HOW TO - Shampoo Your Carpet
11 January 2008So you’ve finally decided to clean your nasty carpets. But you’re too cheap to hire a professional service to clean them right, you wanna do it yourself. That’s okay, if you screw up carpet is cheap to replace. Most people who decide to clean/ruin their carpet rent a carpet shampooer. That defeats the purpose, since the whole point of doing it yourself is to save money.
Let’s first begin with the shampoo. Buy Suave shampoo, its just carpet, no reason to use overpriced shampoo. I know what you’re thinking, there are so many types of Suave shampoo. All you have to do is think of your carpet like you think of your hair. If its oily, then choose the red bottle. If your carpet has dandruff, get the blue bottle. You get my point.
Use distilled water. There is nothing harder to get out of a carpet than hard water stains. Don’t use city water, it has chlorine in it, you don’t want to bleach your carpet. Filtered water may have charcoal particles from the charcoal filter, that can turn your carpet black.
Take whatever type of water you settled on and place it into a large bucket. Measure out approximately, one cup of shampoo per gallon of water and mix well. You can use more or less depending on how nasty your carpet is. It’s okay if you have leftover shampoo, just save it until the next time you shampoo your carpet. DO NOT use Suave on your hair! Just trust me, and don’t come whining to me if your hair falls out or whatever, all because you didn’t listen.
Take the bucket, now filled with your cleaning solution and apply liberally to the carpet. Be sure to spread the solution around, don’t just dump it on a couple spots. You did remember to move the furniture, didn’t you? If not, stop what you’re doing and get someone to help you. Wait a few minutes for the solution to soak into the carpet and proceed.
Get down on your hands and knees and massage the shampoo into your soaked carpet. Start with small circles and work your way over the entire carpet. Repeat the process, working up to large arcs. Don’t be afraid to be aggressive, the dirt’s not going to work itself out. Dig those nails in, the longer your nails are, the more dirt you can dig out.
Use RID, because if your carpet has lice, you’ll have lice. The same goes for fleas, except they can jump, so be quick. While you’re at it, do the dog too. The little furball probably has even more vermin on it than the carpet.
Now comes the fun part, getting the water and shampoo out. You may wonder how you’re going to accomplish this without a shampooer unit. That’s a good question. The answer is, a wet/dry shop vac. If you don’t already have one, you better get your butt to the nearest hardware store before your carpet dries. The method is quite simple, just suck until there’s nothing left to suck.
Obviously, you’re going to need to rinse your carpet a few times. Four times to be exact, more if your carpet was particularly grungy. A garden hose works great, but if it won’t reach, a watering can will make a viable substitute. Let your carpet dry for at least a week and you’ll be ready to move back in just as soon as the flooring contractor finishes installing your new carpet.
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