How to clean a carpet cheaply?

HappyMJ · 29 October 2015 at 10:03AM

karakus wrote: »

thanks for the links, very useful :beer:

regarding Rug Doctor. don't know if I can use it as I live in a small property (very narrow stairs and my room is upstairs) amd the machine might be a struggle to take up. plus I live with my landlord and pretty sure he will disapprove, he's a bit of a loner and doesn't want people round the house !

Regarding Bicarb, is it actually safe for all carpets? mine is brown/oriental-ish style, not dark. it might be easier to sprinkle bircarb in the morning, then hoover it at night, would people recommend that?

Rug Doctor machine is 16kg. As long as you are fit enough and can carry several bags of shopping then you should be able to lift that up stairs. It's 65cm wide. There's not many stairs that are narrower than that. Most stairs are around 80cm wide so you shouldn't have any trouble. The minimum accepted width for a flight of loft stairs is 60cm wide but you can turn the machine on it's side as it's only 30cm on it's other dimension. It will go up any flight of stairs.

Bicarb is safe for all carpets. http://www.wikihow.com/Deodorize-Carpet-With-Baking-Soda Note step 7 though. You should repeat this monthly.

CathA · 29 October 2015 at 11:01AM

Try putting washing powder over the carpet, leave it overnight and vaccuum it up in the morning. I've done that before but make sure you don't get it wet!!

rosie383 · 30 October 2015 at 4:10PM

Just checked the bottle of the Aggie Mackenzie stuff I used. It was the Power Stain Remover that did a great job. Ran out of it and used the Carpet and Upholstery cleaner one on the same carpet after someone (who shall remain nameless!) kicked over a glass of squash on my newly scrubbed bit! Didn't do as good a job as the power stain one.

teddysmum · 30 October 2015 at 5:00PM

If you want to share a RugDoctor, some hire places (Homebase, Asda included) let you hire for 48 hours for little more than the daily rate.

We were so impressed by a hire machine that we bought one (blue version) and found that the RugDoctor brand chemical gives better results.

My husband did the living room carpet at 3pm on Sunday and it was virtually dry by 5pm.