What Carpet Is Best For Houses With Kids?

A home with small children is a busy home and keeping it clean can be a monumental task, not to mention things wearing out all along. One of those things that may wear out is your carpeting but getting new carpet is not always a financial feasibility for most of us. So we must make what we have last and while it is a challenge it can be done.

The first thing to making your carpet last for as long as possible is to buy a good quality carpet to start with. Kids are rough on everything, especially flooring, so stain resistant carpeting is a must. Carpets comes in four types of fiber or a combination of the four. Here we offer a quick look at those choices and why they are, or are not, what you need with children.

Nylon Fiber

Since the 1960s, nylon fiber carpet has been used because it is durable and versatile. However it is not stain resistant without some type of treatment when installed. Nylon carpet is long lasting, but also most expensive.

Polypropylene Fiber

This carpet will hold its color and is stain resistant. However, it will wear down quicker than nylon, thus losing its shape quick. As such, it is inexpensive, thus making it the most affordable.

Polyester Fiber

A soft carpet that is stain resistant and keeps it color well. It too though, will wear down quick and is not recommended for high traffic areas, which with kids, is the whole house.

Polytrimethylene Terephthalate Fiber

This carpet is a polyester fiber type that is not soil or stain resistant without special treatment after installation.

In Your Bathroom Floor Go With Wall-To-Wall Rugs

One of the latest designs in bathrooms is covering a tiled floor with wall-to-wall small bathmats. So how is this a great idea? Well if you don't like cold bathroom floors in the winter, but you don't like carpeting because it gets nasty in the bathroom, this new trend takes care of that!

However, you don't want to just buy any bathroom rugs, you want to make sure you get the right kind that will do the trick. You want it to absorb, but not soak all the way through, so Olefin is the better choice and if you want to make this flooring permanent, use an indoor/outdoor adhesive and is water-resistant.

A short pile is best and even if you already have carpeting, you can still do the wall-to-wall rug thing because will absorb all the excessive wetness and the carpeting won't get nasty. If you are putting these rugs on top of tile or wood, make sure each one has non-skid rubber backing for safety.

For the bathroom with carpeting already, before you lay your wall-to-wall rugs, have a professional carpet cleaning performed. You want it to be clean and fresh underneath so that there isn't any dampness or dirty that can mildew and grow mold.

Summer Is Winding Down – Get Your Carpet Ready For Winter

Summer is dwindling to a close now and before long the guests won't be coming and the kids will be back to school. On your list of things to do in getting the kids ready for school, the last thing on there should be get the carpets cleaned.

Why? Well, summer is a busy time. Kids home all day, guests in and out. The foot traffic is heavy and your carpets have taken a beating. Even though there were the weekly vacuuming chores for the kids, or even if you do it yourself, the dirt and grime that gets worked into the fibers is still there.

Before winter gets here and locks everyone up inside for endless weeks, take the time now to get your carpeting professionally cleaned. This will not only get the dirt and grime down deep into the fibers, but it also gets rid of bacteria and germs that you and your family will be breathing in. You may be thinking you'll just rent one of those machines and do it yourself, but when not done right or if the machine isn't working right, can only bury the dirt and grime down even further.

With the dirt and grime buried down deeper and deeper, it makes a good place for more bacteria, dirt, germs and grime to keep building up. Your carpeting will start to look dingy and lose its color too. However, the equipment that professional carpet cleaners like American Cleaning and Restoration can pull up all that nasty stuff and make your floors as well as your whole home healthier.

Be Careful Using Plain Water To Clean Your Furniture

The kids have been home and they've had friends in and out all summer. Maybe you've had guests staying a few days here and there as well. With that going on, the chances of something getting spilled on a chair or your sofa is pretty high. If you attempted to clean it up with plain water, you may have just made it worse.

A popular fabric on furniture right now is Viscose, or you may know it as Rayon. It is manmade from natural materials that include wood pulp, which is similar to cotton. It is nearly pure cellulose and has been around for what seems like forever. Viscose gives furniture a high sheen pile fabric that feels good and looks good.

The downside to viscose is that when it comes in contact with any form of water, drinks, wet hands, etc., the fibers of the fabric swell and stay swollen. The spot becomes even more visible because Viscose fibers that have been in contact with water remain swollen because they reflect light. This will make the spot stand out massively more so than the rest of the furniture that didn't get wet. That spot now looks a different color permanently and when viscose fibers become wet, they become 40% weaker as well.

So what do you do to clean this type of furniture? A steam cleaner can be your best friend when you own furniture with viscose fabric. The main purpose of these machines is to clean floors, but some come with attachments for cleaning upholstery too. However, steam is made of water and if not done properly can make the matter even worse. You could even ruin your furniture completely if not careful.

Depending on how old your furniture is, how long you plan to keep your furniture, and how bad the wet spots are, it may be in your best interest to call a professional service such as American Cleaning and Restoration. We not only have the experience, knowledge, and skills to clean your viscose furniture, but we also have the proper equipment.

Got Chlorine On Your Floors?

For all intents and purposes, chlorine is a protector from bacteria when we're inside the pool. However, when it makes it way inside the house. That can be bad news and could very well happen when the kids are home during the summer. American Cleaning and Restoration offers the following tips to get rid of those stains if that does happen:

Chlorine Stains on Acetate, Acrylic Fabric, Burlap, Cotton, Linen, Modacrylic, Nylon, Olefin, Polyester, Rayon, Silk, Spandex and Wool:

Apply a stain remover immediately to loosen the chlorine and then flush the stain with a mixture of 1 teaspoon sodium thiosulfate and 1 quart water. Use caution while handling the sodium thiosulfate to avoid inhaling it, contact with eyes, or digesting any. Once the stain is neutralized, flush with water to remove the chemicals.

If the stain is still present, combine 1/4 teaspoon Rit Color Remover in 1/2 cup cool water and with a sponge use light strokes, working out from the center then flush with clear water.

Chlorine Stains on Acrylic Plastic, Asphalt, Cork, Linoleum, Masonry Tile, Plexiglas, Vinyl Tile:

This chlorine stain must be treated immediately because it will bleach the color out if left. Wipe up immediately and using a damp, sudsy cloth, sponge the surface. Rinse with clear water and wipe dry.

Chlorine Stains on Leather, Suede, Vinyl Clothing, Vinyl Wallcovering:

Any chlorine on these surfaces is permanent and cannot be removed. If you are not successful with any of these removal tips, call a qualified carpet cleaning service like American Cleaning and Restoration immediately. We have equipment and products as well as proven methods to remove most stains or dye the carpet almost to its original color.

Kids Are Home For Summer – House Is A Mess!

During the summer, it’s pretty normal for a family's home to get a little messy. The kids are home all day with friends in and out. They stay up late and get up late. Things just seem to pile up and nothing is cleaned. The floors are often the first thing to show this activity, or lack thereof, especially the areas that have a lot of traffic. American Cleaning and Restoration knows this all too well and offers a few suggestions to help get things in order now and keep them that way till school starts.

Make Cleaning Fun!

Okay, that may sound like something that just isn't going to happen, but if you can get the family in in team mode with each team having 15 minutes to complete their task, it can be fun! Winner gets choose what's for lunch and losers have to fix lunch!

De-clutter!

If your home is like every other family's, your den is probably the most used common area by everyone. Overnight the clutter just appears, or so it seems. When you just need to “tidy up” the area, vacuum only the areas of floor that have a high volume of traffic every day and do the whole floor just once a week. The same goes for dusting and wiping down the hardwood floors. Vacuum first then mop so you get the dust and lint that are stirred up by vacuuming.

Freshen the throw blankets and throw pillows off the chairs and sofa with a dryer sheet in the dryer on the air cycle setting. Take that stack of mail that's been piling up and throw away the piles of junk mail (after checking for valuable coupons!) and do a quick straightening on the coffee and end tables.

Family Chores!

Once you have the house cleaned and back in order, give each member of the family a daily chore. By doing these little things each day, you will have a clean house without bogging down the summer time fun! The week before school starts, call American Cleaning and Restoration and schedule a deep down carpet cleaning as well as your drapes and furniture! Getting the house freshened up before winter sets in will be one step to a healthy and clean home.

Summertime Crafts and Carpeting Don't Always Mix

Summer is here and the kids are going to be home most days, so there is the issue of keeping them busy and entertained. You'll have days at an amusement park or the local city park and you'll have days, like rainy days, that they'll be stuck in the house looking for things to do. They'll only be satisfied with DVD movies for so long, then they are going to get out those left over paints from art class.

You walk in to a room and not only do they have a wonderful masterpiece they've created for you to place on the refrigerator, but they also left somewhat of a masterpiece on the carpet too! Before you explode or faint, BIBO (Breath In, Breath Out) and let American Cleaning and Restoration provide you some tips to cleaning that mess up.

First identify the paint type. Did your little Rembrandt use and oil-based paint or a water-based acrylic paint? What's the difference? Well an acrylic or water-based paint are designed to be water soluble, which if your little artist used paint from an elementary grade, is most likely what kind of paint you have on your carpet. However, if it was an older kid's paint, it most likely is an oil-based paint and will be a little more difficult to remove.

After you have identified the type of paint, read the label on the paint package. While both acrylic and water-based paint mean any non-washable fabric that suffered are probably headed to the rag box in the garage, carpet and furniture may be saved. First, scrape up as much of the paint as possible and blot with an absorbent, clean towel that you don't care about. It’s important to keep the paint stain moist. If the paint has already dried, brush off what you can with a hard-bristled brush. Next, add soapy water or a paint remover and scrape off the remaining paint. Spray the area with water and, with a clean towel, blot with rubbing alcohol.

Keep repeating these steps until the stain is removed. If you have a large paint stain, soak it with water and
lay clean towels over the stain then blot before applying the above method. If the paint stain is from a water-based paint, another solution we suggest is apply soap, turpentine, and water to the stain while still soft. If you don't find the stain until its hardened, use the same brushing procedure described above and then apply turpentine to soften. If the paint stain is wet, do not use liquid paint remover!

If none of these work, give us a call a professional carpet cleaner like American Cleaning and Restoration before you get quotes on new carpet! We have the equipment and products along with experience that will get most stains out.