Well, you can, but it may not be worth your time or energy.
One of the most fascinating and important cleaning fundamentals that I have learned is the cleaning pie chart. This pie chart shows everything you need to know about what it takes to properly clean ANYTHING.
Simply put, in order clean and suspend soil, four pieces of the pie are considered–temperature, agitation, chemical action, and time. This is critical for when you hire a professional carpet cleaning company and a professional tile and grout cleaning company.
Temperature: The higher the temperature of the water or cleaning solution will help loosen and break down soil. This heat makes the soil molecules become hyperactive and loosen their grip to the surface.
Agitation: This can involve brushes, sanding screens, force, friction, etc in order to help force the soil off the surface that is being cleaned.Chemical Action: When looking at different chemical or cleaning solutions, all soil reacts very differently. Dry soil tends to be alkaline, so an acid cleaner does a better job at putting the soil in suspension, but on soft surfaces, the acid cleaner could do some damage, so one must be careful. Grease and oil tends to be acidic and needs a strong alkaline cleaner to release the soil and put it in suspension. The stronger the pH, typically makes the cleaning solution more effective.
Time: This is often the most overlooked part of the pie when it comes to a professional carpet cleaning company. Water over time will break down most soil and almost anything, even iron! However, waiting hours or even years isn’t a good use of time. When it comes to cleaning solutions, they need time to suspend the soil, so give these solutions a good 10-20 minutes to begin making progress and work effectively.
If one piece of the pie is decreased another piece must be increased to compensate. So, if we have a very effective cleaning solution or chemical, we would need to use less agitation. If we are using high heat and aggressive agitation, we would need less chemical.
This carpet picture is a great example of a professional carpet cleaner that didn’t understand this cleaning pie. Two days after this professional cleaner left, Bluegreen came in to properly clean this carpeting.
Contact us if you want a professional!