Dry time is determined by air flow/movement. Open windows and doors are your best bet for a faster dry time. As carpets dry, humidiy fills the room as the water evaporates. If the humdity cannot escape, the carpets will have a very slow dry time. Think of your bathroom when you take a hot shower. Open windows and doors will allow all that steam and humidity to excape and clear the room. If you shut the door or window and come back hours later, the room will still be damp/humid and won’t dry for many hours.

For wool carpets we can leave an air mover behind to help dry them at a much faster rate. Wool, more than any other materials such as synthetics, requires a fast dry time to avoid damage.

Many factors determine dry time and can include environmental conditions such as the weather, air flow/movement, open windows and doors, carpet time and material, and the method of cleaning such as encapsulation, hot-water extraction or restoration cleaning.

Our senior technician Dan caught some excellent footage of a gray whale only 20 feet from shore in Oak Bay! It’ serves as an excellent reminder of the reasons we use only environmentally friendly products here at Greenway.  Enjoy the video and here’s to a beautiful  Greater Victoria with a healthy ecosystem for years to come!

These little guys are actually small spiders that can live for up to 70 days, feeding on dead skin cells, excreting 200 times its body weight in feces, and laying 60 – 100 eggs in its lifetime.

They are so small that 1000 of them can fit on the head of a pin!

Hmmm… Maybe you should get your mattresses, carpets and upholstery professionally cleaned by Greenway!

Check out this excellent site for more information on the Dust Mite:
www.aerias.org/dustmites

Finding a carpet that is appropriate for your particular needs can be a daunting task. There are three types of fibers that are used most frequently in wall to wall carpeting. In this post we will cover the different characteristics of each material. There is no “perfect material” for a carpet, every type of fiber will have pros and cons associated with it. Finding the right fiber for YOUR particular use will ensure you get the most out of your new flooring surface and enjoy it for years to come.

Authors Note:IMPORTANT
When selecting a new carpet, one of the most important things to consider is the color! While off white and white carpets are definitely beautiful, it is important to realize that a white carpet will be MUCH less forgiving than, for instance, a brown or blue carpet. Sometimes when substances such as coffee or pet stains remain on a carpet for too long, they can cause a slight discoloration or “stain” even after cleaning. On a darker carpet, it’s own rich dyes will hide slight color variances. Carpets that are a shade of brown do the best job of hiding soiling. If heavily soiled traffic lanes are allowed to form on a white carpet, the resulting “traffic gray” (The graying of a carpet due to abrasion to the fibers) will be much more apparent than on a darker carpet.

Some questions to ask yourself when considering the color for your carpet might be:

Do I have pets?
Do I have young/messy children?
Do I wear shoes in the house?
How much maintenance (regular professional cleaning, vacuuming) am I willing to perform on my new carpet?
Do I often spill things on my carpet?
What do I typically spill?

Nylon

Nylon is the most popular face yarn for a carpet. It is resilient and easy to clean. Nylon carpets are an excellent choice for a residential application. Nylon is dyed AFTER the fibers are constructed, giving it slightly less stability in the dye structure than polypropylene. That being said, cleaning technicians can still “throw the kitchen sink” at your nylon carpet, making it easy to maintain. Nylon carpets have an excellent “hand” (or feel). Nylon is fairly absorbent and is not considered ideal for areas such as pool decks and bathrooms. Nylon can be susceptible to acid based dyes such as tomato juice and koolaid.

Polypropylene/Olefin

Olefin is often used in commercial applications. It stands up well to high traffic. Olefin will float on water because it will not absorb water readily. This makes it excellent for use around pools or other areas where water is present. Olefin has a very low melting point and care must be taken when moving furniture to avoid friction burns. Olefin will
crush down and will not bounce back over time. Olefin has a harder “hand” than Nylon. Olefin is solution dyed, meaning that when the fibers are made, they are already dyed all the way through. (Think of your TV casing at home, the plastic is not painted, but colored all the way through. The dyes are in the material itself rather than sitting on top.) This
means that olefin is very stain resistant. However, Olefin LOVES to bond with oils. Oil based spots will often permanently discolor an olefin carpet. It is not considered suitable for areas near greases such as kitchens and the entry off the garage.

Wool

Wool has good resiliency and is good at hiding soil. Wool is a natural fiber and can be easily damaged if cleaned with the wrong cleaning method. Wool carpeting has the least stable dyes of the three carpets and they can easily be pulled from the carpet with incorrect cleaning. It is important to remember that your cleaning technician will not be able to
“bring out the big guns” when cleaning your wool carpet, and will be restricted to a very gentle cleaning. Aggressive solution use on a wool carpet will damage it. Protein stains such as blood or egg will be difficult to remove from a wool carpet, because wool itself is a protein. If a protein spotter is applied to a wool carpet it will attempt to break down
your carpet along with the stain!! Wool is naturally fire resistant. As wool has a distinct odor when wet, it is not considered ideal for applications around water.

Our subsurface extractor combined with our enzyme solution is perfect for pet stains!

Check out our video here!

Our top of the line equipment helps us get the best results in town!

Check out our video here!

We’re Looking Forward to Serving You!

Thank you for choosing us. We are looking forward to putting our reputation, experience, and systems to work for you. Remember that we offer a 100% satisfaction guarantee, so you will not be disappointed.

Did You Order Protector?

If you did not discuss protector with our representative, we highly recommend that you do. Your floors and fabrics will not last as long if you don’t have protector applied. Any in-home service you are having done can be protected. We offer both Carpet Protector and Fabric Protector.

This is NOT an attempt to get you to spend more money. We just want to make sure that you have discussed protector with us. And remember, we guarantee all of our protectors.
To learn more about protector, please read the enclosed article.

Please Read Before Your Cleaning Job…
Preparation & Important Safety Precautions

To achieve the best cleaning results please follow the suggestions below. It is our sincere desire that you and your family are completely safe while we are working in your home. Please help us accomplish this by observing the following guidelines.

1. Please remove nick-knacks and breakables.
2. Pre vacuum all carpeted areas that are being cleaned. If you are unable to pre vacuum we vacuum for a small fee with our commercial vacuum
3. Remove fragile/valuable items from on top of or inside of any piece of furniture the technician is moving (Please note: Technician can only move what they can physically and safely move, we do not move furniture with electronics inside or on top of it, including computers)
4. Keep children and pets away from hoses, equipment, cleaning products, and work area.
5. Keep children and pets off of carpet or floors for 6 hours or until completely dry to the touch. Keep children and pets off of furniture for 12 hours or until completely dry to the touch.
6. Keep children and pets away from truck.
7. Walk on carpet at your own risk until completely dry. Floors may be slippery when wet. Please advise all occupants of this hazard.

Unfortunately there is probably as much confusion in the carpet cleaning industry about carpet protectors as there is about cleaning. Uneducated, uninformed, and sometimes downright unscrupulous carpet cleaners cause a great deal of confusion by giving out false information or intentionally misrepresenting the product.

A nylon stain-resist carpet is made with two protective properties: The first is an acid dye blocker that is basically a clear dye that fills the extra dye sites in a fiber. This helps to keep “foreign” dyes (such as red dye in a beverage) from penetrating the carpet fiber. The second property is called a “fluorochemical”. It is commonly known as 3M Scotchgard ® or DuPont Teflon ®. This treatment helps keep spillage from actually getting to the acid dye blocker, but its biggest job is to resist dry soil.

By resisting dry soil, less soil bonds to the carpet, therefore being picked up by your vacuum or cleaning. Making sure that you have a sufficient amount of protector on your carpet will help keep the soil from bonding to the carpet. Once it bonds to the carpet, it acts like sandpaper on your traffic area. Once the traffic area yarns are broken down, there is no way to bring them back to their original state.

2 primary ways that factory protector is removed from a carpet…

1. Regular foot traffic. Over a period of 6 months to 2 years depending on the traffic, a significant amount of protector can be removed from your traffic areas and needs to be reapplied.

2. High alkaline cleaner. Many cleaners use harsh chemicals on the carpet that will strip it’s factory protection. If you have had your carpet cleaned in the past, there is a good chance that the cleaner removed a significant amount of protector. It needs to be reapplied.

4 Mistakes Other Cleaners Make In Applying Protector
1. Not using high quality protector. Discount protectors are not as effective and sometimes void the warranty of the carpet. Our Company uses only the highest quality, recommended protectors.

2. Not using a dedicated container. Using the same container for carpet protector as other cleaners can contaminate the carpet protector making it gummy and ineffective. Our vans have a dedicated container reserved ONLY for carpet protector.

3. Not applying the product properly. Some cleaners either under apply or over apply the protector. Under applying it doesn’t allow for complete penetration on the carpet yarns. Over applying it causes the carpet to become overly stiff and crusty. Our Company technicians are diligently trained for proper application.

4. Not grooming the carpet. For the best performance, the product should be groomed into the carpet for maximum penetration. This ensures contact with all surfaces of the carpet yarn and proper distribution and drying. Our Company thoroughly grooms the protector into the carpet pile.

5 Reasons to Always Get Carpet Protector

1. Reduces permanent stains. An ugly spot can ruin a great looking carpet. Unprotected carpet doesn’t repel spillage as well as protected carpet. Being able to remove spots and spills more effectively can help you avoid permanent staining.

2. Helps save your traffic areas from becoming destroyed. Traffic area soil is very abrasive and cuts carpet yarns like a knife. This damaging soil can easily bond to an unprotected carpet. By applying protector, you will increase the life of your carpet dramatically. When you vacuum your protected carpet the soils will release from the carpet pile much more effectively.

3. Make spots easier to remove. The easier a spot is to remove, the less cleaner you will have to use. The less agitation you will have to use, and the less time it will take. Many spots can be removed easily with just water.

4. Makes your next professional cleaning more effective. Having protector applied to your carpet will enhance your next cleaning. More soil will be removed the next time your carpeting is professionally cleaned.

5. Helps avoid costly service calls. Although you want to call us out to handle any spot you cannot remove immediately, carpet protector helps you remove more spots than you could without protector. You may be able to save a minimum charge by removing the spot yourself.

When cleaning urine spots, there is a difference between cleaning the urine soiling and treating for odor. Cleaning existing urine spots MAY NOT remove any associated odor. In fact, could INCREASE the odor in the air space for a temporary period of time.

We will treat your pet spots for FREE when cleaning wall-to-wall carpet. This treatment is very thorough and usually removes most the odor. For heavier situations, we recommend a “Major Odor Treatment”.

Pet urine can cause permanent damage to your floors and fabrics. It can also create an unhealthy indoor environment. When urine is first deposited onto a floor or fabric, it is in an almost “neutral” state, which means it is easier to remove when it is fresh. Once it dries, it turns “alkaline” and becomes more difficult to remove. If left for days or weeks, depending on the fabric or floor type, it will permanently change the dye structure, therefore causing permanent staining. Even if the soluble deposits are removed, the damage to the dye structure may already be done.

*This means that no one can guarantee complete removal of all urine spots.

Filtration Soiling Notice

(Those ugly black lines around the baseboards and under doorways)

If you have light colored carpet, you may have experienced dark areas around baseboards, under doors, and especially near the HVAC return. This soiling comes from air passing through the carpet as it is attempting to go through the edge of the carpet pile, microscopic particles of soil are deposited there (hence the term filtration soiling). This occurs over a significant period of time and is not noticed until a build up has occurred.

This type of soiling is difficult to remove because the soil particles are so fine that they penetrate deep into the carpet pile, sometimes into the backing of the carpet. Can it be removed? Sometimes. With special products, time and effort, reasonable results can be achieved, although not in all cases.

To help prevent filtration soiling in the future, vacuum the edges of the carpeting on a regular basis, then wipe with a damp, white terry towel. Be careful around the tack strip under the edge of the carpeting, you could nick your fingers!

Spring is finally here! Greenway offers pressure washing and concrete sealing as an addition to your spring cleaning regime. Have your deck, patio, driveway, walkways, paving stones and pretty much anything else you can think of pressure washed and sealed with absolutely AMAZING results! Check out some pictures below.

LEFT: Before and after our Semi-gloss Sealant on a textured concrete driveway. Our water based sealants are available in both Satin and Semi-gloss.

RIGHT: Before and after a standard pressure washing on a brick patio.

Give us a call at 250-479-7419 for a free estimate today!