October 2006

I’ve been following some of your recent questions about commercial carpet appearance management. But, our store is not very big. Would a professional carpet cleaner be able to clean a small business in the middle of a shopping centre, or even want to?

I can’t speak for my colleagues, but Graham’s looks after all manner and size of carpet care clients. Some involve tens of thousands of sq. ft. - some others just a few hundred.

Our equipment inventory includes some highly specialized tools that allow us to work in areas where running hoses and lines to a service truck is just not practical. The results are impressive and clients regularly remark that the experience is quick and hassle free.

The important thing to remember is that regular, scheduled carpet care will:

1 - give your store a high level of street appeal

2 - save you money against premature replacement

3 - save you money from costly restorative cleaning

Please read the following carefully. Some carpet cleaners who only offer one method of carpet cleaning will spend a great deal of time telling the public of all the problems they will experience if they don’t use the method being offered. There are 5 industry-accepted methods to clean carpets. Steam cleaning is only one of them. Each method has its own particular strengths and weaknesses. In some applications, more than one method may be required for the best results. Having a carpet cleaner who only provides one method will severely limit your options.

Real carpet cleaning horror stories usually involve inexperienced and/or untrained technicians.

Limit your exposure to potential problems by hiring someone with industry-recognized credentials in commercial carpet maintenance. Such qualified professionals are a good source of advice.

A well-equipped, qualified commercial carpet care provider will be able to evaluate the challenges facing your particular carpets.

They will have the equipment needed to address issues such as:

1 - access difficult areas such as malls.

2 - quick turn arounds - using methods that allow for cleaning large areas quickly.

3 - quick drying times - using methods designed for commercial applications where areas must be available for public access.

4 - air quality control - using methods that do not allow for unpleasant odors.

Les Graham

Graham’s Carpet Cleaning

952-0318

An IICRC Certified Firm (2005)

question@theexperts.ca