I own a cell phone store and my carpets are a mess. I'm trying to save money because stanley steemer wants around $200. I thought about renting the rug doctor for $20 from the local grocery store. Would it work well for commerical grade thin grey carpet that has some dirt, road salt, and grease in it from the several customers that walk on it every day?
Yes they are industrial quality cleaners. It may take a long time. We run our Rug Doctor for over 5 hours cleaning our carpet when it is really bad. Use Clorox2 with your detergent. That helps with really bad spots.As long as you use the anti-foam you can use other detergents. Like dawn on your bad grease spots but don't use too much it suds up alot. We use laundrt detergent.
Do not use bleach or laundry products on your carpet. Any soap residue left in the carpet fibers will become a sticky dirt.soil magnet. No pro any where in the world would ever consider using a bleach on a carpet. There are numerous company's that make and distribute products just for the purpose of cleaning residential or commercial carpet. Rug Doctor machines have about one tenth the vacuum power found in a typical truck mount machine, this is important when it comes to extraction. The truck mount will also provide super hot softened and citric acid treated water to the carpet. Something you can not do with a do it your self machine. Rug Doctor soap also is treated with a optical brightener, an additive not used by a professional cleaner. It is there to fool you into thinking the carpet is cleaner than it actually is. Clean your carpets on a regular basis, it probably should be done 2 or 3 times a year. Deduct the costs as a business expense.
Rug Doctor carpet cleaners are really low end. Your best bet is to pay a professional company to come in a few times a year to clean the carpets properly. Once the carpets are clean, consider a weekly linen service. Lots of companys will come around on a weekly basis and lay out/exchange long carpet runners. It's a small investment to keep your store looking clean and polished.
