Do you live or have a second home in a highly humid area?  If so, this article is for you.  The real question you have to be asking yourself is, what are you sleeping with?  Better yet what are you living with?

On average, we spend about one third of our time in bed. Up to 60% of the dust mites found in the home are actually living in your bed! Watch the CNN video below to learn more about dust mites.

According to the Center for Disease Control, a mattress can have anywhere between 10,000 to 10 million dust mites in it. Dust mites don’t bite, but they can make life pretty uncomfortable for you or any of your family members who suffer from allergies or asthma.

If you wake up with a stuffy head or have a hard time getting a good night’s sleep, it’s time to think about cleaning your bed, and it goes deeper than flipping the mattress or washing the sheets. Albemarle can help you clean your mattress to eliminate dust mites and neutralize the allergens that they produce.

Allergy Relief Treatment
The Albemarle mattress cleaning process is designed to thoroughly clean your mattress and effectively eliminate allergen problems.

Our mattress cleaning is a multi-step process:

• We vacuum the mattress on all sides to remove loose dirt and dust with HEPA-filtration or exterior vented vacuum.
• The Mattress is then steam cleaned on all surfaces with a special low moisture cleaning tool designed to leave the mattress as dry as possible. This will kill and remove most dust mites.
• Allergy Relief Treatment™, a hypoallergenic solution that effectively neutralizes the allergens, is applied to all mattress surfaces using a fine mist application.
• A high velocity air mover is used to speed the drying process.
• Your mattress is then returned to your bed, ready for a good night’s sleep.

Albemarle also recommends that you clean the bedroom carpets, draperies, and any upholstered furniture pieces at the same time. The Allergy Relief Treatment™ can reduce levels of dust mite and pet allergens by 90% or more. You and your family will breathe easier- starting now.

Please know that your generosity and thoughtfulness are most appreciated.

A note from Marilyn Canning – Chairpeerson

No insurance? If the price is several hundred dollars cheaper it may sound like an attractive offer. But think about this: If he can’t afford insurance, can he afford to buy you new carpet if he ruins your carpeting? Even worse, don’t you think his family will sue you if he gets severely hurt while on your property?

And what are the chances that he knows how to properly clean carpet if he can’t afford insurance? Chances are, if he doesn’t have the money for insurance, he also doesn’t have money for proper equipment, proper training, etc. You really do get what you pay for.

If he doesn’t have insurance, I can just about assure you he has no workman’s compensation on himself. You can be sued if he gets hurt. If he doesn’t have insurance, you are providing the insurance for him with the discount he is giving you.

So, the question you should ask yourself is…

“Do I want to insure this man?”

Many contractors will lie and claim to have insurance when they do not. It is not unreasonable for a homeowner to ask to see a copy of an insurance deck sheet. Check the dates on the sheet to assure they are current. If it is a large job or a situation where you are at high risk, ask the contractor to have his insurance company send or fax you a current insurance certificate. This will assure you the contractor has not let his insurance lapse. Many unethical contractors put a down payment on liability insurance just to get an insurance deck sheet and fail to continue to pay their payments.

Insurance isn’t the only important factor. But, it is a good place to start.

Make sure he is NOT a criminal
Anyone can easily get in the cleaning business. There are over 40 carpet cleaning companies in the Outer Banks area. Career criminals often take side jobs as carpenters, drywall hangers, painters, and YES, even carpet cleaners. It’s one thing to have a criminal working in your yard. It’s a different fear when the criminal is working inside your house. Do a basic Internet search on the person who owns the company. As well, make sure the company has done complete background checks on all employees entering your home.

I once had a young fellow come to my office to apply for a cleaning technician position. He had plenty of experience working for another popular cleaning company on the Outer Banks. I spoke with him and informed him that we always do complete background tests and drug screening before we hire.

He had a felony record
He admitted he had a felony record for burglary, for which he served prison time four years ago. I couldn’t believe another cleaning company hired this guy with a felony burglary record. Working in an office, construction, or one of a thousand different jobs would be suitable, but NOT working in homes. People can indeed change. But, giving someone who has a felony record of burglary a job that requires him to work inside a home is NOT a good idea.

Don’t take it for granted. Know who you are hiring to be in your home. Make sure they are insured so you won’t be paying the bill if anything goes wrong.

If you can’t remove the spot, call us at 252-255-1477 – Outer Banks number.
We’ll fit you in our schedule.

You’ll get a trained technician armed our 12 step cleaning process as well as our 12 specialty spot removers to remove your stains. The technician sent out to your home is a spot removal specialist. It’s what he does all day.

So give us a try. It’s a lot better than staring at a HUGE ugly stain the rest of the time you have your carpet. Hire a cleaning company with a great reputation.

We Serve All of the Outer Banks…

These widely used comments have stemmed from unfortunate encounters with uninformed
cleaners that have left the carpet with an overload of detergent residue. The consumer has assumed that this is the case with all carpet cleaning and resolved to wait until the carpet is in dire straights to clean it.

The good news is that a properly cleaned carpet will not re-soil as quickly and will actually last
longer. Why? Because damaging soils are removed with effective cleaning. Soil that is
not removed by vacuuming, even though it can rarely be seen by the naked eye, cuts and slices
on the carpet fibers as the carpet is being walked on breaking down the carpet yarns in the
traffic areas. The result is that even with restorative cleaning at that point, it will not correct the damage that has been done to the fiber. Fiber producers and carpet manufacturers recommend that a residential carpet should be professionally cleaned at least 18 to 24 months for best performance, more often in heavily trafficked and heavy soiling situations.

A Clean Carpet is a Healthy Carpet

Not to mention that a carpet that is not cleaned on a regular basis is an unhealthy carpet. Carpet is like a filter. It collects soils, pollens, insecticides, exhaust, etc. that gets tracked in or blown in from the polluted outdoors. This creates and unhealthy indoor environment.

If you have light colored carpet, you may have experienced dark around baseboards, under doors, and especially near the HVAC return. This soiling comes from air passing through the carpet as it is attempting to go through the edge of the carpet pile, microscopic particles of soil are deposited there (hence the term filtration soiling). This occurs over a significant period of time and is not noticed until a build up has occurred.

This type of soiling is difficult to remove because the soil particles are so fine that they penetrate deep into the carpet pile, sometimes into the backing of the carpet. Can it be removed? Sometimes. With special products, time and effort, reasonable results can be achieved, although not in all cases.

To help prevent filtration soiling in the future, vacuum the edges of the carpeting on a regular basis, then wipe with a damp, white terry towel. Be careful around the tackstrip under the edge of the carpeting, you could nick your fingers!

Sometimes when you take a friends advice on who to use, does not mean it’s the right choice for your home. If the service professional they recommend to you is not a certified cleaning professional with the IICRC – you just voided your warranty. Unfortunately many people are not aware of this important fact.

The carpet cleaning machines you can buy from the hardware stores or rent from your local supermarkets can and will damage your carpet. These machines do not have the vacuum power to extract the dirty water from the carpet, creating a major health concern. When you wet dirt it turns into “mud” which happens when using these machines. This is just one of the ways your warranty will be voided if you choose to take this option for maintaining your carpet.

Selecting a certified carpet cleaning professional is the first step to not voiding your warranty. Most certified carpet cleaning professionals will be able to tell you the does and don’ts about your flooring. When selecting a carpet cleaning company you want to ask them five very important questions before you hire them.

1. What kind of reputation do they have? Make sure that carpet retailer, realtor, interior designer, and other sources refer this company. Hiring a company with a great reputation will hopefully insure if a problem arises they will help you out even after the job has been paid for.
2. What experience do they have? Check to see if they have experience in all fabric & flooring types. They should be familiar with all kinds of soiling conditions, and be able to give you a realistic expectation of how the carpet will look once complete.
3. What kind of systems do they use? The equipment they use should be state-of-the-art truck mounted units. Should have at least a 6 step procedure for cleaning your carpet (Vacuuming, Pre-Treat, Pre-Groom, Steam Clean, Post- Spot, Speed Dry).
4. Are they educated in their field? Never hire a company that is not IICRC certified. The Institute of Inspection Cleaning & Restoration Certification is the most recognized body of certification in the cleaning world. All carpet manufactures void the warranties if your cleaning was not been performed by an IICRC cleaning professional.
5. Do they guarantee their work? Most reputable cleaning companies will, if they do not – look for someone else. Every company deserves to have a second chance if the cleaning was not up to par. If you are still unhappy after they tried a second time; you should not have to pay for the service.

If a cleaning company passes all these questions and you are still a little unsure -ask them to perform a demo for you. This will give you a firsthand view about what kind of company you are hiring. This system for hiring a cleaning company should void out all the “uneducated cleaners” out there.

Would you be surprised to learn that most carpet cleaning companies have no formal training? They are not required to be licensed?  That there is no requirement for companies to have any certification what so ever?  Is Training and certification important?  After all, isn’t carpet cleaning a “menial” task anyone can perform?

Actually, a carpet cleaning professional is working with one of the most valuable assets in your home.  Should it be trusted with just anyone?  Unfortunately, the carpet cleaning industry is full of “rogues” that only care about how much money they can get from you, and nothing about the life of your carpeting.  They do not care about the industry in which they work.

Have you ever noticed that in many states, Air conditioning companies, Plumbers, and Pest Control companies are required to be licensed?  Not so for carpet cleaners.  Fortunately for you and for me, there are fine people in the carpet cleaning industry that realize the standard must be raised.  Those of us in that process help to police our own industry.  In order to do this, associations and certification organizations were created.

One such organization is the IICRC (Institute of Inspection, Cleaning, and restoration Certification).  This organization provides certification courses and exams for the carpet cleaning industry.  By attending these courses, carpet cleaners are taught about fiber identification, carpet construction, cleaning chemistry, cleaning methods, and professionalism.

Carpet Manufactures are also monitoring the situation as well, and this is why if you have someone that is NOT IICRC Certified clean your carpet, don’t clean your carpet ever 12 months, or clean it yourself you will void your built in warranty from the manufacture.  Carpet manufactures also will void your warranty if you use any other cleaning method besides “HOT WATER EXTRACTION.”

• http://www.shawfloors.com/cms/Articles.aspx?DN=1129,1112,1106,29,4,Documents
• http://www.mohawkflooring.com/my-mohawk/mohawk-warranties/carpet.aspx

There are several levels of certification:  Certified Technician, Journeyman Technician, and Master Cleaning Technician which requires a number of certification categories and 3 years of study.

So, the question remains – “Does it mean anything?”  Yes,yes,yes!  It means a lot! It means that the certified firm is on the cutting edge of technology and change in the industry.  It means that a certified firm knows the right way to apply cleaning procedures and chemistry.  It means that the certified firm is working together with other certified firms to raise the standard of carpet cleaning in general, therefore providing you with a higher quality product.