How deep is your clean?

Paul Fildes, marketing manager at Rug Doctor discusses the benefits of a deep cleaned carpet and how the service can be included in cleaning contracts

Carpets are often one of the most expensive purchases both for business premises and for homeowners, so prolonging their life with a regular deep clean makes commercial sense. Yet while vacuuming can be completed within minutes, deep cleaning a carpet has traditionally been a cumbersome and expensive task, with drying time alone taking up to half a day.

Vacuuming only takes the dirt off the surface of the carpet, leaving them looking dull, flat and matted without a regular wet extraction deep clean. This is amplified in commercial heavy traffic areas, where hundreds of people may potentially pass over the carpet each day.

Rug Doctor believes that the best deep carpet cleaners use wet extraction technology and vibrating brush technology rather than rollers to agitate the pile, alongside specially developed chemicals to lift marks and stains out of the carpet. How often a company deep cleans carpet, upholstery and furnishings depends on frequency of use, but in a heavily used commercial setting this can be as little as every month.

Machines and products specially designed to ensure carpets dry quickly are also a solution for companies when restoration of traffic flow is of the essence. Machines like Rug Doctor's Quick Dry Mighty Pro offer companies a high performance, reliable, low-cost and time saving option helping facilities managers meet the high standards of floor care cleanliness required without compromising on quality.

On the wide track Besides saving time with quick drying formulas, wide track machines are also available to help commercial cleaners cover a large surface area quickly. For large areas, such as lobbies or expansive hallways, a wide track machine such as Rug Doctor Pro Widetrack Quick Dry does the job. With a capacity that's nearly 30 per cent more than the Rug Doctor Mighty Pro and with a 16 per cent wider cleaning path, users get much faster cleaning with fewer refills.

Businesses looking to make substantial cost savings will see significant benefits by purchasing a professional deep cleaning machine, particularly machines with wide track or quick dry capabilities. By ensuring regular maintenance of carpets and soft furnishings, companies will prolong the lives of their floors.

Integrated services Traditionally, carpet cleaning has been offered as a separate service, not integrated into a domestic or commercial offering but rather done by specialist cleaning contractors. Daily Poppins, a franchise cleaning service that serves fifty areas around the UK was one of the first companies to recognise the need to integrate carpet cleaning into its cleaning portfolio. In 2008, the company made the bold step to offer carpet cleaning as part of its service using solely Rug Doctor products and now, nearly half of the franchise areas have a carpet and upholstery cleaning facility.

'The carpet cleaning side of the business has been incredibly successful,' explains Peter Akehurst, the company's head of carpet care. 'We chose Rug Doctor products because of ease of use, the quality of the product and portability. When we started the pilot four years ago we trialled similar carpet cleaners from lesser known brands and found them to be more expensive and less effective. We wanted to use a quality name that our customers would recognise and also liked that the machines came with a range of chemicals.

'We are fully accredited and certified by Rug Doctor and we train and certify all of our cleaners in the franchise network. The Rug Doctor Pro Wide Track Quick Dry machines offer a high standard of cleaning and have helped the company become a "one stop shop"