The Ultimate Guide to Carpet Cleaning Costs
Understanding Methods, Factors, and Average Prices
Finding out how much it costs to clean the carpets in your house is a horror story that often leaves most of us locked in confusion.
Professional carpet cleaners can be expensive, but they offer excellent services and advantages over DIY methods.
In this article, we’ll answer commonly asked questions regarding professional service and introduce a few do-it-yourself alternative options.
Benefits of Cleaning Your Carpet
- Cleaner house for better health
- Superior indoor air quality
- The longer life span for your clean carpets
- Improves hygiene and comfort levels of your home space
- Enhances visual appeal of interior décor
Factors that Affect the Cost of Carpet Cleaning
Size of the carpet/number of rooms
An important element in calculating the cost of professional carpet cleaning is the size of your carpets. Any reputable cleaner will want to know the size and number of rooms you need to clean. It helps them to provide a more representative estimate. Most homeowners find that this knowledge plays an important role in making sure you get full value for your money when engaging in carpet cleaning services.
Type of carpet and type of fibres
The type of carpet your home has installed is another factor that affects the cost when you hire a professional carpet cleaner. The more durable and heavy-duty carpets, such as wool or nylon fibres. It typically requires a stronger cleaning solution or cleaning product and more thorough cleansing technique. On the other hand, light-weight carpets may need only light vacuuming or dry-cleaning using dry shampoo.
Condition of the carpet
Carpet condition plays an important role in determining the cost of cleaning. If your carpets are lightly stained and not too dirty, you may expect the overall cost to be lower. However, if there’s extensive staining or the carpet is heavily soiled due to pets, smoke, or other such activities. You may be looking at a considerably higher bill for stain treatment and additional carpet care.
Method of Cleaning
carpet steam cleaning involves applying pressurised hot water and specialised detergent solution or cleaning agent to your carpets. The detergent penetrates deep into the fibres of the carpets, loosening up dirt, and stubborn stains. It makes it much easier for the professional cleaner to extract them. This method of cleaning is very effective for getting rid of difficult and stubborn stains. Also for sanitising your carpets. It does take longer to dry than other methods though. Usually, around 8-10 hours compared to sometimes 1 hour or less when using other types of cleaning.
Additional Services
Additional services such as stain removal, deodorising and sanitising can also affect the total cost of carpet cleaning. Some professional carpet cleaners may offer these services on top of their standard package. But it tends to come at an additional cost.
Average Costs of Carpet Cleaning in Melbourne
Nowadays, professional carpet cleaning in Melbourne Australia can charge anywhere from around $100 up to as much as $300 per room or $10-15 per square metre of carpet for residential property. Commercial carpet cleaning costs around $40-60 per hour rate or $20-30 per square footage. Generally speaking, more standard packages will usually range from around $150-$250 for three rooms. It may also include other services such as deodorising, fabric protection, upholstery cleaning, and sanitising. However, the cost can vary wildly depending on the size of your carpet surface and the condition of the carpets. Also, the type of fibres involved.
Types of Cleaning Methods
Steam Carpet Cleaning
Hot water extraction (or steam cleaning carpet) is one of the most common types of professional carpet cleaning methods. It involves utilising pressurised hot water, detergent solution, and a powerful vacuum cleaner and steam cleaner to deep clean your carpets. The hot steam helps in loosening up dirt and grime from the carpet fibres. The powerful suctioning action removes it all away for good. While steam-cleaning can be somewhat expensive. Its deep-penetrating power makes it highly worth considering.
Shampoo Carpet Cleaning
Shampoo carpet cleaning is another popular method used by professional carpet cleaners. This method involves spraying a special shampoo solution on the carpets. It loosens up the dirt, oils, and other particles embedded into the fibres of your carpets. Afterward, a vacuum is used to extract this dirt and shampoo residue from your carpets. Furthermore, incorrect use can lead to improper finishing resulting in patches of wet spots or too much moisture in some parts of the carpet.
Dry Carpet Cleaning
Dry carpet cleaning is a low-moisture type of cleaning method that utilises a combination of dry, powdered chemicals on carpets. This leaves behind no water or any wet residue, making the drying time almost instantaneous. The only drawback here may be minimal penetration depth beneath the surface fibres of the carpet. It makes it somewhat less effective than other methods when dealing with severe dirt and stains. However, if you don’t want to make your carpets too wet then dry carpet cleaning could be a suitable option for you.
Encapsulated Carpet Cleaning
Encapsulated carpet cleaning is one of the latest methods to have been introduced in the carpet cleaning world. In this method, you spray specialised encapsulating chemicals on carpets that act like thumbtacks and latch onto dirt particles. This method can be great for tougher stains and is often considerably cheaper than steam-cleaning. Yet it may still require some dry time before you can use the carpets for full functionality.
Bonnet Cleaning
Bonnet cleaning is yet another type of professional carpet cleaning. It involves the use of a rotary machine to scrub cotton pads or bonnets onto carpets. It can be an effective method for light to moderate dirtiness. But may not be that useful when dealing with heavily soiled areas or stubborn stains. Plus, it can also take some time before the carpets are completely dry.
Professional Carpet Cleaning Services vs Do It Yourself
A good professional carpet cleaner will make sure that all dirt particles, dust mites, and dust are eliminated. It gives you incomparable cleaning results. They’re also aware of the requirements for different types of carpets and how they should be maintained properly over time. Plus, using specialised machinery to complete the task can ensure deeper penetration when dealing with tough stains. It could also help you in restoring some heavily soiled areas back to their original condition.
FAQs
What is the best type of carpet cleaning method?
It depends on your carpets’ needs and requirements. For most carpets, steam cleaning can do an excellent job at removing dirt and odours. Dry shampoo cleaning or encapsulated methods are great for lighter soiling or minimising drying time after cleaning.
Will professional carpet cleaners make my carpets look like new again?
Not necessarily. Some heavily soiled and stained spots won’t always be completely removed by a regular cleaning process. If this is a concern of yours then it may be wise to opt for deep cleaning services.
How long should I wait for my carpets to dry after professional carpet cleaning?
This depends on a variety of factors. On average it should take between 6-8 hours for the carpets to dry completely after a standard steam cleaning session. Other methods, such as bonnet cleaning and dry shampoo can require almost no drying time at all.
Conclusion
In conclusion, getting your carpets professionally cleaned can be a great way to ensure the long-term health of your home.
It also saves you from numerous housekeeping nightmares like most companies offer in the cleaning industry.
By familiarising yourself with different types of cleaning methods and their cost differences, you can make an informed decision.
Whichever route you take, we hope we’ve been able to provide useful information.
Also help you alleviate some carpet cleaning woes that were previously plaguing you.
