Do you remember not so long ago when that well-spoken home improvement guru with the big ears said, “If you like your carpet, you can keep your carpet?”
Well, quite frankly, neither do we, but if he had said it, he would have been right. Up to a point.
Good quality carpet, it turns out, can last well beyond the manufacturer’s guarantee, but only if you do one thing: keep it clean. The easiest way to get life out of your carpet is to vacuum it regularly.
And by regularly, we mean at least every other day in high-traffic areas, and every few days all over. Most people tend to vacuum when they see stuff on the floor that they wouldn't want their neighbours to see, but to protect your investment in your carpet – and your home – you need to get up the stuff that you don’t see, too.
Every been to a mall at closing time? Just before the aluminium grates come down on your favourite game store, what do see? The junior man (or girl) on the staff flailing away, back and forth, over carpet that looks as if it were installed that day. Retail is about profit; profit is about sales minus costs; and the cost of industrial carpet is not cheap. But retail knows how to make it last.
But even if you vacuum on a very regular basis, eventually your prized floor rags are going to need a D-check. Like an airliner that gets completely taken apart, inspected, and reassembled every four years or so, your carpets need to undergo a periodic makeover. And for that, the vacuum won’t suffice. We’re talking moving out the furniture and bringing in the big guns – a carpet cleaning machine.
You have three choices when it comes to carpet cleaning: By a carpet cleaning machine and do it yourself; rent a carpet cleaning machine and ditto; or the new English way – pay someone to do it.
New machines typically sell for between £100 and £400, although if you want one that does more of the work than you do, you definitely have to spend at the high end. Customers report that most low-end machines make it through the first two or three jobs and then kaput. Rentals of the heavier duty tools – the kind you want – run between £30 and £70 per day, though many places will cut you a break if you don’t return the goods the next day.
New machines typically sell for between £100 and £400, although if you want one that does more of the work than you do, you definitely have to spend at the high end. Customers report that most low-end machines make it through the first two or three jobs and then kaput. Rentals of the heavier duty tools – the kind you want – run between £30 and £70 per day, though many places will cut you a break if you don’t return the goods the next day.
But these prices beg the question: Are they worth the hassle?
A quick Google search will yield all the companies you could want who advertise rates that make doing it yourself seem pretty lame. At £69 to £99 for three rooms – allowing an average of 300 square feet (e.g., 15 by 20) per room – it’s hardly worth the backache to haul your purchased or rented machine out of the trunk.
And that price usually includes moving the furniture in and out, and sometimes even a pre-vacuum. For many, skipping one vacuum day might be worth £69.
The caveats to hiring out are that some of the firms you’ll see listed use subcontractors, who don’t have a reputation to protect like the guy who owns the business and does the work himself.
But overall the scales balance on the side of hiring Bill rather than paying your chiropractor’s. You more likely than not get a much better job (he’s done it before), and the equipment he uses would take you longer than your mortgage to pay off if you bought it. Industrial equipment digs deeper and extracts more of the fluids when done.
Carpet cleaning in Birmingham may not be easy, but doing the math is.
Unit 9, 97 Rickman Drive
Birmingham,
West Midlands
B15 2AL
0121 368 0399
