Very Low Moisture Carpet Cleaning (VLM) With Encapsulation Products

Low moisture carpet cleaning has been around for a very long time,
it's just that the cleaning products used were different.

Most people will immediately think of the major franchise Chem-Dry
which doesn't do steam cleaning but instead uses a low moisture
cleaning approach and has been for many years.

With low moisture carpet cleaning, equipment connected to a truck mount is not used
to rinse the carpet, instead, usually, a 175-floor buffer machine is used
with microfiber or cotton pads to clean the carpet
by transferring the soil from the carpet to the pads.

You can think of this as spilling something and using a microfiber towel to soak up the spill,
this transfer to the towel is the same as transferring the soil
from the carpet to the pads used on the machine.

The most important step before doing this method of cleaning
is doing a very thorough vacuuming of the carpet to fully remove as much dry soil as possible.
Dry soil makes up the majority of what is in the carpet and if left there over time
and stepped on repeatedly will cause the carpet fibers to dull and become dingy.
Not vacuuming regularly will result in darker areas where there is a lot of foot traffic
and will cause irreversible damage.
No amount of deep cleaning (steam cleaning or low moisture cleaning) will be able to restore
the carpet fibers if they have been neglected for too long.

After a thorough vacuuming is done, all that's left to remove from the carpet fibers
is the 'sticky soil' which needs a cleaning solution to release the soil from the fibers.
Encapsulation cleaning products are great for releasing that sticky soil and capturing it,
basically turning that sticky soil into dry soil that can be removed much easier.

The encapsulation cleaning product is sprayed on all the areas to be cleaned
and then the 175-floor buffer is used to transfer that released soil over to the microfiber or cotton pad.
The 175-floor buffer is also agitating the carpet while cleaning to make sure
all that sticky soil is released and transferred to the pad.

Because most of the dry soil was removed before doing this,
there isn't a lot of water needed to rinse the carpet to remove the remaining sticky soil
and the microfiber or cotton pad is also absorbing some of the moisture while cleaning
which results in a dry time of 30-90 minutes.

Because the carpet dries so quickly, spots or stains don't have a chance to reappear
and the business can go about their duties without having to wait hours for their carpet to fully dry.

This is a perfect method for commercial carpet cleaning for businesses
or even most residential customers
that have light to moderate foot traffic and would like to maintain the carpet in their place of business.