Getting rid of the previous owner's "smell"...

sortofok

Morrisons also do a nice jalfrezi:D

jennfercain

I was gonna rent one of those carpet cleaners for my new house but then I was told that once you've cleaned them they get really dirty really quickly, something to do with shampoo residue. Has anyone experienced this problem?

barrymung

my sisters neighbour cleans carpets and i asked him similar questions! the advice i got was that rental machines (rug dr etc) are generally a false economy.

with a rental machine it's quite likely you'll have residue left which will attract further dirt. in addition, the detergents supplied with rug dr are 'domestic strength' so aren't really strong enough to remove anything but light dirt.

if you employ the services of a professional carpet cleaner you won't have any dirt attracting residues left. In addition, he'll have more powerful, specialised chemicals at his disposal for removing almost all dirt and stains.

if employing a carpet cleaner though, ask for an 'all-inclusive' price. there are some dubious, cut price outfits out there armed with vaxes who will turn up to do the job and then treble the price with hidden extras.

anyway, here's a couple of his carpet cleaning videos that may be of interest:
http://www.youtube.com/profile?user=calmorecarpetcleanin

baz9239

I work within the carpet industry. Any carpet once it has been cleaned by any method will get dirtier quicker than when it was first new.

Most new carpets are protected by Scotchguard or similar which seals the carpet, when cleaned this protective seal is gone.

The only thing you can do to to lenghen the time in between cleans is to reseal the carpet with a similar product (rug doctor sell a product called carpet shield)

Many carpet cleaning firms may use big machines which stay fixed in their van and a long hose runs into your house. From my experience I do not think these systems are that great and do not clean deep enough into the carpet. Machines which have a brush that vibrates the pile are much better because it is dirt deep down in your carpet which can wear a carpet out. A carpet may look clean on the surface but dirt deep in the pile wears your carpet out, as when you walk on it the dirt is damaging the individual fibres of your carpet (Vacuming only cleans the top of the carpet).

Personally I think you could do alot worse than hiring a Rug Doctor as they are industrial strength machines and the detergent IS industrial strengh and also they take most of the water back out so you don't get left with soaking wet carpets.

My experience is that you have to read the instructions to the rug doctor carefully and clean the machine before and after use as I find sometimes the previous renter has not cleaned the machine and you get better results this way.

In my opinion Rug Doctors knock spots of Vaxs etc and most private carpet cleaning firms!

Currently Morrisons are renting them for £16.99 for 24hrs but B & Q have just started renting them for a little more at £19.98, however you will find at the B&Q stores all their machines are brand new ones so sometimes it might be worth paying a little more to get a top notch machine!:D

icklejulez

If it makes you feel any happier, we completed on our house a week last friday and as we were ripping the carpets up at weekend we found maggots throughout the underlay... And we'd been letting our kids walk over it! Just to think the house had been rented out previously!!!

palicia

just rip it up and scrub the floor. you might have wood floors underneath,sand them and varnish or paint them.

brock-cruse

eeewwwww maggots!!!!!! We are buying repo house and had considered getting a few carpets rug doctored!! (the rest we are going to skip!!!)...but the thought of maggots!!!! Might just bin the lot and make the kids wear shoes until we get sorted......so come on is it unusual to get maggots under the carpet? Its bad enough when we get them in the bin after not being emptied for 2 weeks .....

wnb

I own a care home for 28 residents and have owned a rug doctor for more than 10 years. They are fantastic little machines and when used correctly with the right product can get a carpet very clean.

I cant reccomend the rug doctor enough, if its just £13 to hire one for 24hrs then its well worth it.

baby_boomer

Zammo wrote: »

Eat a couple £2.99 microwave jalfrezi's from Somerfield

I nearly bought a house from an Indian couple where I think rewallpapering would have been needed to remove the smell of several hundred jalfrezis.

olibrofiz

Maggots (shiiiiver). I took up the carpet in the kitchen of my house when I moved in - it didn't smell too bad it was just that the dog, who's a real greedy guts, wouldn't touch any food that dropped onto it. We preferred to walk around on the concrete floor for a couple of months than live with the carpet.

Just personal choice what you want to do I guess. I hired a cleaner to do my M&D's carpet once while they were on hols once, bloody hard work!