What to Ask Before Hiring a Carpet Cleaner

Start here. Ask who will be in your house and what training that person has. David Laton started HydroClean in Jackson in 2010, and he still answers the phone and works the jobs.

It also helps to know how the price is set. We collect the details first: what needs cleaning, which rooms and rough sizes. Most carpet cleaning can be estimated over the phone, with the final price set when we see the floor. A home over 4,000 square feet, or a job with smoke odor or a lot of pet stains and odor, normally needs a visit first.

And ask how the visit ends. You get a chance to look at the work before we leave. If something is not right and it is within our ability, we make it right then. If something comes up later, call. David will come back, look at it and re-clean if needed.

The IICRC is the certifying body for the cleaning and restoration trade. Certification means a person passed exams on fiber identification, chemistry, soil types and the limits of each method. It does not promise care on its own. It does show the knowledge was tested by someone outside the company.

Certification belongs to people. At HydroClean, owner David Laton is IICRC certified, and the company has been family-owned in Jackson since 2010.

The most common professional answer is hot water extraction, often called steam cleaning. It injects hot solution into the fiber under controlled pressure and vacuums it straight back out. Most carpet manufacturers name it in their maintenance guidance, and it reaches the base of the fiber.

Other methods exist and have good uses. Low moisture and encapsulation cleaning dry fast, and they suit commercial traffic lanes and spaces that cannot close for half a day. What matters is that the method fits your floor. We match the method to the surface and explain why.

Ask about equipment while you are on the subject. Our truck mounted units keep the heater, pump and vacuum blower on the vehicle. We extract at 300 to 500 PSI with water heated to 200 to 240°F, and recovery is strong. The truck mount handles nearly every job we do. We keep portable equipment for the rare place a hose cannot reach.

This step matters more than it looks. Most of what is in a carpet by weight is dry soil, and dry soil lifts out easily while it is dry. Add water first and it turns into something close to mud that clings to the fiber.

Yes. We vacuum every room with a commercial machine before any solution goes down. It is the first hands-on step in our process, and it frees the rest of the visit to work on the oily soil a vacuum cannot reach.

The companion step is the traffic-lane cleaner. We spray it on and give it a few minutes to work before extracting. Those minutes are when it breaks the bond between soil and fiber.

Cleaning products are alkaline, and alkaline residue left in carpet stays sticky. Sticky fiber attracts soil from shoes and from the air. That is why we rinse spots again after treating them, and neutralize the carpet when it needs it.

Once it dries, the carpet should feel soft, not crisp. Our products are tested and safe for homes, and we have a hypoallergenic cleaner with no odor or perfume for severe allergies or sensitivities.

This is the most useful question on the list. Cleaning removes soil, and some marks are not soil. It does not reverse dye loss from bleach or acne medicine, traffic lane abrasion, delamination, burns, cuts or urine that has soaked into the pad.

We look at your carpet, point at specific spots and tell you which we expect to respond well, which may improve partway and which are damage, not soil. We do not always know what will come out until we clean it, and we say that too. Filtration lines along the baseboards are a good example: the answer we usually give is real improvement, not removal.

Pet odor is the other good example. We inspect with a UV light and a moisture meter. Isolated pad damage can be flushed with subsurface extraction. Past roughly 30 to 40 percent of a room, replacement is usually the better advice. Most stains come out and the odor is removed or greatly reduced, but we cannot promise complete odor removal every time.

The size of the area, the number of rooms, stairs, furniture, soil level and pet treatment all affect the price. Travel is built into the price. There is a service minimum, so a very small job is billed at a flat minimum rate.

We do not post prices. David prices each job individually. Call or use Request an Estimate, tell us what needs cleaning, and we will prepare an estimate. Most carpet cleaning can be estimated by phone, with the final price set on inspection. A home over 4,000 square feet, or a job with smoke odor or a lot of pet stains and odor, normally needs a visit first. Once you approve the estimate, we schedule a time.

If something is not right, tell us during the job or before we leave. If it is within our ability, we make it right before we leave. If you call later, David comes back, looks at it and re-cleans if needed.

Carpet dries in about half a day, sometimes up to 24 hours, depending on airflow, humidity, pile height and how soiled the fiber was. Tile, stone and hardwood are usually ready for normal use in 1 to 2 hours.

Before we leave, you get a chance to look at the finished rooms while the equipment is still in the house. We point out anything that did not respond, explain why, and tell you what to expect while the carpet dries. Questions about your floors? Call or text (731) 437-0006.