One of the rules of carpet cleaning is to be careful of the water.
That may sound a bit stupid, but I will explain.
The water is used as part of the cleaning process – everybody knows that, but how the technician uses the water can make a big difference.
First, steam cleaning water has to be hot. The main reasons are that hot water will clean better than cold water and hot water will evaporate faster than cold water.
The second point is important as the speed of evaporation means faster drying. Faster drying means your furniture can go back on your carpets faster, which means your house is back to normal and your life is back to normal.
When wooden furniture is put back on wet carpet, the moisture from the carpet can work its way into the timber, especially if the end of the timber is open and unpainted.
The water can leach out the tannin in the timber and allow the tannin into the carpet.
The tannin will show up in the carpet as brown coluring which will be the same shape as the furniture legs. When this happens, the carpet is potentially un-repairable as the tannin is a natural dye and cannot be shifted by normal stain removal processes.
The tannin needs to be stripped from the carpets and the carpet re-dyed back to the original colour. The success of this colour repair is dependent on a number of factors.
So if you get your carpet cleaned and the feet of your furniture are NOT plastic or metal, then you will have to leave the floors clear until the carpet is completely dry OR you can ask the cleaner for some temporary feet to place under the furniture.
Normally the feet are small sheets of plastic or foam blocks, which proivide a barrier to stop the moisture in the carpet from getting into the timber.
