Author: likenewcarpet

Keep your carpet clean with these five new ideas

Sometimes you just need a few new ideas to keep yourself motivated while cleaning your house. You aren’t alone, if you get excited to try out a new carpet cleaning hack. The internet is full of carpet cleaning professionals and people just like you looking for tips and tricks to clean.

Whether you are spending time browsing sites like Pinterest or just bored with your current routine, cleaning tips, hacks and tricks are everywhere. For a particularly stubborn stain or to find out when it is time to deep clean your carpets, sometimes you just need a good idea.

Taking care of your carpet is an essential task in your cleaning routine.

1. There are more options than just Baking soda.

You have probably tried some of the great ideas out there. Using baking soda and vinegar to clean stains is one of them. It could be one that you have already tested though. It might not be working for you some stains need a new technique. It is unlikely you have tried everything yet to get that stain out so don’t give up.

It is time to move on to something new if you have already tried baking soda. Shaving cream can be used for most carpet stains and it sometimes works better than other methods. Give shaving cream a chance to clean those stains.

You can utilize shaving cream to the stain and let it sit for roughly 30 minutes. Once the shaving cream has sat long enough, blot it with a dry cloth. Then spray a few spritzes of baking soda and vinegar mixed in a bottle. You don’t need to soak your carpet but make sure the stain is damp. You can blot that up after about five minutes.

Once you have blotted the baking soda and vinegar mix, you should be able to see an improvement on your stain. If the stain was really set in, you may need to repeat the process a couple times to really see your carpet looking much better. Shaving cream can give you a second option instead of baking soda.

2. Give hot water extraction cleaning a try.

 Dirt and other things can settle deep in your carpet fibers, well below what your vacuum can reach. Deep cleaning your carpet is very important. You can save some money by alternating between deep cleaning and professional cleaning. Doing the steam cleaning yourself will make the time between professional cleanings last longer without ruining your carpet.

You can rent a steam cleaner and inexpensive detergent at most supermarkets. If you haven’t used it before, test it on a small patch of carpet first. You won’t need much of the cleaning solution. Some detergents and carpet don’t mix well and you don’t want to find that out in a highly visible spot.

Steam cleaning is something you might end up liking once you try it. Seeing your carpet getting clean can be satisfying. Your carpets need to be steam cleaned at some point, you might as well try to enjoy it.

3. Ice is helpful.

 Gum is one of the most dreaded things to find stuck in your carpet. It is sticky and may seem impossible to get out. Before you pick up the phone to call a professional, give this next trick a try. Try freezing the gum first with ice instead of trying to remove it on its own.

Gum is less sticky when it is frozen. You have a better chance of removing it from your carpet once it is a solid mass. Leave the ice on it for a few minutes, then remove the remaining ice and try to pry the gum up with a butter knife or spoon. You can save yourself a lot of work with this simple tip.

4. Heat is your friend.

 Wax from something like a candle is another sticky situation for your carpet. Spills happen before you even realize what happened. Wax can get stuck in the carpet fibers very easily and sometimes seems like it will never come up.

Cover the wax with a towel and heat it up with an iron, before you try to scrape it up cold. The towel will pull up the softened wax. If there are larger pieces still under the towel, they should lift up easily now that they are not hard and stuck to the fibers.

5. Adjust your vacuuming technique.

 Try changing things up and choose a different day if you vacuum on the same day every week. You might be putting off vacuuming because it is not time yet. Try moving your vacuuming routine around and find the best day to get the best results.

If you are often vacuuming up larger messes, then your vacuuming routine is probably not the most effective for you. Adjust things around, add an extra day, or create a whole new routine. This will make sure you are keeping your carpet as clean as possible.

Carpet cleaning is not always exciting, but you can try new methods to see how they work for you. Boredom of a cleaning routine can cause you to find a new tip that you never knew would be a great idea to deal with a stain or a carpet problem. Keep what you have read here in mind and use these tips the next time you have a stain, a carpet issue or you need a deep clean.

Give Like New Carpet Care a call if these remedies can’t rectify your specific concern.

Carpet Stretching: Our Process

You might be wondering how tight carpet should be stretched, or how to get the wrinkles out of your carpet?

Our step-by-step process will achieve the best carpet stretching results making sure that your carpeting looks fantastic for many years.

First: Clean and Clear

The first thing you should do is clear the room of furniture. If you have built in furniture, you can work around it. Make your work space cleaner by vacuuming thoroughly to remove dust and dirt.

Second: Lift up a Corner of the Carpet and Begin to Pull:

Using work gloves to protect your hands, take the corner of your carpet and begin to remove the initial tack strip. You will need to use pliers to remove the tacks. You may need to use slight force but be careful as not to cause any fraying of the fibers.

Once you have enough carpet to lift, begin to tug it away from the wall and work your way down. The results we are looking for is to lift the carpet from three sides and leave the last side in place, which will act as the anchor.

Using the pliers, you will need to remove any staples or tacks that are securing the carpet to the padding. You will need a flat head screwdriver and possibly a pry bar for the stubborn staples or tacks. If the tack strips are in good condition, leave them in place.

Third: Power Stretcher for the Best Results

This is an easy step that makes the process more effective and efficient. To begin, place the power stretcher on the side where the carpet is still attached. You need to position it against the baseboard or a piece of 2×4 placed against the wall. Then lay the power stretcher with the tooth-side down. Expand the length of the shaft so that it is about 6 inches from the wall. Push the lever to so the teeth are embedded in the carpet. Use pressure to stretch the carpet.

If you feel as though you need to apply too much pressure, you can easily over stretch the carpet and cause damage. If it seems to easy you may not be stretching the carpet enough in order to remove any wrinkles or bumps.

Fourth: Remove Excess Carpet

You will want to cut away any excess carpet material before you reattach the carpet. Use a sharp utility knife or a carpet cutter to cut the excess, making sure you leave enough to tuck under the baseboard. If you are using a carpet cutter you will need to make a slit to place the cutter inside.

Fifth: Using a Knee Knicker

If you are working in an awkward or small space, using a knee knicker is your best choice. The tool itself operates differently than the power stretcher, but they share a similar concept in positioning and stretching the carpet.

Sixth: Secure the Carpet Back to Original

Our carpet stretching process is relatively easy. To reattach the carpet, press down firmly onto the tack strips before securing the carpet to the padding positioned against the wall.

Hiring a Professional Can Be Helpful

You can stretch carpet yourself although it does involve a fair amount of time and effort. It also requires certain tools that you may not want to invest in. By hiring a professional, you know that your carpet will not have any more damage. So give Like New Carpet Care a call 407-947-6724 anytime and we can help remove those ripple from your carpet.

You may be thinking, does my carpet need to be cleaned, or should i just replace it?

Though don’t give up on your carpet yet. A carpet cleaning company that knows what they are doing can help save your wall to wall carpeting, which is obviously much cheaper to clean than replace.

Here at Like New Carpet Care, we put heavy emphasis on ensuring a positive total experience for each and every customer! We use the word “experience” specifically to encompass every aspect of your service, from the moment you reach out to us, to the moment your service is completed. Our technicians are not only trained and certified in all cleaning services they perform, they are also trained in customer service skills. The same goes with any of our office staff. While there are a variety of tasks that they are trained to perform, customer service is at the top of the list of importance. If you check us out online, you will see quite an abundance of genuine five star reviews. While just about each and every one of them mentions how well our technicians performed the cleaning services, many of them also reference how smooth and comfortable their total experience with our company was. That is exactly what our goal is, to provide a positive total experience!

We are heavily contacted by customers through many sources throughout the day. Many customers have used our services before and they know the drill. A simple call with a couple questions and their service is easily set up. Many other calls are from customers who have had carpet, tile & grout or upholstery cleaning services performed before, just by other companies. These customers are typically going to have a good idea of what to expect, however, they usually have not experienced the personalized, comfortable process of scheduling service with our company. Then, there are the first timers. Customers who have never had these types of services performed before and might not know where to start. It may seem easy, but if you hop on your favorite browser and search for Carpet, Upholstery, Area Rug or Tile & Grout cleaning services, you may find an abundance of options. This can be a bit intimidating to a first time customer, just as well as a customer who has had these services performed in the past. Now, it wasn’t that long ago that you would need to use a phone book to look for a service company. Or, your mailbox might have one of those little coupon books you could flip through, or you might even just call who you see on your television and hear on the radio. These methods of service provider selection are thankfully now archaic. Now a days, you can hop online, or even speak to your phone’s virtual assistant and find a vast abundance of options. This could be a bit overwhelming, however, there is this great thing that accompanies most companies called reviews!

Oh how we love reviews! Personally, I cannot purchase an item without searching online for credible reviews. With so many online platforms offering easy ways to leave company and product reviews, it really helps to make shopping for services or products an easier task to accomplish. When calling a random service providing company that you may have found in a coupon magazine or heard their name in an advertisement, you really have no idea what you are getting with the company. The phone call could be great, the tech could be nice, but, you could easily run into a situation that your service is less than satisfactory. Another common issue is price fluctuations. Unfortunately, some companies still practice Bait and Switch techniques. So, in a less than satisfactory experience, you could have a company come into your home and after quoting a low price, raises it dramatically for some variety of nonsense reasons. Part of that non ideal experience could also be a less than acceptable quality of service. That is about as bad as it gets. Imagine, a company promising a low rate so you book a service experience, upon arrival, the price is raised dramatically and you are given a variety of reasons that sound less than legitimate and then when the technician leaves your home, the cleaning itself leaves you with unacceptable results. After this terrible experience, you call the company to discuss your disdain (as most companies that operate in this manner will not follow up with their customers) and are met with a litany of reasons why the price changed and the outcome was not ideal. That call will typically end with an upset customer receiving no help to rectify the less than stellar results. This example is why we hold genuine customer reviews in such high regard. Using our company Like New Carpet Care as an example, you can see how a company who has earned a large amount of positive reviews (over one thousand for our company) will be the best bet you have for receiving a stellar service that encompasses a great customer service experience, outstanding cleaning results and honest, up front pricing and advice! With reviews for companies and products so easily available and abundant, the tolls to help any consumer make the right decision are right at your fingertips!

Now, after you have done your research and found what seems to be the right company for you, it’s time to reach out. Remember, the right company will typically have many positive reviews that could be found on various platforms online. That really helps to point you in the direction of a good company. After finding that company, they may have a variety of ways to contact them, but we will focus on the most commonly used phone call. When you call the company you are thinking of using, you should be greeted by a kind voice. A good company will have staff members ready and eager to help each and every customer. You should also feel encouraged to ask questions. Good, clear communication is going to help a customer understand what to expect with their service and it is also going to help the employee helping the customer to understand the individual customer’s needs and advise the appropriate services. These are all intrical in providing each and every customer with the most comfortable and satisfactory service possible! Focusing on the total customer experience has helped our company to succeed and it is something we will continue to practice going forward!