William - A-1 Cleaning Service, LLC.

September 16, 2012December 10, 2013

Feel Better With Clean Carpets And A Clean House

How to Feel Better With a Clean House

feel better clean house One thing my grandma repeated to me a lot was that having a clean house helps you sleep better. Not only could cleaning your house help with this but also having a HVAC system installed could help too, since it can improve your home’s air quality. Cleaner air means a better night’s sleep. You can visit website here to find out more. However, she wasn’t just talking about dusting, having a great HVAC system, and picking up your clothes off the bedroom floor, she also meant the carpets. What does having clean carpets in your home have to do with sleeping, you might ask. Well, this blog would like to share some information with you that you may not have thought about.

Lets start with the most obvious; having clean carpets makes your home look nicer, and helps you feel better. Keeping your carpets and padding dust and dirt free is good for the health of you and your family, and also extends the life of your carpets. Consider how leaving your carpet dirty can affect your health:

Allergies & Asthma: When allergy season is in, people often stay inside. Unfortunately, though, your carpet traps all these airborne particles that are let into the house. The good news is that fewer particles are disturbed when walking on carpets compared to other flooring, like hardwood or linoleum. The bad news though, is that while some allergens are stirred up, others settle into the fibers of your carpeting. Microscopic dust mites secrete proteins when burrowed deep into your carpet, and these proteins trigger symptons in 30% of people prone to allergens. While vacuuming frequently helps, it won’t get rid of the imbedded particles, pet stains, and dust like a professional cleaning would.

Mold: In the rainy seasons, liquids from leaky ceilings, pet accidents, high humidity, and spills can build up in the padding of your carpet. This moisture is the perfect environment for carpet mold growth. Your carpet is also prone to mold when you use an at home shampooer if your carpet fibers don’t dry quickly or adequately enough. Carpet pads are the most likely place for mold to hide, as it is sandwiched between the carpet fibers and the subflooring, so it gets the least amount of air flow. It’s very unhealthy to let odors, dust, pet stains, mold, or any other particles built up in your carpet to settle, so learn to identify your mold problem before it becomes dangerous to you and your family. Then, call a professional steam cleaner to help remove particles, neutralize odors, and decontaminate urine. If you have a mold issue, you can get in touch with a mold removal denver company or your local service to help you get on top of this problem. Remember that mold not only affects your carpet but also your walls and foundation, which is why it is imperative to get rid of them as soon as possible.

We will give you an example to make you understand better. Let’s say that you have left the mold issue in your house unattended for a long time. While it may seem insignificant because of its size, mold is capable of spreading and growing in size, which means that if it has been growing on one part of your wall, it can quickly spread to the other parts without giving you enough time to deal with it. What happens next? Well, your wall would look completely disoriented from the rest of the interiors, which means that you would need to get a fresh coat of paint applied with the help of professionals at https://www.myhousepainter.com/.

Besides this, there is a good chance that, in the meantime, you would be suffering from allergies and breathing troubles. Hence, it is necessary to take care of the growing mold problem in your dwelling to ensure that you and your family are safe.

That said, when cleaning your home, remember grandma’s words and don’t forget to add carpet steam cleaning to your wish list for a clean house.

If you liked this post, please read some of our other posts like Hot Spots on Dirty Carpets or Tips for Carpet Stain Removal

September 16, 2012June 23, 2014

How Often Should You Get Your Carpets Cleaned?

Determine how often you should get your carpets cleaned with a few simple questions.

A question I’m commonly asked when talking about professional carpet cleaning is “how often?” Many manufacturers recommend that you get your carpets cleaned every 12-18 months. Places with high traffic, however, should consider getting them cleaned every 6 months. Here are a few helpful questions to ask yourself when you’re deciding if you carpets need cleaned.

Do you have any pets? How many? We all love our pets, but we also know how messy they can be at times. Pets shed their hair and have oils on their skin that can get into your carpeting. They don’t know anything about using a napkin when eating or wiping their feet of mud when coming into the house. When you have a lot of pets, you will need to clean pet stains from your carpets more often.
How often do you vacuum? Vacuuming twice a week is what most manufacturers suggest. Just remember that the better care you give your carpet between professional cleanings, the less often you’ll need to get your carpets cleaned. It’s also important to consider the quality of the vacuum you’re using. The Shark APEX upright vacuum is one of the best shark vacuums I found. Generally, Shark vacuums are well regarded and highly recommended, but you can choose any brand that you prefer. If you are after a Shark, you can look here to see if there are any savings to be had at Target. Just remember though, if it’s a cheap vacuum then it won’t be as effective as a higher-end vacuum. You can check best carpet vacuums here if you’re wanting a better vacuum.
Do you or your family suffer from allergies? A clean carpet can drastically reduce the allergens in the air, leaving it fresh smelling and making it easier to breathe. Depending on where you live, you may need to get your carpets cleaned 2-3 times year.
How many people live in the house? Does anyone wear shoes inside? This should come as no surprise, but walking around inside with your shoes on gets your carpets dirty a lot faster. More foot traffic also develops wear patterns on soiled carpet. Wearing socks or indoor-only slippers is the best way to preserve your carpets, as going barefoot can leave the oils on your skin in your carpet fiber.
What does your warranty require? Many people aren’t aware that your manufacturer requires this to keep your warranty form being voided.

You can see by just these few questions that the base question of “how often” can vary greatly between homes. As for the actual cleaning process, most carpet manufacturers recommend hot water extraction aka steam cleaning over a chemical process. This is because chemical or “dry” based cleaning uses large amounts of chemicals to make your carpet look nice. Not only does it leave chemical residue in your carpet that is not safe for kids or pets, but it doesn’t even remove pollutants or allergens.

With “steam cleaning,” the temperature and pressure of the water do most of the work, with little chemical used per gallon of water. The chemicals that are used are mild and biodegradable detergents that help to dissolve the dirt in the water, which is extracted before it can make its way down into the padding.

If you liked this post, check out some of our other blog posts like Worst Carpet Messes for Parents or Feeling Better With Cleaner Carpets.

June 6, 2012May 2, 2014

The Twelve Most Essential Cleaning Tools

Make cleaning a breeze with these essential cleaning tools.

Folks often confess that their cleaning arsenol consists of supplies they bought, used once, and stored in the attic for the next garage sale. They have separate cleaners for toilets, showers, baths, carpet stains, clothing stains, 5 window cleaners that all streak, all the cleaning tools ever advertised and none of this stuff works, Let’s widdle this down to the necessities and take the confusion and expense out of cleaning. The following list is geared to serve a typical home.

1) Start with a divided tote tray found at hardware stores. Do not use cleaning aprons unless you like trips to the doctor to straighten your neck due to the weight. Or worse email me asking what to do after bumping a sprayer and the cleaner ruined your antique coffee table.

2) A large plastic cup to hold a plastic scraper, stiff bristled toothbrush, non-scratch pad or other small cleaning tools.

3) A plastic container with holes in the lid filled with baking soda. You can also use a clean, plastic parmesan cheese shaker. Use baking soda to scrub sinks, tubs and shower floors and toilets.

4) A gallon of vinegar. Use to remove hard water stains in the sink and add a bit to your diluted concentrated cleaners. Vinegar boosts the cleaning ability of a cleaner. If your concentrated cleaner calls for one ounce per quart of water add ¼ cup of vinegar and use ¾ of an ounce of cleaner.

5) Toilet bowl brush – do not use the ones with the metal ring as the metal part scratches.

6) Sink brush

7) Two clean spray bottles for dilution – three if you use my Wood Care. It’s the only wood cleaner and conditioner on the market that can be diluted.

8) A concentrated eco-friendly all-purpose cleaner like my CleanEz. They clean most counter tops, appliances, toilets, showers, tubs, clothing and carpet stains. No you don’t need separate products to do these chores. Concentrated cleaners save you a bundle of money so look for concentrates.

9) A streak free, concentrated bottle of glass cleaner. I carry a good one called Benya. Make certain it does not contain acids or ammonia so it’s safe for Corian, granite and marble countertops. Glass cleaners are especially useful for frameless glass showers (Glass Shower Direct let you design showers online) and large windows. This is because they can leave you with a streak-free shine.

10) Color coded towels. I use blue terry towels for the bathroom, white for the kitchen and a green one for the floor. Then baby diaper cloths for dusting and lint free towels for windows. Windows and glass are the only safe surface for microfiber. Buy the expensive microfiber cloths. The cheap ones leave lint and smear.

• Note: I use color coded towels because they are faster. You’ll dig for hours looking for the right towel to clean the bathrooms, or kitchen or dust. Don’t waste the time. Color code your towels for fast cleaning.

11) A good mop. Of course, I’m a bit prejudiced but I feel the one I manufacture is faster and outlasts anything on the market. Plus, it does cobwebs, walls, windows, and dries off cars, RVs, and boats. Again you may not want to use microfiber mops unless you want to replace or refinish flooring. You can also look into flooring options such as concrete (probably done by professional concrete contractors Columbus GA or elsewhere) to get durable flooring material. Concrete may take longer than other materials for wear and tear, which could make it more sutaible for interiors as well as exteriors.

12) A good vacuum cleaner. Here is where we may part company. After using Kirbys, Hoovers, Eurkea’s and half a dozen others during my 12 years professionally cleaning, I’m hooked on the Meile vacuums, even ones that you can hold in hand are powerful. This is a personal choice but I’ve been very pleased since switching to Meile. They are expensive and worth every penny. If you’re having trouble deciding on a good vacuum cleaner, I’ve found this site to be helpful: http://appliancehunter.co.uk/cheap-vacuum-cleaners/
Lastly always refill your bottles when you finish cleaning. That way they are ready to go for spills or quick clean up.

By Mary Findley
http://goclean.com.

May 31, 2012February 8, 2014

Refinished Floors

Refinished Floors in Humboldt County and Lake County

Here is some of the fine work done by A-1 Cleaning’s floor crew. We maintain floors in convenience stores, grocery stores, offices, and more.

A-1 Cleaning just refinished these floors. Can you guess this Humboldt County location?

Ok, give up? It is in Mckinleyville, Ca.

“I just wanted to tell you that your crew did a great job on our concrete floors. They look like new and your staff were very courteous and professional. Being a business owner my self, I know it’s nice to hear this once in a while”

Redwood Glass & Window

Floor Maintenance in Fortuna, CA