Carpet Shampooing.
The weather was really nice today, and being all by myself for the weekend, I though I would do some cleaning up (spring cleaning and all). My HT room also needs a good vacuuming and so does the car.
The Previous owner used this car as a daily, and one of the daily tasks he had was taking his dog to the park, and out for walks. The carpet in this car was FULL of dog hair, and the car had a nice, wet dog stink to it. With summer approaching, the last thing I want to smell in a car with no A/C is dog. I took it upon myself to shampoo the carpets, and document it for you guys.
Firstly, you're going to need to assess the area's that NEED cleaning. Considering this car has 420,000 KM on it, 220,000 with him and his dog, every inch needed shampooing. Using a 12mm Socket on a ratchet, I removed the front seats (only things that really needed to come out) so I could have complete access to the entire floor board. Using a dog hair comb I picked up at a pet store, I scrapped the carpets to free up dog hair, and agitate deep into the carpet fibers. The comb will fill up quickly, with carpet fibers and dog hair, so simply vacuum it out when you see fit (my comb has short metal spikes protruding from a soft rubbery pad). Once the carpets has been fully agitate, vacuum up all the loosened debris and fibers. You want to remove as much debris before you shampoo.
Now that all loose hair and dirt is removed, prep your carpet shampooer. My unit is a small Bissel cleaner, that has 2 attachments, and a heater for the cleaning solution. One attachment has fixed brushes, a solution sprayer, and the suction head. The other, has rotating brushes, a solution sprayer, and the suction head. In most cases, use the fixed brush head. You can agitate far better with your arm and some body weight, then some spinning contraption. My cleaner has it's own carpet shampoo solution, but I think almost any decent carpet shampoo will work. Simply follow the shampooer's instructions on how to fill it up and you're ready to go. If you have to add water (like mine) make it extremely hot. This will help cleaner further.
When I start shampooing, I spray down the area I want to clean thoroughly before I start agitating with the head. After this, I run the comb around again to help get the solution deep into the fibers, and agitate further. Once everything is damp and combed, begin scrubbing with the head, while spraying even more solution into the carpet. You want it to be very wet, otherwise just the top fibers will be getting the shampooing. Once the entire section is scrubbed, begin removing the solution. Push hard and drag the suction head and watch as the solution sucks up. Keep going over every part until there is no solution coming out of the carpet.
After the carpet has been dried using the suction head, I like to spray down scent. I used febreze today, and will hit it again on Monday with a product at work.
You're done! Simply let the carpet air out and dry, then put back anything you removed before cleaning. With regular vacuuming, you should not need to shampoo your carpets very often. Also, the more you vacuum, the less chance of dirt and debris getting pressed down into the carpet. If you neglect this process, getting it clean again will become a very hard process.
Pictures.
Preparations. Passenger side combed, driver side untouched.
Contents of comb after scrubbing.
Contents of shampoo container after suctioning the carpet.
Finished product, awaiting seats.
SheepStar
SheepStar
