Our technicians at Like New Carpet Care perform the highest quality Hot Water Extraction cleaning service using top of the line Truck Mounted Units. While this highly effective cleaning service is mostly associated with carpet cleaning, it is also used to carry out cleanings for other surfaces and materials in your home. This process is heavy duty and abrasive, so it is mostly ideal for synthetic materials. This typically includes most carpet, upholstery, area rugs as well as tile and grout. Many times people are surprised when we tell them how amazingly effective our service is for cleaning tile in Orlando! If your tile is Ceramic or Porcelain, this method is thorough, deep and highly effective.
The surface of these synthetic tiles are covered with dips, divots and crevices that can collect dirt, dust and other grimy contaminants. Often, this happens slowly over time and the difference in your tile’s appearance may not be noticed until it becomes incredibly dirty. Even if you don’t notice that much of a difference in the look of your tile’s surface (which is very common), your will be shocked at how dirty the tile and grout actually is once the cleaning takes place. The grout itself is an incredibly porous surface that can eat up and trap dirt, dust and other types of contaminants. Being a porous material means that it easily absorbs liquids. If your grout is not properly sealed, any small spill can quickly work its way down into the grout and cause quick discoloration. Many times, people will try to scrub their grout with a brush, using a cleaner. This method of treatment is not very effective and can actually cause more harm than it does good. A brush may initially help the very upper portion of the surface to look a little better, but this is only temporary. One of the more unsavory side effects of using a brush is that it can actually push contaminants like dust or dirt deeper into the grout. The more you push dirt and dust deeper down into a space, the more chance you have of these dirty contaminants compounding at the base and becoming more and more difficult (sometimes impossible) to remove. Our hot water extraction cleaning using truck mounted units helps to actually flush these dirty contaminates up and out of the porous grout. The same goes for the surface of these tiles themselves. This cleaning method helps to essentially flush the contaminants off and out of the grout and tile.
We have created many posts that include explanations about what truck mounted units are and how a hot water extraction cleaning works, but this is to help anyone and everyone understand how this cleaning method works and why it is so highly recommended and preferred by professionals in the industry. A truck mounted unit is a machine about the size of a clothes washer. This machine is permanently mounted within a service vehicle with access to the machine from the side or back of the vehicle. Also within the service vehicle would be a hose reel for around 250 feet of vacuum hose that is used along with the machine. The high pressure water line that is attached to the machine also has its own reel within the service vehicle. Both of these hoses are taken from their reels and attached to the machine in the proper places. The technician will then typically connect a water hose from a water source at the service location, to the truck mounted unit within the service vehicle. If water is not accessible, our technicians have backup water tanks on board their vehicles. The water supply is then pumped through the truck mounted unit where it is heated to near boiling temperatures. As it is heated while passing through the heat exchanger within the unit, it is also pressurized before being sent into the high pressure hose. The highly heated and highly pressurized water is pumped through the high pressure hose and is expelled through tiny jets attached to each service specific tool. The water is pushed deep into the carpet or upholstery fibers and does most of the dirt and debris removal work.
Our technicians use specific solutions according to what it is they are cleaning that are applied prior to beginning the cleaning and typically left to dwell for around ten minutes or so. Each different type of surface has its own particular cleaning tool that is attached to the truck mounted unit. When cleaning carpet, a technicians will use a wand to complete the service. A carpet wand is similar to a typical vacuum attachment that would perform the main vacuuming. For upholstery cleaning, a smaller, hand held tool that requires a wand is used. This upholstery tool is built specifically for servicing upholstery and has an adjusting knob that lets the technician adjust the cleaning pressure based on what it is that he is cleaning. When cleaning tile & grout, a larger tool that is about the same size as a carpet wand is used. While a carpet wand uses jets that spray the water in a uniformly horizontal fashion, a tile spinner uses angled jets that spin at a high rate. These spinning jets are covered by a plastic dome to keep the water spray focused on the intended location.
Now that the high pressured water has been applied, the residual water and debris need to be extracted. That is where the vacuum portion of the machine comes in to play. The vacuum portion of the machine is very powerful thanks to the industrial blower that is part of the truck mounted unit’s internals. The vacuum is very strong and effectively removes most of the water along with the loosened dirt, dust and debris essentially just after it is applied. The technician attaches a vacuum hose from the machine to the specific tool that he is using to complete the service. Both the vacuum hose and high pressure hoses typically reach up to a maximum limit of 250 feet. Using too much of either hose can dampen the effectiveness of the vacuum as well as the pressure of the water being applied.
This cleaning method along with this equipment enables our technicians to perform a heavy duty and highly effective cleaning for all synthetic tiles. Porcelain and ceramic tiles are the most commonly used types of tiles used today, thanks mostly to a combination of their affordability, appealing look and durable nature. A heavy duty, abrasive cleaning is completely safe to use on these types of tiles. Our technicians will leave your ceramic and porcelain floor tiles looking nice and clean, with no left over score marks! If your tile needs a good cleaning, or if you just have questions regarding a proper, professional tile and grout cleaning service, feel free to reach out to our office any time!
