Carpets can be cleaned in different ways. You probably use a vacuum cleaner to clean your carpet but professional carpet cleaning services use other methods. The methods most commonly used are dry cleaning and steam cleaning. These two methods have a number of differences.

Wetness

Steam cleaning actually uses a stream of very hot water and cleaning solution pushed deep into a carpet to clean it. The water is then suctioned out. Dry cleaning utilizes very little water or any appropriate solvent and chemical compounds to do the cleaning.

Chemicals

Dry cleaning uses strong chemicals that interact with the dirt in your carpet and break it down. This is why they may ask you to leave the house while they clean so that they eliminate the risk of you inhaling the chemical fumes.

Steam cleaning uses hot water at high pressure and a cleaning solution. You can say that the amount of chemicals used here is much less than what is used in dry cleaning.

Machines used

Since steam cleaning requires the water jet to be highly pressurised and hot the machines used are a little more powerful than what is used in dry cleaning. Dry cleaning just requires a machine to rub the chemicals into the carpet and then vacuum it out including the dirt once it is done.

This last difference will affect you directly as the home owner. With dry cleaning you can step on your carpet after a few hours of cleaning.

With steam cleaning they will have used water so the carpet will be a bit damp when the process is over. It is best to refrain from stepping on it for at least 24 hours or more so that it dries completely without getting any marks.

Both these carpet cleaning methods clean well but steam cleaning cleans much deeper. The hot water breaks up all the dirt to the bottom of the carpet and it is all sucked out immediately using a powerful machine.

The length of time it takes also differs with each method. Settling for a carpet cleaning method because of lower cost or the length of time it takes may reduce the life of your carpet so choose wisely. You should also not wait until you are coughing and sneezing from the dirt and dust build up to get your carpets cleaned.   Calling Pure Dry and getting your carpets cleaned regularly will make them last longer and look better in the long term.