How long do carpets take to dry after professional cleaning?
Alongside regular vacuuming it is also important to have in place a maintenance and deep clean schedule to ensure your carpets remain in optimum condition. How frequently this is performed depends on a wide variety of factors, including how carpets are used, where they are and how they are maintained. This will help to dictate when and how often vacuuming, maintenance and deep cleaning is performed to protect your investment and prolong the life of your flooring.
What are the benefits of professional carpet cleaning?
There are a huge number of benefits to getting your carpet professionally cleaned, with the major one being that it will prolong the life of your carpet, protecting your investment and, in some cases, maintain the carpet’s warranty depending on the manufacturer/supplier guidelines.
In terms of helping to maintain a healthy environment, professional carpet cleaning helps to prevent the build-up of allergens, bacteria and other deeply embedded contaminates. Professional carpet cleaning also helps to improve indoor air quality where the technician uses equipment to remove trapped pollutants from deep within carpet pile. As the carpet is cleared of clogged dust and dirt it helps improve air flow, particularly in areas that need good airflow the most such as by walls, edges, and door frames.
How long to carpets take to dry after professional cleaning?
The time it takes for carpets to be completely dry after a professional clean depend on two main factors – the method of carpet cleaning and the equipment. Hot water extraction will obviously have a longer drying time than dry carpet cleaning but other factors including humidity, carpet type, where the carpet is positioned, and the level of treatment required all also contribute to how rapid (or slow) the drying time can be.
Below we take a quick look at a variety of carpet cleaning methods and their estimated drying times to help give an idea on how these timescales can differ.
Dry Carpet Cleaning (VLM): Up to 15 Mins
Dry carpet cleaning is exactly that, a method to clean carpets and floors without the need for water or shampoos. Favoured as a maintenance method for carpet due to its ability to remove spots, stains and contaminates with minimal drying time, it is suited for rooms and environments that are in constant use and cannot be fenced off for long periods.
Using a dry carpet cleaning compound, a technician uses a rotating brush machine to agitate the granules into the carpet pile which break down and absorb soiling and contaminates. It is then extracted by vacuuming.
It would of course be sightly disingenuous to say that this is 100% water free as the dry carpet cleaning powder is slightly moistened with the right amount of detergent to break down and soak up soiling. If pre-sprays or specialist treatments are used in conjunction with this these can also add to the moisture levels but generally speaking, once a professional dry carpet clean has been carried out a room will be completely dry and ready for use again within just 15 minutes .
Encapsulation: Up to 20 Mins
Encapsulation carpet cleaning is also a method which uses very little water to work. Favoured as a maintenance method over deep clean, the process utilises a crystal polymer-based cleaner which is brushed into the carpet using a machine. This then captures soiling which is then removed by vacuuming. Again, this also uses small amounts of water, but it is minimal enough to keep moisture levels low.
Typically, an encapsulation carpet clean will take around 20 minutes to be completely dry. This method is designed to work alongside regular vacuuming so does need to be performed more frequently with periodic deeper cleans scheduled in.
Rotary Shampoo Carpet Cleaning: 12 - 24 Hours
Shampoo carpet cleaning using a rotary machine or carpet buffer begins to enter the realms of what would be considered a ‘deep’ clean however this method is not particularly common due to the laborious nature of the process – replacing rotary pads and frequent rinsing of the floor. As you can imagine, with the amount of water required to rinse the shampoo out it results in a very wet floor.
There are methods to speed up the drying process such as using large industrial fans and ensuring as much water as possible is removing using an extraction machine, however, even with these in place it can take up to 12 hours for carpets to start to appear dry so this is best used when rooms and sections of buildings can be closed off for at least a day.
Hot Water Extraction (HWE): 12 - 48 Hours
Hot Water Extraction is a carpet cleaning process combining pressure washing with a wet vacuum pick-up for a very deep carpet clean. With a wide variety of machines and equipment on the market this process is for customers looking for a very deep clean which only a qualified and experienced technician should carry out.
Although the vacuum technology is there this process uses a significant amount of water to be done correctly so there will always be a percentage of water left behind in the carpet which can take upwards of 24 hours to dry out. Even with good ventilation this process is not suited for those needing a quick clean but customers after a very deep clean in rooms and spaces that can be left vacant for a day or two.
Proactive vs Reactive carpet cleaning
Similar to how we regularly vacuum carpets it is also important to have in place a regular proactive carpet maintenance plan. This is the area between frequent vacuuming and a scheduled, periodic professional clean designed to remove soil and contaminates without the time, effort, or cost of a deep clean. A good proactive maintenance clean offers a wide variety of benefits including maintaining the look and feel of carpet, prolonging the life of floors, improving indoor air quality, and keeping carpet looking as good as possible. The below graph shows how with proactive maintenance, using a system like dry carpet cleaning, you can reduce the amount of deep cleans you need whilst ensuring carpets remain in their best possible condition.
For information on the carpet cleaning systems Cleantec Innovation offer for all maintenance cleaning tasks, including carpet spot and stain removal, please take a look at our Envirodri product range .