Carpet Cleaning? Be Savvy!

Company is coming for the holidays, and you want to have your house in perfect shape to welcome them. One task many homeowners are going to be tackling is cleaning their carpets.

I've gone back and forth on this one, but I want to share my experiences and maybe save you some headaches (and backaches!). I saw the machines in the store and thought, “I can do this myself, and save some money!” So, I went to the store and rented the machine. The typical cost is usually around $25-35 these days, with the attachment needed usually running another few dollars. Then there is the cleaning solution, which (depending on brand) is typically another $8-20. Sometimes you then find out that you have to buy extra solutions, like a de-foamer. Tack on a few more dollars. By the time it’s all totaled up, I think I usually spent about $65-75. Well … I’m still saving a few dollars? Right?

Lug the machine home, fill it with hot water and chemicals. Move furniture, go over the carpet, dump the machine and clean it. Move furniture some more, fill machine again, go over the carpet, dump the machine and clean it again. Usually I had to repeat a few times. And in the end, clean the machine one last time. Drive back to the rental place to return it (usually in a hurry and afraid I’m going to go over because everything took longer than I expected!). In the end, I did save a few dollars. Although I doubt that’s still true when you add in gas for picking up and returning the machine, and also the fast food I picked up for the family because I was too busy to cook. In the end, for my trouble I got a carpet that was cleaned with do-it-yourself equipment and chemicals. For almost the same price as a professional cleaning. That's when I made a mental note … next time, consider the alternatives carefully!

So the next time, that’s what I did. I checked with local carpet cleaning companies, and found one that offered coupons and seemed reputable. I called them and made an appointment. They showed up, THEY moved the furniture, THEY cleaned the carpet (much faster than I had done!), and THEY put the furniture back. Then they were finished, and I couldn't believe how much faster they accomplished the task.

The carpet was also much drier than it had been when I had used the rental machine. It had taken almost 24 hours to dry when I did it myself. The carpet company promised it would be dry in a few hours, and it was! So thanks to my coupons, I had a professionally cleaned carpet for about the same price I had paid, all things considered, to do it myself. And without all the hassle – the only thing I had to do was be there for the short time it took for the cleaning.

So, if you are planning on cleaning your carpet for holiday guests, do yourself a favor. Check the DIY prices, and make sure you count ALL the products you will need (they don’t always tell you about all of it until after you begin the rental process and they figure they’ve got you!). Then search the web for carpet cleaning coupons. Austin-based The Steam Team (http://www.thesteamteam.com)offers a $99 special, for example, that would rival DIY prices. You just might decide it’s a savvy-shopping move to hire a professional in this case!