Carpets often need maintenance and frequent cleaning. There are various methods to wash carpets or area rugs but if homeowners need a quick carpet cleaning method, then they will choose the dry method. It’s a way that uses little to no moisture when cleaning the carpets. There are several ways to wash carpets but the foremost common are wet and cleaning procedures. Wet cleaning is simple because it uses water and a cleaning agent to wash the carpet. Meanwhile, cleaning has various methods and procedures that are differentiated by the tactic or cleaning agent used.
Dry cleaning is a process where it utilizes a cleaning agent to breakdown and softens the accumulated dirt on the carpet. In some cases, the textile is immersed within a liquid cleaning agent. Albeit it’s immersed in liquid, it’s still considered cleaning since no water is involved within the process.
History of the Dry Cleaning Method
Dry cleaning’s history came as an accident. In 1855, a dye-works owner in France named Jean Baptiste Jolly was the person who first introduced dry cleaning. The story goes when Jolly’s maid accidentally overturned an oil lamp and spilled turpentine over an unclean table cloth. When the turpentine dried on the material, the stains were gone. This gave him the thought of a cleaning process without water.
After witnessing the ordeal, he experimented on a whole tablecloth. He placed a whole tablecloth on a tub filled a tub with turpentine. Once he dried the material, all the stains were gone. This method led Jolly to open the stop that gave him the title, “father of modern day dry cleaning”. Early cleaning services utilized solvents like kerosene or gasoline when cleaning clothes or fabrics. The arrival of other chemicals in the United States came out during the second world war.
Solvents like trichloroethylene and tetrachloride led to the creation of the merchandise called perchloroethylene or perc. Perc became the top choice for cleaning. This solvent can provide fast carpet cleaning and may be utilized in other fabrics also. It’s also safer and doesn’t require using massive machines. Perc did a far better job in cleaning fabrics or clothes without needing so much space and offering great cleaning quality within an hour.
Dry cleaning is an efficient and fast carpet cleaning method. However, multiple methods use varying procedures when implementing it.
Dry Chemical
This method needs some moisture thanks to the solvent it uses within the procedure. When using the dry compound method, a compound cleaning agent is employed to be sprayed on the carpet. The subsequent process is to brush the surface and permit the carpet to soak up the chemical. The carpet is left for a couple of minutes to let the solvent attract the dirt embedded on the fibers of the carpet.
The next procedure is to let the carpet dry. Since there’s little or no moisture involved, it only takes a brief time for the drying procedure to be finished. The chemical that attracted the dirt will evaporate. It’s essential that the carpet must be dried first before vacuuming to permit the evaporation process to step in. Without the evaporation process, the liquid solution will remain trapped on the carpet alongside the dirt leading to an unfinished cleaning procedure. Once it’s dry, the nested procedure is to vacuum the carpet. Before using any solutions or compounds, the carpet cleaner must read the labels carefully to understand the application instructions and if there is a dosage needed to be followed for a selected chemical.
Dry Ice
The solid method employs a beam that removes the dirt from the fibers. The beam contains solid and placed on the fabric’s surface. this is often quite an effective process. Unfortunately, this method is costlier compared to other cleaning methods. Moreover, it also carries a significant CO2 footprint which is bad for the environment. This method still has moisture since the CO2 particles are still small droplets of liquid that evaporates.
Encapsulation
The encapsulation process makes use of polymers that “encapsulates” particles to dry residues. For more deep cleaning attributes, the detergents are combined with polymers to get rid of the particles on the carpet fibers. The detergent, the polymers, and the dirt will transform into a solid matter which is vacuumed to get rid of the dirt from the fibers of the carpet.
Depending on the chemicals used, this method can take a while before proceeding to the vacuuming procedure. Other cleaning products don’t require any drying time. The compounds are often brushed by rotary brushes or vacuumed with equipment that features a strong suction. This method is prevalent in offices, hotels, or locations where the carpets are needed to be cleaned fast.
Dry cleaning is considered a fast carpet cleaning method. It can take just an hour or more counting on the tactic and chemicals used. It is often done through a procedure done by a professional cleaner. If the homeowner insists on doing the cleaning at home, he or she must have very deep knowledge of the chemicals or procedures to avoid messing up the carpet’s colors and not finishing the cleaning process.
