Carpet Cleaning Guide for Pet Owners
Pet owners are lucky to have lifetime companions living with them and making their days joyful and fun. Dogs and cats are loved by many, but along with the great many benefits of having a cute pet with you, you need to be extra cautious about the hygiene in your home.
The best way to tackle stains, urine and pet hair is by cleaning it as soon as it appears. Do this regularly and immediately after accidents. Pet hair can be a huge problem and the allergens can spread fast in the air and create health issues. If you want to learn how to take care of your home properly as a proud pet owner, keep reading. This carpet cleaning guide is the solution to your problems.
What are the most urgent and frequent problems for Pet Owners?
The most common problems associated with pets at home are the following:
- Pet hair accumulated on all surfaces
- Urine smell
- Odour on your carpets
- Stubborn stains on carpets
Get Rid of the Nasty Pet Hair Accumulating Everywhere
Both cats and dogs tend to shed their hair all over the place wherever they are, which can eventually become a problem. While you may not notice this as something alarming in the beginning, over time you will come across pet fur. It can spread on your sofa, carpets, floor and almost everywhere. Carpets are favourite places for fur to pile and if you do nothing about it, it can spoil them and spread bacteria around the room. You might try to vacuum a trail of hair from your carpet. Unfortunately, this is not effective and can even clog the vacuum cleaner, that’s why it isn’t a solution.
To tackle the problem, make a huge DIY lint roller. You can do this by wrapping masking tape around a paint roller you don’t need and attaching it to an old mop handle or broom. Use this device as a huge lint roller to attach the pet hair from the carpet before vacuum cleaning it.
Another option to collect pet hair before vacuum cleaning is using a rubber-bristled carpet rake and applying it to rake the area. Then, you can hoover the carpet well. We recommend you also to vacuum it 3 times per week or more using a HEPA-filtered vacuum cleaner, which in the best case should be bagless. This machine will help you reduce the spreading of pet hair. Onto your carpets and upholstery.
Eliminate Urine from Your Carpets
The main rule when accidents happen on your carpet is to make sure to react immediately. First, soak the urine with a terry cloth towel to remove the moisture. Then, clean the area using several drops of dishwashing detergent dissolved in warm water. You can use the mixture to remove the urine stain. The last stage of urine elimination is rinsing the place with a clean towel and water. To protect your carpet from further soiling, bloat it with a mixture of 2 parts water and 1 part white vinegar. Cover the area with paper towels and heavy objects such as books or others on top to absorb the moisture. Replace them as needed until the carpet is completely dry.
Treating Pet Stains Properly
Getting rid of pet stains from feces, urine, vomit and blood from carpets and upholstery can be a tough task and a real challenge for all pet owners. One way to solve the problem is hiring a professional carpet cleaner to deal with them. One thing you need to avoid is using steam cleaning machines on your stained carpets. These can make the smudges even harder to remove and turn them into permanent stains.
Another way to cope with the pet stain efficiently is by buying products designed especially for removing obstinate pet stains. If you decide to go for it, always follow the instructions of each product explained on the label. And be prepared for much more elbow grease with this compared to the normal carpet cleaning you usually do.
Odour Removal – Carpet Cleaning Tricks
No doubt pets can make your expensive carpets smell unpleasantly. To eliminate the odours you have at least two tricks you can apply. The ones we offer are:
- Apply enzyme treatment on the spoilt carpet area. This is done with the help of specialised detergents and requires knowledge how to do the process properly. Before doing so, though, you can hire a professional carpet cleaning technician to apply hot water extraction. This is steam cleaning done with specialised steam cleaning equipment using only purified water injected under high pressure into the carpet. It is the best method for odour removal after pets known so far. Moreover, the process extracts all chemicals left in the carpet fabric from previous cleaning sessions. This is necessary for pet odours to be eliminated since enzymes can be inhibited by chemical residues and this way they get trapped in your carpet for long. So, steam carpet cleaning is perfect for odour elimination.
- Another trick you can apply is using specialised powdered odour eliminator on your dry carpets. Consider purchasing liquid odour removal products that use bio-enzymatic ingredients. They are ideal for eliminating the pollutants that originally cause the odours. Make sure to check the products’ instructions first and plan the carpet cleaning process.
Some of the odour removal detergents require soaking the carpet with the product and leaving it to do its magic for a very long time. This can be up to weeks, during which time you should leave the detergent to dry on the carpet without having to bloat or extract it. There are liquid odour eliminating detergents you can apply using a tank sprayer as well. These are very handy for covering large smelly areas on your carpets and rugs.
To Sum It Up
Carpets are valuable investments and having dogs, cats or other pets at home can clog them with hair, spol them with odours and smudges. If you want to keep your carpets for a long time in a great condition, you should clean them properly and in depth. Otherwise, you risk the health and wellbeing of your loved ones. If you feel like you’re not competent enough and can’t remove obstinate staining and odours yourself, it is always better to contact professionals. Carpet cleaning is not an easy task and when done properly, it can have the desired results. When neglected, on the other hand, carpets can darken, trap bacteria and become a threat to your health. Use store-bought products and the services of professional carpet cleaning technicians for expert advice and urgent help. We hope you apply at least some of the tips presented above to maintain your home in hygienic condition even with extra pets.