The Best Way To Take Care Of Pet Stains On Your Carpet

While pets can be an enormous and lovable addition to any home, even the most house trained of pups can end up wreaking havoc on your carpets. So what is the best method of dealing with those stains in the immediate? Especially when you don’t want to leave any cleaning chemicals around that could put your pet in danger.

Believe it or not, a combination of vinegar and baking soda can be your best bet when it comes to pet stains. But the steps are what’s important here. Firstly, pour some vinegar on the stain, enough to soak the stain up, and then sprinkle some baking soda over it. If you put the baking soda first you’ll end up with a bubbly foamy mess (as I’m sure we all remember from junior high science class). But if you pour the vinegar first you avoid the overflowing reaction. Done the right way you’ll be able to hear the baking soda pop and crackle as it’s deodorizing the carpet while the vinegar absorbs the stain.

You’ll want to leave this for a day or two to the let stain be fully absorbed. It’s a good idea to put a bowl or some sort of covering over the stain to keep the foot traffic from kicking over your baking soda. But after about thirty six hours you can sweep up the baking soda and vacuum over the stain and voila, you’ll see a completely clean and fresh smelling section of carpet instead of the lingering remnants of a pet stain.

And while this method is all well and good for small stains here and there, anything larger is best treated by a team of carpet cleaning professionals like American Carpet Clean. They can handle your toughest pet stains and will do so with environmentally safe and non-toxic cleaning supplies that will be safe for even the smallest of puppies to be around.

Winter Care For Your Upholstered Furniture

Chances are you don't buy new furniture on a daily or weekly basis.  Most of us buy a living room suit once every 10 years, some of us even less often.  So in the meantime, it is important that you take care of this semi-major investment to keeping it looking good and in good shape. 

That means even during the holiday season and the cold, wet winter, you may need to take some extra caution and care. Here we offer a few  tips to help you preserve your upholstered furniture and keep it 'health' and new. 

As soon as there is a spill – wipe it up! Spills do not need to sit and soak in, this will only make it more difficult to get clean. As well, when furniture has a stain, it will accumulate even more dirt there. Dirt and grim build up only weakens the fiber of the fabrics which in turn, lessens the life span of our furniture. 

Flip the cushions weekly to retain their shape and keep them from getting permanent indentations. This should include changing the positions as well, meaning switch end cushions with the middle cushion on the couch, etc.  This is akin to rotating your car's tires.   

Keep your furniture out of direct sun light. This will fade your furniture quicker than you can image. If you do have your furniture placed in sunlight, rotate your furniture from time to time. Use a fabric protection like stain repellent and on furniture that gets heavy use, place washable covers over the arms, the back for protection.   

Not only is smoking bad for your health, it is not good for your upholstered furniture either. It leaves a foul smell and sticky, yellow coating on everything. If you have a smoker in the house, ask them to smoke outside. Or hire a professional furniture cleaner twice a year to keep your furniture fresh and healthy. 

With just a few extra steps you can keep you upholstered furniture healthy and live a long happy life with you and your family! 

Winter Care For Your Carpeting

Winter in this part of the country can play havoc on your home or offices carpet. With the ice, mud, salt and snow being tracked in, it will really begin to look old and worn quick. So do you wait till spring time to clean this up? Or should you clean in the mean time? 

Any professional flooring person will recommend that you  maintain your carpet with regular cleaning. While it may seem like a worthless effort, it is a must to keep your carpet 'healthy' and give it a long life. After all, replacing carpet is not cheap, but cleaning it is! 

When left alone, all that wetness along with the dirt, grim and salt will simply get pushed deep down in the fibers and begin to weaken the carpet not to mention, make it look dingy, dirty and dull. Think of the nastiness left there that you and your family are breathing in as well! 

The first thing you should is place door mats at every entrance of your home, inside and outside each door. These will pick up so much of that mess it's amazing. Whether you realize it or not, when people see a door mat, even kids, it is a natural reaction to wipe their feet. 

Make it a habit to shake those door mats at least once a day, more on snow days. Even though those mats are catching all that loose dirt, grim, mud and wet, when the door mat gets filled up, it just starts getting tracked into the rest of the house. 

Regardless of all this door mat effort, there will be some spots here and there. Those can be spot cleaned with a damp rag and dish soap, blot, do not rub the stain. Rubbing will only spread the stain and push it deeper into the fibers. Then blot with a clean towel. Wet carpet should be dried as soon as possible to prevent mold and mildew. Use a clean towels to blot it dry, a hair dryer or if you have  shop-vac, even better. 

Be patient and take a deep breath. Spring is not that far away and you can schedule an appointment with a professional carpet cleaner now to be ahead of the rush! 

Tips For Removing Soot From Your Carpet

With winter in full swing more and more families are switching their fireplaces to add a little extra warmth and atmosphere to their cold nights. But electronic or not, fireplaces produce soot, and that means your carpet can become a victim of soot stains.

Soot stains are incredibly tricky and can become ground into the fibers of your carpet very easily. On the whole you want a professional to take care of any soot stain that you find on your carpet or upholstery, but until they can come in and clean, here are some tips for mitigating the damage.

1. Sprinkle some baking soda or corn starch over the stained area. Both are absorbent powders and can help soak up any loose or surface particles.

2. After letting it sit for an hour, vacuum the powder with a vacuum cleaner.

3. Moisten a clean cloth with some dry cleaning fluid and blot the stain area to moisten the area, and help lift some of the stain. Allow the area to dry.

Be careful when blotting the stain because allowing too much moisture into the stain can cause it to run and spread. Anything that’s left to the stain should be handled by one of our professional cleaning crews who have the experience, skills and equipment to get these difficult types of stains out completely.

Red Wine Stain Removal

Out of all the stains your carpet can suffer, red wine is probably the worst. For the most part you’re going to need a professional carpet cleaner to get a particularly bad red wine stain out, but here are some ways you can mitigate the initial damage once it happens.

Firstly, you’re going to want to blot the stain with a clean white cloth. Don’t wipe and risk grinding the wine into the fibers of the carpet, just blot the stain to soak up any excess wine. And make sure you’re using alternate side of the cloth so you’re always blotting with a clean section of cloth.

Next pour a little water over the stain and continue blotting. The water will help dilute the wine and make soaking up the stain easier. But be sure not to pour too much water. You don’t want to waterlog the carpet and end up spreading the stain further.

Now you’re going to want to make a baking soda paste. With a 3-1 ratio of baking soda to water, mix up some baking soda paste and spread it directly on the stain. Wait until the paste dries and then vacuum up the paste. A good majority of the coloration should left with it.

The remains of the stain can be handles a number of more traditional ways. You can attempt using a carpet stain remover, but be aware that not all carpets respond the same way to chemical stain removers. So it might be time to call in some professionals if the stain is still lingering. Luckily American Carpet Clean is easy to get in contact with to get a free quote.

The Holiday Hordes Are Coming!

With the holiday season rapidly approaching it’s hard to not to find ourselves drowning in the stress of the season. On top of all your regular responsibilities you've got to handle gift shopping, grocery shopping for holiday meals, and biggest of all you've got to get your house ready for any number of family and friends who will be coming over to stay.

But while we can’t help you in finding the perfect gift, we can help ease the stress of preparing your home for the oncoming holiday horde. Let American Carpet Clean handle the preparation and cleaning of your home for the holidays. Our Tulsa carpet cleaning crews are experts in making your carpets, kitchen and bathroom tiles and furniture looks it’s best for when everyone arrives. Your home will be the envy of your family once we’re done with it.

And after the festivities are over, and the family has all left, we can also handle to mess they left behind. We can clean the mud and grim the kids tracked on the carpet, our tile and grout services can take care of any damage done to the kitchen and our furniture cleaners can handle the wine stain your brother in-law left on the couch. And we can do all of this for some of the most affordable prices in Why make the holidays harder when American Carpet Clean can make it so easy? Lose the stress and give yourself space to appreciate the time you get to spend with your loved ones. We can be the gift you give yourself this season.

Helping You Deal With Seasonal Allergies

The Asthma and Allergy Foundation (AAFA) has released its 2013 Top 20 Fall Allergy Capitals in
America, and Oklahoma managed to make the dubious list twice. Oklahoma City ranked tenth with
Tulsa shortly behind at fifteenth. (see for yourself at http://allergycapitals.com/) While this should come as no surprise to anyone whose lived here it doesn't change the fact that we all have to find way to deal with the excessive ragweed, mold and pollen that can cause such severe allergies and asthma symptoms.

Luckily American Cleaning and Restoration can help you fight off the unrelenting horde of allergens that assault you every year. Our carpet cleaning services can take care of pollen and ragweed that get tracked in from outdoors and get infused into the fabric of your carpet or rug. And as the temperatures drop from the muggy and humid summer it gives us an damp and misty fall season with the perfect conditions for mold to start festering in your home. But our expert Tulsa carpet cleaning teams can stem the tide and by cleaning your carpet and furniture, clearing away old mold and preventing new mold from setting in. And as an added bonus our cleaning services also manage to take care of any dust mites and their eggs that are often found in furniture, and can cause so many asthma symptoms in so many people.

Let American Cleaning and Restoration help you and your family breathe easier this fall by keeping your carpets and furniture fresh and clean. Call 918-461-1280 for a free quote for your home or office.