Carpet & Upholstery Cleaning, Tile, Stone & Grout Cleaning & Sealing - Santa Cruz CA

Cleaning has historically been viewed as a
commodity—a menial task that anyone can do.
Long before sophisticated textiles and complex
built indoor environments were created,
cleaning may have been a simple, easy task,
but that is no longer the case. Complex flooring
systems, sensitive fabrics, and new age
soiling conditions have created a need for advance
education in the cleaning industry. Unfortunately,
many cleaners (and consumers)
have not understood this concept. We still see
the ads for $6.95 per room for carpet cleaning
and sofa cleaning for $45.00. The cleaner puts
the ads out, never intending on cleaning for
those prices, and the consuming public gets the
idea that cleaning should be cheap.
These so called “cleaning” companies also
happen to be the ones that don’t educate themselves
or their employees. The result is that
carpets and fabrics are being ruined every day
by uneducated, uninformed, and sometimes
downright unscrupulous carpet cleaners.
They are facing soiling conditions that they
have never seen or heard of due to a lack of
education. Or worse, they create a situation on
a carpet or fabric that they have no idea how to
fix. Some examples would be that they leave
sticky residues in the carpet that cause the carpet
or fabric to resoil rapidly or discolor.
Top notch education is readily available in our
industry. There is no excuse for cleaners not to
educate themselves (and provide useful education
to their clients). Part of the problem is since
they have fallen into the trap of viewing cleaning
as a commodity themselves, they can’t afford
to educate themselves. Education is expensive,
but the result of not getting the knowledge
necessary is much more costly.

Our company invests a great deal in education.
Not only do we spend thousands of dollars per
year on education, we are heavily involved in
our industry making us well connected with our
industry leaders. We also own a online cleaning community where thousands of cleaners gather on our “virtual” doorstep to discuss the very latest happenings in our field.
This way, if a unique situation arises in the
field, we have fellow veteran cleaners that we can connect with,
therefore bringing the cutting edge of cleaning
technology to you.
Our industry provides courses in carpet cleaning,
repair, fabric cleaning, marble and tile
cleaning, area rug cleaning, customer service,
marketing, management, and other related
courses.
Many of the organizations offer certification
programs that involve testing and ethics requirements. There are also Trade Journals and Online resources that can keep Carpet, Stone and Fabric cleaners abreast of the latest technologies, trends and “Trade Secrets”.

If you found us on the internet and enjoyed our service please leave us a review on yelp.com

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As any landlord can attest, college kids and surf rats just dont appreciate a clean carpet. They do their best to destroy YOUR carpet before you have to evict them. While we don’t clean short term rentals on the daily basis that some Santa Cruz carpet cleaners do, when we come across them, we are more than prepared to clean them into “rentable” condition again.

This poor carpet had not been vacuumed in over a year. The land lord went over it with their vacuum three times before we arrived and yet we still were able to remove over two containers like this from just the living room..

These cheap Bissell vacuums actually work really well.

This bed room had been heavily abused by Toonces the Surfing Cat.

With a combination of methods we got it looking and smelling real good.

We love a challenge so please let us tackle your next nightmare tenant’s “artwork”….

If your wool or synthetic area rug is too large to bring in for cleaning then let us clean it at your home or business location anywhere in Santa Cruz, Santa Clara. San Mateo or Monterrey counties

Here is a 40+ year old wool rug that sits on the 5th floor of the UCSF Medical Library in downtown San Francisco.

This was our 4th visit out to clean this rug and this time we spent an extra 2 days applying a new latex/mesh backing on it.

About 10 years ago they made the mistake of sending it out to be cleaned and the backing got heavily damaged in the move. Notice the thick wrinkles in the 3rd picture.

By applying a new backing after stretching out the wrinkles, followed by a thorough extraction cleaning we’ve added many more year of life to this old fellow.

Enjoy the pictures.

Forty feet by twenty feet

Drink spills galore!

These wrinkles are big enough to trip over.

28 gallons of latex to complete

Applying fresh latex to the backing to fix the wrinkles.

Where the wrinkles use to be!

After 3 days of hard work it's all done and looking great

Cleaning Procedures & Recommendations

General Cleaning Clean stone surfaces with a neutral cleaner designated safe for natural stone. Use a clean mop on floors and a soft cloth for other surfaces for best results. Don’t use more than the recommended amount of any cleaning product. Too much may leave a film, causing streaks. Change rinse water frequently. Do not use products that contain lemon juice, vinegar or other acids on marble, travertine or limestone as these can etch the surface of the stone. Do not use scouring powders or creams; these products contain abrasives that may scratch the surface. If you have large areas of stone, tile (or wood) in your home consider purchasing a Hoover Floormate Spinscrub 800. It’s a great tool for maintaining hard floors. It sprays scrubs and rinses will very little effort on your part and you won’t risk spreading dirty water around like mopping can. Walmart usually has the best price

Floor Surfaces Dust mop interior floors frequently using a clean non-treated dry dust mop. Sand, dirt and grit do the most damage to natural stone surfaces due to their abrasiveness. Mats or area rugs inside and outside an entrance will help to minimize the sand, dirt and grit that can scratch a stone floor. Be sure that the underside of the mat or rug is a non-slip surface. Do not use vacuum cleaners that are worn as the metal or plastic attachments may scratch the surface. You will want a vacuum that lets you shut off the brush roll so grit &dust dost not get scattered.

Counter/Vanity Top Surfaces Clean your countertops daily with a soft cloth or paper towel and a residue free pH neutral cleaner designated safe for natural stone. We recommend Trader Joe’s Multi Purpose Cleaner, Stone Tech’s Revitalizer from most tile shops and Zep Neutral pH floor cleaner from Home Depot.

Bath and Other Wet Areas In the bath/ shower or other wet areas, soap scum can be minimized by using a squeegee after each use. Installing a water softener in your home will help tremendously as well. We recommend the use of Magic Al’s Non Acid Soap Scum Remover to clean all stone and tile shower stalls.

For hard water spots/build up glass and granite we recommend Magic Al’s Glass and Metal Magic. You’ll find a ton of uses for this great product. Magic Al products can be found in the cleaning supply section@ www.groundfloor.org

Outdoor Pool & Patio Areas In outdoor pool, patio or hot tub areas sweep often flush with clear water and use a mild bleach solution to remove algae or moss. Neutral pH detergents can be used sparingly but take care to make sure they do not enter any waterways. Hydrogen Peroxide can be sprayed on organic stains. Apply a good amount over the spot and let it dry naturally, several applications may be necessary.

Do’s and Don’ts

• Do dust mop floors frequently.
• Do clean surfaces with a neutral stone cleaner.
• Do thoroughly rinse and dry the surface after washing.
• Do blot up spills and cooking oils immediately.
• Do protect floor surfaces with non-slip mats or area rugs and counter top surfaces with coasters, trivets or placemats, particularly under those containing alcohol or citrus juices. Many common foods and drinks contain acids that will etch or dull the stone surface.
• Don’t place hot items directly on the stone surface. Use trivets or mats under hot dishes and placemats under china, ceramics, silver or other objects that can scratch the surface.
• Don’t use vinegar, lemon juice or other cleaners containing acids on marble, limestone, travertine or concrete surfaces.
• Don’t use cleaners that contain acid such as bathroom cleaners, grout cleaners or tub & tile cleaners.
• Don’t use abrasive cleaners such as dry cleansers or soft cleansers.
• Don’t mix bleach and ammonia; this combination creates a toxic and lethal gas.

Stain Treatment and Other Issues

If possible, immediately blot spills with a clean paper towel. If something has soaked into the stone and stained it, a poultice may need to be applied. 40 Volume peroxide (hair developer) available at a beauty supply shop can be sprayed on stone to lighten organic stains such as coffee and wine Contact us for more details.

Sealing

We seal every stone that requires it after we clean it, but a reapplication needs to be done periodically. You can purchase a product and do it yourself, or contact us to perform the service for you.

But we do rejuvenate a mean shower stall!

Deep cleaning, mold removal, re-grouting, stain removal, removal and replacement of caulk, grout or silicone and long lasting penetrative sealers.

Natural Stone, Ceramic or Porcelain, you name it, we can clean it.

Before-

After-

Before-

After-

I just can’t get over how well our Color Sealing process works.

This first picture is after a two step cleaning process using both alkaline and acidic cleaning agents. Sometimes light colored grout shows stains and other than removing the grout and replacing with new, color sealing is the only logical, effective and long lasting choice.

And this shot shows the same grout line with our “Color Seal” process applied.

And the nice things is, Color Sealed grout will not stain or absorb water or any other fluids. Under normal residential settings the seal should last ten years or more.

Seeing how it is acrylic based, you are now cleaning a plastic surface instead of concrete/grout so you can imagine just how easy and effective your future Saturday morning cleanings will be for you.

Here are some photos of a counter where the home owner attempted to use premixed grout to hide the coffee and oil stains. New grout will not stick to old grout with out the proper preparation as these photos clearly show.

We removed all the mess, steam cleaned it and then applied a Color Seal to make their conters look just about “Perfect”..

Give us a call if you’d like a free demonstration and estimate for your floor or counter tops restoration needs.

We lost one of our best customers recently..

Millie was getting on in years and like most old dogs, they create reasons for us carpet cleaners to come visit them and their owners pretty often.

In Millie’s case (and her best friend, Abbey the Greyhound) those visit got to be so often that financially it became a real burden for her owners. Being the animal lovers that we are, we got her owners a great deal on a professional quality carpet and fabric spot cleaning machine. While I missed visiting Millie during her last days, I slept better knowing her parents would be able to clean up after her “on the spot”..

If you think you could use one of these machines, let us know.

San Lorenzo Floors/Abbey Carpet -Scotts Valley & Aptos
Floors Etc-Soquel
Mission Floors -Santa Cruz
Warehouse Direct Flooring Outlet- Santa Cruz
Rainbow Carpet -Santa Cruz
Santa Cruz Tile and Stone
Tile and Marble Outlet-Santa Cruz

They all have so much confidence in our ability to treat you and your floors so well that we are the only cleaning company in town that they refer to their clients.

These referrals are not paid for. The time it took to build the relation ships with these fine retailers did not happen over night. Most of these companies had been burned by other cleaners in the past so the trust they now have in us was not easily gained.
Over the past 8 years we have proven that cheap splash and dash carpet cleaning is really no bargain at all. What is a bargain is soft fluffy carpet that stays clean 3 to 4 times longer then those “coupon” companies who send out kids with 2 to 3 months of experience under their belts.
Or in the case of tile and stone cleaning, the proper use of cleaning agents and tools that will not harm the surface of your natural stone and delicate grout lines. You’d be amazed how the careless use of acids or too much water pressure can ruin a dirty floor

Our in depth knowledge of fiber types, cleaning agents, drying technology, the latest in methods and equipment and most importantly a passion for our work that just can not be touched

If you trusted one of these retailers to install your flooring, you can be sure trust them to refer you to a great cleaning company.