Four Rooms of Carpet in One Visit, Palo Alto

The situation

Beige carpet covers most of the ground floor of this Palo Alto home, and the household includes small children. The carpet was not stained so much as tired — the pile had gone flat along the walking routes, and the colour had drifted two shades darker between the sofa and the patio door than it was under the furniture.

That difference under the furniture is the useful clue. It shows the carpet has not faded or worn out. It is holding soil, and soil is something that comes out.

What we did

• Dry soil first. Commercial vacuuming across all four rooms. On a beige carpet most of what you see is dry grit sitting in the base of the pile, and pulling it out before any water goes down is what decides the final result.
• Pre-spray and dwell. A pre-treatment worked into the traffic lanes and left to break down the oily film that holds the grit in place. Edges, corners and the closet floor were done by hand.
• Hot water extraction. Overlapping passes with a dual-motor unit, each pass finished with a dry stroke so the carpet comes up damp rather than wet.
• Groom and dry. The pile was groomed in one direction and air movers were set in the living room and the hallway.

The result

The after photo is taken from the same spot as the before. The flat path across the middle of the room is gone, the pile stands up again, and the colour now matches what was hiding under the furniture. Total time on site was about four hours for all four rooms.

The carpet was dry enough to walk on in roughly six hours, so the family had the ground floor back the same evening.

Questions people ask about this job

How long does carpet take to dry after cleaning?

With air movers running, carpet in a Bay Area home is dry to the touch in four to six hours and fully dry within 24. Carpet cleaned in the evening is comfortable to walk on by the next morning.

Can flattened carpet pile be brought back?

In most cases, yes. Flattening is usually soil packed into the base of the pile rather than worn fibre. Hot water extraction removes the soil and the pile lifts. If the fibre itself is abraded — which you can see as a change in texture, not just colour — cleaning will not restore it.

How much does carpet cleaning cost in Palo Alto?

FreshTouchSF charges by area. For residential carpet in Palo Alto a typical room falls between $60 and $120, and whole-floor jobs are quoted per square foot. You can get an exact figure from the calculator on our cleaning page before booking.

FreshTouchSF provides carpet cleaning, upholstery cleaning, handyman services and pressure washing in Palo Alto and across the San Francisco Bay Area. See more jobs in our project journal.