Cleaning carpets well with a Vax

Cottage_Economy

Can anyone give me any little tips and tricks on how to clean a carpet with a Vax properly and in the most efficient way possible?

While my mother in law is on holiday I’m going across this weekend on the sly to clean her landing, stairs, hall and living room carpet with my vax. The carpet is a light green wool short pile – or rather was light green – and is now light grey and very down-trodden in the areas of high traffic. No smells, no stains and no pet accidents of any kind though. Just general grime from wear and tear over the years.

I know it makes her unhappy and embarrassed looking at it so I’d love to do a really good job and surprise her when she comes back. Although the carpet is a good 20 years old, she hasn’t got the money for new one or to get a professional in to clean them and neither do hubby and I - I’m being made redundant at the end of the month so I have nothing but my time, my Vax, and some carpet cleaner to put towards getting this done.

I’ve had the vax since Christmas but haven’t actually used it to wash carpets yet, although I have used a vax donkey’s years ago so am confident I’ll be able to operate it fine once I’ve read the instructions and familiarised myself with it.

1. Should I pretreat the areas to be cleaned with something e.g. Vanish/ dilute carpet cleaner/ washing crystals etc etc applied using a spray bottle?

2. Do you get better results washing with warm, hot or cold tap water?

3. How much detergent is best? I was thinking as little as possible so the carpets don’t get too foamy and hard to rinse, and if necessary wash them a couple of times.

4. As the living room carpet is 33 feet by 14 feet should I run a dehumidifier as it dries out to stop the room becoming too damp?

Any other suggestions to help make this go smoothly?

Stooby2

The Vax and the detergent will have instructions on the best way to deal with heavily soiled carpets. Generally, a light pre-soak of the worst areas with the detergent & water seems to work.

The carpets will look very dirty after the first few passes and the dirt is lifted from the base of the pile, but keep at it and they'll come clean eventually.

And keeps doors/windows open as far as possible to deal with all the moisture. A dehumidifier may well be a good idea to leave on overnight.

daveyjp

I wash our lounge carpet (also about 20 years old) about once a year using a very basic Vax machine. I use a capful of detergent in luke warm water. The advice is to do the job in sections and I did the first time it took ages, it also used a lot of fluid. I now cover the whole carpet in one container of fluid, leave it for 10 minutes then vac up once, leave it again then vac again.

I did ours last week and due to the warm weather it was dry within a couple of hours. I advise trying to do it when it is a warm dry day so it dries quicker.

Cottage_Economy

Thanks Stooby and Davejp

Do you think its possible that i'll be able to get the pile lifted again in the bad areas?

It's been trodden pretty flat over the years. Even partially lifted would be an improvement.