Breathing Easier: Professional Carpet Cleaning and Allergy Relief

Allergies can turn a comfortable home into an uncomfortable home, causing sneezing, itching, and congestion. What’s not often talked about is that one of the biggest culprits for indoor allergies is carpets. In this article, we'll talk about how professional carpet cleaning can provide some legitimate relief for allergy sufferers and improve the overall indoor air quality of your home.

Some common indoor allergens are dust mites, pet dander, pollen, and mold spores. These allergens can become trapped in carpets, exacerbating allergy symptoms for you and your family.

Professional carpet cleaning can remove allergens from deep within carpet fibers. This is done through multiple means: water that is hotter than boiling water, specialized cleaning agents to fully break the bond between the soil and carpet fiber, and by using sanitizing agents.

When done regularly, professional carpet cleaning has a significant impact on indoor air quality and a more germ-free home.

However, in order to achieve better indoor air quality through carpet cleaning, the cleaning must be done properly. Unfortunately, it is very common for carpet cleaners to use cleaning methods, equipment and products that are less effective but faster or cheaper, in an effort to save money. While the carpet may look better and some allergens be removed, it may not be as effective as a company that incorporates the following aspects to their cleaning process:

• Vacuuming with a HEPA vacuum

• Using a high quality, non-toxic and eco-friendly detergent or cleaning agent

• Performing proper agitation

• Extracting via hot water extraction with a carpet wand or with a low moisture method, such as a microfiber pad

How often is often enough? The EPA recommends professional carpet cleaning be performed every 6-12 months. If you have children and pets, wear shoes indoors or live in an area where more debris gets tracked in, then the recommendation is closer to 6 months. The less of those things apply to you, the closer you can go to 12 months.

We believe in customers doing their research to hire the company that is right for them, so please contact us below if you have questions about our carpet cleaning process, service guarantee or why you will be happy if you hire us.

Cleaning company with good reviews

Nowadays, looking for a service company that does carpet cleaning, upholstery cleaning, air duct cleaning, or other cleaning services is largely influenced by online reviews. Whether you are looking at Google reviews, Yelp reviews, Nextdoor recommendations, or another source, you can quickly get a gauge on the quality of service that a company provides with just a few clicks. Rather than the old days of picking a random name out of the phone book and hoping they do a good job, you can now have a sense of a company’s commitment to high quality service.

As a local carpet cleaning company, we rely heavily on online reviews such as these, as it is essentially just “virtual word of mouth.” Whenever our customers are happy, we greatly appreciate online reviews being left so that others can hear about our service. Being a small, local company in Edmonds, it is a great way to get exposed to more potential customers in the Edmonds and surrounding area that we can service.

If we have worked for you before, please consider leaving a review at one of the sites listed below. Here’s the other great benefit when you leave a review for us: we donate $10 to the Boys and Girls Club for every review we receive!

Google: https://goo.gl/maps/7svh6i787VjTWZyi8

Nextdoor: https://nextdoor.com/login/?next=/pages/sno-king-carpet-upholstery-cleaning-edmonds-wa/recommend/

Yelp: https://www.yelp.com/biz/sno-king-carpet-and-upholstery-cleaning-edmonds

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/SnoKingCarpets/reviews

Angie's List: https://member.angieslist.com/member/reviews/edit?serviceProviderId=10719786

What is the best method for air duct cleaning?

Perhaps even more so than our other services, air duct cleaning is a service that is unfortunately full of gimmicks and imitators, rather than high quality service providers. There are most certainly other high quality companies in the Snohomish County and King County regions other than us, but there are also many companies using inferior equipment or methods.

The best way to clean air ducts is with negative air and compressed air. Negative air is created by hooking up a large vacuum (pictured below) directly to the furnace to pull debris out while using compressed air tools at each individual vent to push the debris back toward the vacuum. The other advantage this method has is that it allows the technician to clean the furnace itself and fully clean the main trunk line, rather than just cleaning the “branches” that lead from the main trunk to the vents. This follows the Nation Air Duct Cleaners Association (NADCA) standards for duct cleaning.

Examples of inferior systems include ones that hook up the vacuum to each vent, as this means the main trunk line is not being cleaned. Another common method is using a brush system that has no large vacuum attached to it. In this case, it’s essentially just a spinning brush and a shop vac, which provides far less effective cleaning than our 5000 CFM vacuum.

If you have any questions about air duct cleaning or want to learn more, we are here to serve you!

Best carpet cleaner near Edmonds

There’s a common saying in business: “You can be, at most, two of the following- the best, the fastest and the cheapest. You can never be all three.” In the industry of carpet cleaning, upholstery cleaning, tile cleaning, hardwood floor cleaning, and area rug cleaning, this is very true. We strive to be the best, thus we cannot possibly be the fastest or the cheapest; we don’t cut corners to save time, and we have to cover the expense of providing superior service. But what goes into a high quality cleaning company? Here’s a few things:

• High quality, safe products. We use only non-toxic, pet and kid friendly cleaning products. This means there are no harmful fumes or residue left on your carpet or any other surface.

• Professionally trained technicians. Unlike some of the big companies, we don’t sub contract and we don't hire just anybody. Our interview process is several steps including multiple interviews, background checks, drug screenings and several references. Our technicians are all professionally trained and regularly receive continuing education training sessions.

• A commitment to your satisfaction. Our guarantee is simple: If you’re not happy, you don’t pay. We will never leave a job without doing the absolute best we possibly can. In the rare event that we do not properly clean a surface, we will return with a smile and at no charge to fix it. Your complete satisfaction with our cleaning quality and customer service is our number one goal.

Whether you hire us or anyone else, be sure that the service is backed by a 100% guarantee like the Sno-King Guarantee: If you’re not happy you don’t pay- it’s that simple. Whether you’re our neighbor in Edmonds, or surrounding cities like Shoreline, Mukilteo or Seattle, call us for a free quote and top not service: 206-801-0161!

Green Carpet Cleaning in Edmonds

One of the biggest misconceptions with carpet cleaning, upholstery cleaning and area rug cleaning is that the main focus is just to make the surface that’s being cleaned look better. While this is very important, and we have every trick in the book to do so, it’s equally as important to clean for health. Soft surfaces in your home or office act as giant filters (especially carpet and area rugs), so just like any other filter, they need to be cleaned regularly in order to improve the air quality of your home.

So if you’re going to clean the soft surfaces (or hard surfaces like tile and grout, and hardwood floors) for health, you’re probably also concerned about the products and chemicals being used, right? Of course! Here’s where it gets tricky: there are many buzz words in the cleaning industry such as green, chemical-free, and water only. All of these terms have some meaning, but not always what you think it is. Here’s the bottom line: look for non-toxic products, processes and chemicals. Any company can claim they use a “green” method, but unfortunately there is no regulation holding them to a particular standard.

At Sno-King, we exclusively use non-toxic, kid and pet safe products. When we are cleaning, we not only use very safe products, we also rinse them out completely to ensure there is no residue left in the carpet, upholstery or other surface after the cleaning is completed. That way we ensure that it’s a true residue free carpet cleaning and there is only water in the carpet. In addition, we use high efficiency fans to dry the carpet, upholstery or area rugs very quickly, typically within just a couple of hours.

If you’re looking for safe, effective professional carpet cleaning in Edmonds, Shoreline, Bothell, Mukilteo, or the surrounding areas, please feel free to call, text or email us.

Does carpet protector really work?

You may have heard about carpet protecting services, particularly the popular ones like Scotchgard, Teflon, Maxim, etc. These companies, along with carpet cleaners and some carpet manufacturers, tend to promote these products as a way of repelling stains, spills, and other soils on your carpet or upholstery. This all sounds great, but the real key is this- is it true?

For a good answer on this, we believe it’s best to consult with a company like ours- one who cleans the carpet after it’s been installed and used. Fortunately for your sake, we have done a lot of research on this topic! Whether on upholstery, carpet, area rugs, or other surfaces, we are extremely confident in our fiber protector service because we have seen it work first hand. Not only in stand alone tests at our shop, but in real world situations, while cleaning carpet in clients homes in Edmonds, Lynnwood, Shoreline, Bothell and the surrounding area. No matter where it is, what the soil is from, or what the carpet is made of, our experience has shown us that applying a high quality protector makes the carpet far easier to clean. This is why we offer a 6 month warranty with all fiber protector applications- if you have a spot or spill within 6 months of applying fiber protector and you can’t get it out, we will swing by for free to remove the spot! That’s how confident we are that our protector treatment, along with our free bottle of spot cleaner, will keep your carpet clean for a long time.

If you have any questions about our protector treatment, pricing for carpet cleaning, methods for our professional upholstery cleaning, or anything else- please contact us! We are transparent and honest about everything we do, and we would be honored to work for you or even just answer questions that you have related to carpet, upholstery, tile and grout, hardwood or area rug cleaning.

In the meantime, enjoy this amazing before and after!

High quality professional carpet cleaning

Here’s the unfortunate reality about home service businesses: anyone can purchase some equipment, slap a logo on a van, and call themselves a “professional” whether or not they really are. This is one of the main reasons that home service companies have a bad reputation! Far too often, the worker coming to your house may not have adequate training or expertise and end up messing up the project.

So what should you look for when hiring a professional carpet cleaner? Well, fortunately in the greater Seattle area, there is a lot of competition so companies have more incentive to be more professional. Unfortunately, that also means there’s more companies out there total, so there are bound to be many that aren’t up to par. Here’s a few key things to look for in a highly rated carpet or upholstery cleaner:

• Professionally trained and certified technicians

• Safe, non-toxic products

• Ask how many years they have been in business (look for at least 3-4 years minimum)

• State of the art equipment (truck mounted rather than portable, and not the same tools you could go grab at a hardware store)

• Good reviews for carpet cleaners- this one is huge!

As long as these 5 things check out, then you’re probably okay. If we were to add anything to the list, we would suggest hiring an independent local company, as the quality control will likely be much better.

At Sno-King, we meet all of these requirements above and more! So if you are looking for a top notch, highly rated, professional carpet cleaning company that uses state of the art equipment, look no further! Call or text us at 206-801-0161 or email info@snokingcarpets.com and we will be happy to serve you!

Up front pricing- no bait and switch!

Do you know the number one complaint of the carpet cleaning industry? It’s bait and switch tactics! Far too often, carpet cleaning companies will advertise a very low price to get their foot in the door, then once they arrive (and you’ve done all the work to move furniture!) they charge far more than their advertisement. Sometimes they’ll say it’s because of pet spots, or square footage, or that you need “special treatments” or else they won’t do the cleaning. No matter the reason, it’s dishonest and unethical.

At Sno-King, one of our four core values is Honesty. We are transparent with our pricing, products and cleaning process. When we quote a price on the phone, email or text, we make sure to give you as accurate of a quote as possible. Sometimes that means our carpet cleaning price estimate will be higher than the competition, but that’s because we want to make sure you don’t have any surprise charges once we arrive for the work!

If you value honesty and integrity, along with top-notch quality, we’d love to serve you! Also, please contact us here if you have any questions at all about our service. We are here to serve you, whether you live in Edmonds, Lynnwood, Shoreline, Mountlake Terrace, Bothell, Mukilteo, or any of the surrounding cities!

Cleaning carpet when it's cold outside

It’s a very common belief that it’s better to have your carpet professionally cleaned when it is warm outside. Although there is some truth behind this, the real answer is that it shouldn’t matter, as long as you hire a high quality company.

Drying carpet is not just about temperature. In fact it’s more about airflow. We use 7 (seven!) high-efficiency fans on every fans to ensure the fastest dry times possible. While we carry 3 different types, one of them is pictured below. This fan is used for quickly drying upholstery and small rooms, while we have other fans to quickly dry larger areas of carpet after cleaning.

With this process that we use, there is no need for concern when having the carpet cleaned while it’s colder outside. Depending how warm you keep your house, it can actually be better to clean the carpet in the winter! In the summer, it gets very humid and even with airflow from our fans, it can get so humid that it slows the drying process.

So if you’re trying to decide if now or later is a good time to book a cleaning, our recommendation would be to contact us before it gets too warm out!

Should I vacuum before carpet cleaning?

Here’s a popular question that we often get asked, and one that you might like the answer to. In short, yes, the carpet should always be vacuumed before cleaning. While many carpet cleaning companies will ask you to vacuum before they arrive, we do the vacuuming for you! In addition to that, there are a few keys to a good vacuuming job:

• Of course- use a good vacuum! Don’t get duped by infomercials and creative marketing. The flashiest, fanciest looking vacuums typically are not the best. We recommend going with trusted brands like Sanitaire and ProTeam (both of which you can buy commercial versions of for the same price or cheaper than high end homeowner styles)

• Go slooooow. The “pull pass” (meaning as you pull the vacuum back toward you) is where you pick up the most amount of soil. Focus on the pull pass and go slowly.

• Get the corners. I know, it’s tedious. But it really is that important to use the accessories to get the corners of rooms up against the baseboards. Otherwise, over time, you’ll see unsightly dark lines of dust and dirt start to build up. Surprisingly, those can be very difficult to get out.

Of course, if you have any questions about vacuums or anything related to them, you can always reach out to us and ask!