Carpeted stairs in Alpine, in Bergen County, cleaned by hot water extraction. Steam cleaning is the everyday name for that method: heated solution goes into the pile and is drawn straight back out with the soil it releases. One photograph was taken on this job, after the work was finished.
What the photograph shows
Grey carpet on a straight flight, seen from the bottom looking up. Plain pale walls sit close on both sides and there is a white rail fitting on the wall to the right.
On a fresh clean the strokes show. The treads carry straight passes running across the step. The risers carry shorter marks set at an angle, because a riser is worked from the side and the tool comes in and turns. Those marks are pile direction. They are neither soil nor damage, and they settle as the carpet dries and the stairs are used again.
No before photograph was taken on this job, so the condition of the flight beforehand is not described here. The date, the customer, the price and the number of steps are not recorded either.
Why are carpeted stairs cleaned by hand?
No machine head sits flat on a stair tread. A tread is short, it has a nosing that rolls over the front edge, and the riser behind it stands up at a right angle. A floor wand is built for a flat run of carpet, so on a staircase it misses most of what needs cleaning. A technician kneels on every step with a hand tool instead.
That is why a staircase takes longer than the same square footage of bedroom floor. Every step has more than one face and each face is worked on its own. We start at the bottom and move up, so anything that comes off a step lands on one still waiting rather than one already cleaned.
What we did
- Dye tested first, on a spot that does not show, before any water went into the carpet.
- Cleaned the flight by hot water extraction, which puts heated solution into the pile and draws it back out through the same head in one movement.
- Worked the staircase by hand, because no machine head sits flat on a tread.
- Cleaned the risers as well as the treads.
- Used non-toxic solutions, which is what goes into every home we work in.
- Photographed the finished flight before leaving.
What you should know
Carpet is normally dry within hours in warm weather and takes longer in winter. That applies to carpet cleaning in general. Stairs are the surface people are most impatient to use again, so it helps to book a time of day when the flight can be left unused while it dries.
The dye test comes before the water. A small amount of solution goes on a spot nobody sees, and the color is checked to confirm it stays where it is. On a staircase that spot is usually low on a riser or tucked in at the side.
You receive a written estimate before the work begins. All services are performed at your home or business, and we book by appointment 24 hours a day.
The photograph is unretouched, cropped and resized only, with our logo laid over the corner. The reason this staircase was cleaned is not recorded.
When to call us
Call when the stairs read darker than the carpet at the top and bottom of the flight, when an inspection is coming, or when the treads have gone flat and vacuuming stops changing anything. The method is set out on Carpet cleaning. This job was in Alpine, with the rest of the county on Bergen County. We work across eight counties in North Jersey and Central Jersey, including Essex County. More completed work is on Before and after.
