To keep your furniture clean, its necessary to conduct routine maintenance, including periodic cleaning by a certified technician every 12 to 24 months. Furniture and fabric manufacturers recommend that consumers not wait until sever soiling occurs before cleaning because the greater the soiling, the less the likelihood of restoring the fabric’s original color, appearance, and texture, and the greater adverse effect on indoor environmental quality.

Regular cleaning by a trained, certified professional can help restore your upholstery’s appearance, extend its life, and keeping it looking “like new”. In addition, certified professionals can offer simple suggestions to maintain a clean and healthy environment. These tips often include:

Control soil by using arm caps and rotating seat cushions frequently to prolong life and appearance of areas prone to wear and tear.

Remove dry soil by vacuuming and, depending on the fabric, brushing to remove dust and soil particles.

Increased cleaning may be required when fabric is subjected to heavy use, or when it is located in homes occupied with persons with allergies or respiratory sensitivity.

To help maintain your furniture’s appearance and ensure complete satisfaction with the services performed, the Institute of Inspection, Cleaning and Restoration Certification (IICRC) recommends hiring an IICRC-Certified Firm employing IICRC-Certified Upholstery and Fabric Cleaning Technicians (UFT).

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.