Freshening up: carpet cleaning & interior maintenance requires informed decision-making to keep facilities at their best.

Are your carpets really as clean as they could be? With heightened concerns about indoor air quality, not to mention the importance of keeping a club's interior spaces looking their best, a regular program of thorough carpet cleaning will effectively remove harmful dirt, bacteria, pollens, chemicals, and tobacco residues that cannot be eliminated through regular vacuuming alone. Only a deep cleaning will separate out the contaminants that become enmeshed in the fibers of your carpet.

As a major expense for a facility, it also makes good economic sense to maintain the structural integrity and appearance of your club's carpets to the best possible level, ensuring that you get the maximum life out of the club's investment. According to an industry study conducted by carpet manufacturer Milliken & Co., as many as 60 percent of facility manufacturers replace their carpets not because of wear and tear, but simply because they look dingy.

Carpet Cleaning Methods

Aside from routine vacuuming--which should be your most prominent line of defense against carpet soiling and damage--there are several major methods of carpet cleaning. Most cleaning systems require some amount of moisture, but how that moisture is controlled determines whether the system falls under the general headings of "wet extraction" or "dry extraction" (also called "low moisture" extraction).

As one of the more popular methods used by commercial cleaning services, steam/hot water extraction cleaning works by jetting a solution into the carpet at between 500 and 1,000 psi, which is then vacuumed. This system is oftentimes hailed as the only way of cleaning a carpet all the way to its base, and is therefore the most efficient process in soil removal.

One of the potential drawbacks associated with wet extraction methods, however, is a term known as "overwetting." If a carpet becomes soaked as the result of too much water being used on the carpet, microbial growth can result. Additionally, there could be a weakening of the structural integrity of the carpet due to damage on the backings and seam. Another negative that can occur in the presence of too much moisture is that long-dormant odors can end up being released. In a club environment, this could mean that the smell of old cigar ashes and dropped glasses of wine could end up resurfacing.

Furthermore, when water is sprayed on a carpet, gravity will pull it--along with any soil that's in the carpet--all the way down to the base of the carpet. In this situation it's vital that the operator knows what he or she is doing in order to recover all of that material back out of the carpet. Since most commercial cleaning services use truck-mounted hot water apparatus to clean carpets, beware of cheaply priced operators--you may not be getting the best possible work for your money.

In the realm of "dry" carpet cleaning--methods that clean carpets while controlling moisture at various levels--there are several different approaches:

Absorbent Powder--A dry extraction method that uses a sponge-like product impregnated with small quantities of detergent and water. The product holds the soil until it is extracted by vacuuming. The advantage of this method is that it cleans without streaking the carpet, and depending upon wear, the absorbent powder may be able restore the carpet's original color. A potential disadvantage of this system is that the sponges could potentially be difficult to get back out of the carpet.

Bonnet/Spin (Absorbent) Pad--Bonnet/pad cleaning is a low-moisture process that uses circular nylon and cotton bonnets or pads to clean carpets. The nylon pad is designed to agitate the fibers of the carpet, loosening the various bits of dirt debris, while the other pad--made of cotton terrycloth--absorbs the material and provides the cleaning action. While this method does clean the tops and sides of the fiber, it usually fails to reach the heavy soil located at the base of the carpet. There is also no rinsing action with this type of cleaning.

Rotary Shampoo--This approach utilizes a rotary floor machine, as in the bonnet method, but adds to it a liquid tank filled with cleaning solution and a scrubbing brush in place of the pads. The shampoo is dispensed from the tank into the carpet and is then extracted with a wet/dry vacuum. The shampoo can also be allowed to dry into a residue before being vacuumed. The positives associated with this carpet cleaning technique are high rates of productivity, affordability, and the benefits of excellent agitation and deep cleaning. In some instances, though, there is the potential for sticky or powdery residuals that are left behind. Generally speaking, rotary shampoo is used for a deeper level of cleaning than the bonnet method, which is considered more of an interim solution.

The line of carpet cleaning equipment from Von Schrader utilizes low-moisture technology "that dispenses liquid as a dry foam," said Gary Parker, vice president and general manager of Von Schrader. The LMX unit, designed to clean around 1,000 square feet of carpet, "is ideal for a locker room type of area," he added. The Mach 12, a larger unit that extracts material into two separate tanks, "can clean up to 10,000 square feet in an hour."

A unique aspect to the Von Schrader equipment's design is that "the cylindrical nylon brush can be specified to various pile heights," Parker said, which gives clubs the flexibility to adjust the machines to their specific needs.

One example of a true dry carpet cleaning method is the HOST Dry Extraction Carpet Cleaning System. "The HOST system is a method of cleaning that controls the amount of moisture/chemicals during the cleaning process so as to effectively remove dirt while leaving the carpet dry and virtually free of soil," said Geoff Greeley, director of marketing and training of Racine Industries, the company that manufactures the HOST Dry Extraction Carpet Cleaning System and is also the parent company of Von Schrader. "The key word in the description is 'extraction.' Some other methods try to control moisture during the process, but don't accomplish the efficient removal of the dirt. This leaves a great quantity of residues that promote faster resoiling."

According to Greeley, dirt in a carpet can be divided into two basic categories: dry dirt and oily/greasy dirt. Dry dirt represents the biggest portion of dirt in a carpet--as much as 85 percent.

"It's important to remove this dry dirt before applying cleaning chemicals to a carpet," he said. "The HOST system uses machines with counter-revolving brushes that lift and raise the pile of carpet while removing the deep-down dirt. Only then is a controlled amount of cleaning chemistry applied to remove the oily, greasy dirt that a vacuum can't."

As mentioned earlier, one of the major disadvantages of heat/steam extraction is the risk of applying too much water to a carpet, thus causing overwetting. However, Greeley pointed out that when considering a dry system, there are also associated cost advantages. "There is no dirty water to dispose of and no water to heat, which saves on energy costs," he said. "With dry extraction there are savings in labor and overhead that offset the slightly higher material costs as compared to wet cleaning."

Maintenance Plan

A carpet cleaning program is only as good as the planning that goes into maintaining a regular cleaning schedule. Aside from the cleaning equipment itself, it's also important to do the little things that help minimize the amount of dirt that ever comes into contact with your club's carpet in the first place. "A complete carpet maintenance plan will first include simple strategies such as placing walk-off mats at entrances," Parker said. "You'll need to analyze foot traffic on a monthly basis to determine your high traffic lanes. Carpets should be vacuumed on a daily basis, while your heavy traffic lanes should have a deeper cleaning on a weekly basis."

Greeley added, "Carpets should be cleaned based on traffic and usage. A very busy entrance to a hotel, for instance, requires more cleaning than the executive suite on the 20th floor, due precisely to the difference in traffic and soiling."

To help assist clients with their carpet maintenance plans, HOST has developed what they call the "CAMP" system. "CAMP stands for Computer Aided Maintenance Plan, and it is a management tool designed to help a facility manager manage a carpet maintenance program inside a facility. It is made up of color-coded diagrams of the building's floor plans showing where and when to vacuum, spot remove, and clean the carpet in order to achieve maximum appearance retention of the carpet installation" Greeley said. The color-coded diagrams detail cleaning and vacuum frequencies based on foot traffic, usage, and location of dirt and soil problems. The program also includes a cost summary that details the labor and material costs for a full year of carpet maintenance.

The first step, though, for improving carpet maintenance is to analyze the little things that your club might be doing wrong in this area. "The biggest mistake is to underestimate the importance of vacuuming the carpet. The majority of the dirt in the carpet is dry and is best removed by vacuuming," Greeley said. "The reason this is overlooked is because carpet has a great ability to hide the dirt; it falls into the structure of the carpet toward the base and is less visible, giving the appearance of a clean carpet. Since the carpet looks clean, staff often believes vacuuming or cleaning is not required; however, by the time the true soiling begins to show, the job is much more difficult."