto fabric when dry or bleed when wet.

• Avoid the use of dyes, paints, inks, nail polishes, and Mercurochrome around your fabric upholstery, since these substances alter color and will stain.

• Never remove cushion covers for dry cleaning or machine washing, even though they have zippers. The colors can fade and no longer match the rest of the upholstery, or they can shrink or be damaged in the wash.

• Periodic professional Sarasota furniture cleaning will keep soil accumulation from marring the beauty of the upholstery of your home living room, dining room, and bedroom furniture.

Use Professional Grade Cleaning Products
Overturf’s Cleaning has partnered with one of the cleaning industry leaders, Bridgepoint Systems, to offer you professional grade cleaning supplies that are safe for household consumers and at a discounted cost. Please visit www.CleaningManatee.com/shop for details.
Products available that you may find useful for your upholstery include:

• Spot & Stain Remover
• Pet Spotter
• Heavy Duty Spotter
• Laminated Spotting Guide
• Odor Eliminator Kit

Remember to always test any cleaning product in an inconspicuous area of your upholstery or carpet before using.

Safely Removing Spots from Carpet

Although we've posted various types of spots and how to get rid of them, here are some basic steps for effective removal no matter the spot, along with some precautions.

Act Quickly!

Most carpet available today has been treated with a stain-resist treatment, so many spills can be removed if immediate action is taken. The longer the delay, the higher the probability of a spill becoming a permanent stain. Remember, staining is influenced by many factors, and no carpet is completely stain proof.

Blot liquids with a dry, white, absorbent cloth or or white paper toweling (no printing or colors on the paper towels).

Do not scrub! Scrubbing may cause pile distortion in the affected area. Continue to use a dry cloth or paper towels until the area is completely dry. For semi-solids, gently scrape up with a rounded spoon. Solids should be broken up and vacuumed until completely removed.

Pretest any spot removal agent in an inconspicuous area to be certain the solution will not damage the fiber or the dye. After applying several drops to the testing area, hold a white cloth on the wet area for 10 seconds. Examine the carpet and cloth for color transfer, color change, or damage to the carpet. If a change occurs or any color comes off onto your cloth, another cleaning solution should be selected.

Apply a small amount of the selected cleaning solution to a white cloth and work in gently.
Work from the edges of the spill to the center to prevent the spill from spreading. Remember, do no scrub! Blot in order to absorb as much as possible, and repeat if necessary.

Continue using the first cleaning solution as long as there is a transfer of the spill to the cloth. It is not necessary to use all of the cleaning solutions if the first solution removes the spill.

Be patient! Complete removal of the spill may require repeating the same step several times.

After the spill has been completely removed, rinse the affected area thoroughly with cold water, and blot with a dry cloth until all of the solution has been removed. Some cleaning solutions, especially the over the counter variety, can dry leaving behind residue. This will cause rapid soiling if the solution is not completely removed. Apply a one-half inch layer of white paper towels to the affected area, and weigh down with a flat, heavy object. Continue to change paper towels as needed.

A dry, absorbent, cleaning compound may be used as a substitute to accelerate drying time.
For more detailed information on a specific spill, please feel free to contact us or refer to our newsletters that contain this information.

Also, many fiber manufacturers provide toll-free cleaning assistance and advice (consult your carpet or fabric's warranty).

If you're looking for professional grade spot cleaners and other cleaning supplies, please visit our website at www.CleaningManatee.com/shop.

Successfully Maintaining Wool Carpets

Please note: these are not instructions for taking care of a wool rug, or an oriental rug.
Oriental rugs should always be cleaned in a rug plant by professionals, not at your home. “Why not at my home, so and so cleaning company did it before?” many ask. If you had your oriental rug successfully cleaned before, consider yourself fortunate. These rugs may have loose dye that will bleed or crock. You may have 10 colors in your rug and only one bleeds. This can be cared for and prevented much better at a rug plant, plus the cleaning, dusting and drying process is far superior than what can be done at your home. If you decide to spot clean your Oriental rug, make sure you test every color separately for color fastness. You test for color fastness by taking a white cotton towel that has been dipped with a small amount of wool safe cleaner, and then patting the towel on each color separately.

Regular Maintenance of your wool carpets
If you have wool carpets, get rid of all your store bought carpet cleaning spotters. Many of these products not only leave behind dirt attracting residue, they also have a high pH that is too aggressive to use on wool and can ruin your carpets.
Use a product that indicates on the packaging that it is wool safe. Using too high a PH cleaner on your wool carpet can turn the fibers brown or yellow.
High PH cleaners will also break down the cuticle or hard scaly surface that holds the fiber together. Breaking down the cuticle leaves you with a fuzzy mess. When using a wool safe product – blot. Scrubbing will also cause the fiber to fuzz out.
Do not get bleach on your wool carpet. Bleach will dissolve wool carpet and leave a hole behind.
As with all carpet, vacuum as often as you can, at least once a week.

You want your wool carpet to dry quickly when it is cleaned. If the carpet takes too long to dry it can turn yellow or brown. Your professional Sarasota carpet cleaner will run an air mover to help dry the carpet faster while he is there. He will also give you instructions so you can help the drying process to happen quicker after he leaves.
Much effort, training, and specialty products go into cleaning wool carpets correctly. That’s why using the right professionals like those at Overturf’s Cleaning makes this job a successful one with no headaches down the road. You also want to be sure the carpet cleaner you use is IICRC Certified. That means he has undergone formal training and has received at least some education in carpet cleaning. At Overturf's Cleaning, we help you avoid uneducated, uninformed, and even downright unscrupulous carpet cleaners by providing the most outstanding service experience ever, guaranteed.

Indoor Air Quality and Your Carpet

Recently, the EPA had put into the Congressional Record the fact that indoor air is more polluted than outdoor air.

How can that be true? The main reason is that indoor air is trapped.  Rarely does it get completely replaced.  Outdoor air on the other hand gets blown away and new, cleaner air replaces it. 

Trapped air in our home continues to gather pollutants: from our clothes, shoes, our bodies, our hair, our pets, our garages, and many other sources. These contaminants eventually settle on our furniture, our floors, our rugs, and yes, our carpet. 
Then, when someone walks over them, they get re-dispersed into your air and you and your family breathe them.  A great example is when you look at a stream of sunlight and see all the dust floating around.  You breathe that air over and over.  That's why indoor air is more polluted than outdoor air.

There is a way out of this vicious cycle: Getting your carpet cleaned thoroughly and regularly rids your home of these pollutants lurking in your carpet. Yes Sarasota carpet cleaning is a major factor.

The polluted air is circulated and some of it settles on horizontal surfaces--the largest horizontal surface being your carpet.  That's why cleaning your carpet is the best solution for removing indoor air pollution.  And that's why we recommend cleaning all rooms of carpet even if they don't look dirty.

Believe it or not, that's also why carpet is a superior flooring choice for indoor air quality, since it traps these pollutants in the air. The key is keeping it regularly cleaned, not just when it looks dirty.

What's regular? That can vary, based on conditions in the home such as smoking, pets, children, the amount of foot traffic.
According to the U.S. EPA Letter, January 1989, the longest recommended interval between cleanings to maintain indoor air quality is 12 months.

Ask yourself: What would it be worth if regular carpet cleanings could mean one less doctor visit for my child per year? What is it worth to me to be able to breath better and get sick less?