[John Kelly]

I was listening to Richard Bacon on 5 Live whilst driving yesterday. He has a daft spot in the afternoon called "can you help". He has a couple of so called experts in the studio and people either ring or text in with a problem. Yesterday a bloke texted saying he was moving into a new house and the previous owners had dogs. What products could he use to get rid of the smell.
The answers:

"There are various products on the supermarket shelves which you can spray on to remove the odours".

"Get a builders clean done. They will clean all the surfaces and hopefully get rid of the smells or personally I would replace all the carpets".

The sensible answer would have been to have the carpets professionally cleaned.


I think this is the fundamental problem of this industry. We don't get the message out well enough to the general public and especially the media. Have you ever seen a carpet cleaning machine or truckmount in a drama programme.
Maybe this new association which has been launched may be able to do something. Not sure what plans they have for marketing the industry if any.

[Doug Holloway]

Hi John

Perceptive as ever!

Yes that is very much one of the major aims of CLEAN, to raise the publics perception of just what can be achieved by quality carpet cleaners.

Things won't happen overnight but I hope in 5 years time the public will have a very different perception of what cleaning soft furnishings involves.

Positive people acting together can be a powerful force.

Media has changed.

Since I put together my website 'collection' as it was cynically described by a few , my business has moved up several levels and the quality of enquiries and influence increases all the time.

Cheers

Doug

[Nigel_W]

John,

I heard the same program. The dog problem and suggested solutions had my blood boiling. The only thing I would say though is that nearly all of the advice given on all of the problems was inaccurate or inappropriate. A completely useless piece of broadcasting :

Nigel
www.designcare.co.uk

[John Kelly]

Exactly Nigel, but this is what happens all the time. Another news item that got my goat recently was on local BBC radio news. Announcing that you now have to have planning permission to install a hard surface drive to prevent flooding. They went on to say maybe if this had been in place earlier they might have prevented the flooding in Morpeth which occurred months earlier. What a complete load of cobblers. Morpeth is a country town and the land the rain fell on is moorland and hills so unless sheep have driveways...........

[fenman]

Also on the same show a lady rang in and explained that holes had appeared in her hall carpet under a bookshelf or a telephone table.
They had no idea what could have caused this and their final advice was that she would need to replace it which was not what she wanted to hear.
They had Clearly never heard of carpet moths.
Experts, my arse.

[Helen]

Not heard the show, but "experts" can be the teagirl for all we know! Why don't one of you who has heard the show contact them and politely say the advice given was not correct and would they consider devoting one of these sessions to Carpet Cleaning only with a "proven" expert in attendance, to re-address the situation. It could just help with public perception!

[daz1977]

i will be honest i am a window cleaner and to be honest it has never thought to me to get my carpet shampooed, just replace them, i think a lot of people are put off carpet shampooing by the likes of vax,  people use them and they are left wet and this is what people think there carpets will be left like and can not be bothered getting them done

the other thing is the old saying that once a carpet gets shampooed it gets dirtyer quicker,  i know his isnt true, but some people think this and that is why they replace them


this is my opinion as a non carpet shampooer

[stagcleaning]

In my experience these socalled experts are never quite up to it! I should be on 5 live with Richard Bacone!

[Mike_Roper]

Interesting thoughts from our window cleaner there- why not post on the window clean section  asking who gets their carpets pro cleaned , who doesnt and why not ?  Might give general viewpoint of public , after all only a very small % of people get their carpets cleaned - wat about the rest?
Mike 

[Neil Williams]

the other thing is the old saying that once a carpet gets shampooed it gets dirtyer quicker,  i know his isnt true, but some people think this and that is why they replace them

In a way this is true. One reason is that the carpet is left in too much of an alkaline state (poor cleaning), and the most important is that clients don't treat their newly cleaned carpet as if it was new, so within a day all and sundry are back to walking over the 'cleaned' carpet in their outside boots and shoes. Would they do this if the carpet was brand new? Of course not.
There are other reasons too like worn fibres hold dirt more than new smooth fibres.

But yes if CLEAN could canvass the TV producers so that a carpet cleaner could be seen in the background would be a step in the right direction. I'll mention it to Pete on Monday.

[Peter Sweeney]

No need neil

I'm on it. Won't happen overnight though

See you monday

Pete
Pete

[Shaun_Ashmore]

These guys are there on radio/tv to provoke debate as it gets callers and increases ratings so they can sell advertising albeit to the cost of us or whoever they are slagging.

Shaun

[mark_roberts]

Theres hardly a week goes by when I hear what the window cleaner has said.

And also I just bought a 10x10 felt back poly carpet for my spare bedroom.  £75.  Id want £50 to clean it so why bother for the cheap stuff.

Mark

[L.Doubtfire - The Blade Runner]

That’s the snag I guess.Now what if,,if only, we could in every
Case guarantee to clean a £75 `cheapo`carpet for £ 50 but,, to
Return it to it`s as new state and condition,then the world would
Be every carpet cleaners `oyster`.
Am I teaching grandma to suck eggs here or what ?
This is the second window cleaner giving his views on this `thread`.


Lewis  Doubtfire

[Shaun_Ashmore]

Good answer!

The trouble is that £75 carpets don't wear well so we are onto a loser, ideally we are looking for bigger more expensive stuff and the term "can't win them all" comes to mind.

Shaun

[derek west]

i'd clean it for £20 provided you had the rest of the carpets done, so works out worth doing, i'm presuming not all the carpets in the house are cheapo's and if they were then your not anyones market. i quite often overlook the box room in pricing as it only takes 5 mins to clean when passing.

[L.Doubtfire - The Blade Runner]

Hi Shaun,this is off the `thread`I know.Just looked at your web site.
Very impressive,as regarding rugs.Do you have a works for cleaning
Like W.E. Franklin`s have?
If so,what do you recommend for `lightening`and improving the fringes
On say Chinese and Indian rugs,thanks


Lewis  Doubtfire

[Shaun_Ashmore]

I have a garage that I do rugs in, to whiten rugs there are a few ways to go about it ranging from acetic acid products to bleach but bleach can perish the cotton and it goes stringy and horrible.

Shaun

[Shaun_Ashmore]

You're welcome.

Shaun

[garyfindlay]

I had a similar call a while back. 3 carpets cleaned for £35,  Ad in paper (next to mine). In wifeys words  2 mingers turned up with small yellow machine. Then said bill would be £75, not £35 as advertised, but agreed to £55. Walked into bedroom carpet, leaving muddy footprints all over carpet. At this point she chucked them out and phoned me. I could be p£shed off cos she phoned them first, but the general public don`t see like for like. Yet again they need educated in what a decent service should be. Also lost count how many people say "thats a big machine" when you turn up at the door, or will it be dry for Friday, we have friends coming, and this is on the Tuesday.