How We Clean

Before bringing any equipment into your home or starting any treatments on your carpet, we will conduct a thorough walkthrough of the job. 

We will invite you to accompany us on the walkthrough if you wish to. The walkthrough will allow us to become familiar with your carpet, determining the carpet construction, such as woven or tufted, and also determine the fiber type, whether it’s natural or synthetic. We will ask you questions about your carpet and about any stains or soiling that we identify. High traffic areas will also be noted as these will require extra attention. 

The results of the survey will dictate the products we use on your carpet to ensure the very best clean. We will inspect any problem areas that need to be addressed individually and advise if there are any stains that we don’t expect to be able to remove fully. During the walkthrough, you should point out any concerns you have about your carpet, and please be sure to ask us any questions that you may have, either about your carpet or the service we are providing.

The most important step of professional carpet cleaning is not the hot water extraction, but the dry soil extraction! It is absolutely necessary to thoroughly pre-vacuum the carpet and remove as much dirt and dry soiling as possible before any wet cleaning.  It is important to remove these dry soils because if not, they can turn into a mud-like substance during the wet process of the cleaning. This not only makes the carpet more difficult to clean, but more importantly it leads to a problem known as 'wick back', whereby as the carpet dries, the dirt remaining at the base of the pile 'wicks back' up to the surface of the fibres making the carpet look dirty again soon after cleaning. Rest assured, here at Reviive, we use an industrial-strength, twin motor vacuum cleaner to remove up to 85% of the dirt, soil, and other nasties from your carpet, far more than domestic vacuums (yes, even Dyson, Gtech, and Shark!!) and massively reduces the possibility of post-cleaning issues.  

We will use a powerful yet environmentally friendly, organic pre-spray solution as the first line of attack in breaking down the embedded soils in your carpeting. This will be applied to the entire carpet and then additional, specialist pre-sprays may be used on specific spots and stains where required. The pre-spray solution counteracts the acidic nature of most soiling (below pH 7) with its alkaline qualities (above pH 7). This difference in pH, between soiling and solution, helps to break down the dirt and grime.  We also add an oxygen booster to our pre-spray which increases performance on stains, brightens colours, and also and to aids in odour removal.

Agitation is a key step in the carpet cleaning process. Using a CRB (contra-rotating brush) machine, we will make several passes over the carpeted area, agitating the pre-spray solution into the carpet pile. This scrubbing helps to coat each individual fibre of your carpet with the high powered pre-spray solution. Without the agitation step, the pre-spray would only coat the top layer of the carpet fibers, missing the bottom half and leaving deep-rooted soils untouched and untreated. Agitation using a CRB machine also lifts and restores the carpet pile, ensuring your carpet is left truly reviived and in its best possible condition. 

Time is one of the cornerstones of any cleaning job. When cleaning the oven, for example, you are required to leave the cleaning solution for a certain amount of time before rinsing it off. The same is true of carpet cleaning. It is necessary to allow the carpet cleaning solution time to ‘do its job’. After pre-spraying and agitation, we will then allow the solution time to dwell within the pile. The typical dwell time for pre-spray solutions to effectively breakdown soils in most carpets is about 10 minutes, dependent upon the level of soiling.  It’s worth the wait! 

Once the pre-treatment spray has had time to work, we will flush out the carpet using hot water extraction. 

It’s important that we restore the pH of your carpet to neutral (pH 7) for its long term health and beauty. To do this, we will use an acidic rinse solution to counteract the alkaline pre-spray. A fresh smelling deodoriser is added to the rinse solution which is then fed through the Airflex Storm and mixed with very hot water (the water is heated by an external Magma heater). This combination of the hot rinse solution and the powerful twin vacuum motors of the Airflex Storm is where the magic happens! 

The solution is sprayed into the carpet at high pressure (normally between 300-350psi), ensuring all the pre-spray and dissolved soils are flushed off the fibres and immediately vacuumed (extracted) out of the carpet at high speed, before making their way to the Storm’s waste tank!  

Unlike more inferior and less powerful extraction machines used by some of our competitors, the Airflex Storm Technology allows us to regulate the heat and pressure during this step, ensuring the carpet never becomes too wet. By doing so, we rapidly speed up drying times whilst also avoiding other issues that overwetting can cause!

There are times when the pre-spray solution will not remove the most stubborn of stains. Some stains are so embedded that we must use a special spotting solution to remove them. For example, rust, red wine, or makeup can cause these types of stains. We carry a wide range of specialised stain removal products and solutions that are specifically designed to breakdown certain types of tough stains. It is important to know that whilst every effort will be made to remove stains, not all stains can be removed or even reduced. For example, if a staining agent destroys the carpet dyes, no spotting solution can bring that dye back to life.  Also, some stains will only lighten up or appear reduced because, over time, stains become more permanent on carpet.  

After the initial cleaning is finished, it is important for us to have a second look around the area to make sure all spots, high traffic areas, and other problematic areas have been addressed to your satisfaction. 

Next up, using a carpet groom we will rake the carpet pile to ensure all the fibres are left facing in an upward position. This will allow the carpet to dry faster, look more attractive, and give a bouncier feel when walking on it.  We also use industrial air movers that quicken up the drying process along with adequate ventilation.

Your carpeting has just received a fantastic, thorough cleaning and is looking reviived. How do you keep it that way? Simple…..just ask us to apply a Scotchguard carpet stain protector.  The protective solution is sprayed onto the carpet after cleaning and helps the carpet fibres resist excessive soil binding and thus reducing further staining. The protective coat applied to the fibers greatly increases the lifespan of your carpets.

When the cleaning and protection stages are complete, the carpeting will still be moist to the touch. Most of the moisture will have been removed during the extraction process, however, the extraction process cannot remove 100% of the moisture. So, it is important that we bring fans onto the carpeted areas to increase air-flow and speed up the drying time. We will bring fans into each carpeted area and let them run while we clean another room in your home or while we pack up our equipment.

Any extra air-flow helps in the drying process. So, after we leave your house, you can assist the drying of your carpets by keeping windows open in the warmer months, or by popping the heating on during the colder, winter months.  

And last but by no means least, stage 12!

After the cleaning process is complete, we’d like to show off our work! We will take you on a tour of the cleaned areas and ask you to inspect the results of our cleaning. We’ll take the time to explain the steps taken to make your carpeting look squeaky clean! If you still have any concerns, we will do our utmost to address them right away and we won’t leave your house until you are completely satisfied with your carpet cleaning. 

You will also be presented with a ‘do’s and do not's’ aftercare advice sheet. We’ll ask you to read this whilst we are still in your home so that we can answer any questions that you may have. 

Customer service is paramount to us here at Reviive and therefore our work doesn't end as soon as we leave your property! Any questions you think of once we have left, feel free to give us a quick call as we’re always on hand to help!