Carpet Cleaning Machines

Factual Questions
1

My House stinks. My wifes beloved cats have managed to whizz in just about every corner and vertical surface available. This weekend shall see “Operation Clean Sweep,” when I, literally “an army of one” will strive to search and destroy all trac of feline ordure.

Integral to this is some means of carpet cleaning. Before I invest the time, money, and effort in renting one of those whatchamajiggers from the supermarket, I’d like to ask any and all dopers who’ve used one whether they actually work or not.

Any suggestions gratefully acknowledged and appreciated

2

You might see if there’s a branch of the company Chem-Dry in your area.
They are about half the cost of other carpet cleaning services and they do an especially good job with pet odors. We use them at the hotel I work at.

3

As for the Rug Doctor type things, the key is to get the water as hot as possible. Don’t be in such a rush that you use just water from your hot tap. Boil some water to add to the mix. And they usually sell a bottle of pre-treatment for pet odors where you get the machine.

But add up all the costs before you rent. You need shampoo and they may add overtime fees if you are late. If you value your own time, at say $12/hour, it starts to make sense to pay a pro. The ChemDry around here has coupons for 3 rooms $100 in the coupon section of the phone book.

As to the walls, if you are going to repaint, you can kill odors with a primer called Kilz, available at all hardware and paint stores.

4

I rented a Rug Doctor a couple months ago: it definitely took some – maybe even most – of the gunk out of the basement family room carpet (which the previous tenants left so dirty it was sticky…ew), but I still wouldn’t let a baby crawl around on that carpet. I do, however, feel much more comfortable walking around down there in my bare feet.

The overall cost was reasonable, and as a quick, relatively cheap way to make that room habitable for overnight guests the Rug Doctor did what I needed it to do, but next time I will likely hire someone instead of doing it myself. Here are what I saw as the major cons:
[ul]
[li]the instructions provided are adequate, but I was never sure if I was walking backwards too quickly/slowly[/li][li]I found it difficult to pull the machine back in a straight line, which made me concerned that I might oversaturate some spots while completely missing others[/li][li]I rented the machine the evening before I cleaned the carpet, and found that I did not have enough time to clean it twice; partly because I’d already had the machine overnight, but also because[/li][li]it took much longer for the carpet to dry than the instructions estimated (even with a fan blowing on it)[/li][li]I had to stop and refill the machine several times, which surprised me because it was just an average-sized room[/li][/ul]

5

Previous thread, same topic.

http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=250815&highlight=carpet

Be careful using rental machines. They can damage carpet.

6

I just rented a semi-pro machine, and I’m very disappointed. I can’t tell very well if it’s getting really clean when it’s wet, it’s very hot, it’s expensive, and I have a headache from the smell.

I’d rather just use the Resolve powder that you vacuum up, or just hire someone.

Expensive lesson.

7

I’ve used rental machines before and they worked ok.

A little over a year ago I hired a company to come in. They didn’t do a vey good job (like not moving furniture- I had to move it while those three buffoons waited) and were costly- about $150.00 after all the extras they found to charge me for.

About 6 weeks after the cleaners came, I needed to reclean an area (new puppy). I bought a Hoover Steamvac V2 and wound up doing the whole house. I have been very pleased. I was truly surprised at how much dirt that thing pulled after having had a (supposed) professional clean recently. I don’t think the attachments are all that great, but the machine itself was very worth the cost of about $300.00 (maybe it was $350.00- I don’t recall now) to me.

I clean the carpets about every six to eight weeks because I have alot of kids in and out. The dog is housetrained now.

Turns out all my neighbors want to borrow it all the time, but I quit lending it after having it returned dirty a couple of times. That’s just rude.

8

Cat piss can be horrendous, in my uncle’s rental property we removed the rugs and painted the floor before re carpeting , not to mention repainting the walls and ceiling. Still an odor of urine remained. I’d suggest a bio agent like “Natures Miracle” that breaks down urine and a black light to find it. If it is down in the padding no machine in the world will get rid of it

9

I always had better luck with the steam vac from U-Haul than with the Rug Doctor.

10

Thanks to all; I get the general picture now.

11

In my house, where the cat decided to use the formal living room as the backup litterbox, I tried using a Rug Doctor. (It worked fine on my bachelor apartment where the soil was mostly tracked-in dirt, cigarette ashes, and a a few spilled bongs and beers.)

The carpet now needs to be replaced.

The problem with Rug Doctors and pet urine is this: 99% of the urine goes straight thru the carpet layer, soaks into the pad, and seeps out. If, for some reason, the urine is never blotted up when still wet, then you have a dime-sized spot on the carpet, and a serving-platter sized stain from hell in the pad underneath.

Now, when you make a pass with the rug doctor what happens? Well, normally when you run the rug doctor across a point on the floor, the jets spray the spot, then the brushes agitate the carpet fiber, and then the powerful vacuum sucks up the dirty water into the tank, leaving a clean spot.

However, when you have cat piss soaked into the pad underneath, what happens? First you soak the carpet with rug doctor juice, just enough to dampen the pad and reactivate the months-old urine, now extra pungent. Then the brushes come along to guarantee extra good contact between the pad and the carpet. Finally the vacuum sucks the rug doctor juice back into the tank, drawing the urine up from the pad and leaving it in the carpet fibers.

I didn’t figure this all out until after the first time I rented a Rug Doctor and ran it across the affected parts of the carpet. It seemed to do a wonderful job at first. Then the drawn-up urine discolored the carpet within 24 hours, leaving big smelly orange streaks. So then I began to form a mental picture of what was happening, so I rented the machine again, and just used it without detergent, going over and over and over and over the stains to try and rinse out as much urine as I could. Then I made a couple of passes with detergent.

Same overall effect, in the long run.

Now I’m working up the ambition to pull up the carpet, disinfect the slab underneath and replace the pad. I’m hoping that before I replace the pad, I can lay the carpet down and get the stain out.

But I’m not counting on it.

12

Bughuntter the problem you are experiening is known as browning, it’s quite common. As I mentioned in that eralier thread underprowered carper machines make the problem worse every time you use them. The problem can usually be cured simply by using the correct chemicals. You could try buying some browning tretament from your local wholesaler and having another rin with the home machine, but you’d be better off to get a profession to treat it for you.