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Carpets are the most luxurious flooring option and have been for decades. Carpeting adds warmth, grip, and comfort to any home or business. What may surprise you though is what lies beneath the surface deep within the carpet pile. There, lives thousands of tiny creepy crawlies you probably weren’t even aware of!

The average-sized house in the United Kingdom accumulates over 20 kilograms of dirt and soil annually. These particles are tracked inside from the outdoors and quickly hide in your carpet. This is especially true for darker carpets and goes double for any shade of tan or brown.

Daily foot traffic across carpets heads to the entrapment of some of the vilest germs, bacteria, particles, and other organisms you could imagine. Things that look like
city-destroying monsters when scrutinized under a microscope. Disgusting carpets can have adverse effects on your health and the air quality of your home or office.

 

Five nasty things found in your carpet:

1. Human & Pet Dander
The average person sheds more than 1.5 million skin flakes (dander) each day. To make matters even grosser, microscopic insects like mites, fleas, and ticks eat those skin flakes.
Regular vacuuming will reduce the amount of pet and human dander that builds up in your carpet. The heat associated with professional truck mounted carpet cleaning, however, is the only way to kill the bugs for good.

2. Mould and Mildew
Many people associate mould and mildew with damp spaces. They can crop up in household carpets, too. Pathogens like E. coli, Staphylococcus, and Salmonella can collect in the dense environment of carpet fibres. Over time, mould and mildew spores can damage indoor air quality and cause respiratory distress.

3. Bugs
The average household carpet is the ideal habitat for all sorts of insects, including fleas, dust mites, and bed bugs. In addition to being gross, these bugs can make you sick. Mites, for example, moult their skin and excrete waste regularly. This can cause allergies and respiratory problems in household inhabitants.

4. Food and Drinks
Spilled food and drinks are inevitable, but they can make your carpet very yucky. In addition to leaving stains, they create a virtual buffet for hungry organisms like mites, fleas, and mould. You can avoid this by cleaning up spills as soon as they happen and having your carpet cleaned regularly.

5. Smells
If your house has a funky smell, your carpet is likely to blame. Substances from tobacco smoke, pet accidents, and spilled food all collect in carpet fibres. Over time, these things can go rancid, making your home a little less than fresh.

 

How to Keep Your Carpet Clean

If you’re grossed out by the facts above, you’re not alone. Household carpets hold all sorts of nasty things, and most of us don’t want to live with it. Fortunately, you can keep your home clean and allergy-free by vacuuming at least once a week. You should also have your carpets professionally cleaned at least once a year. This will kill organisms that live in your carpet and reduce allergens, leaving your home fresh, clean, and comfortable.
If you’re ready to clean your carpets and eliminate pet odour for the coming season, contact Gerrards Carpet & Upholstery Cleaners. We offer professional carpet cleaning services to help you start Spring off on the right foot.

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Whilst most carpet and upholstery cleaning companies do their very best to provide a high-quality service at a fair price, there are some individuals and carpet cleaning franchises that are less ethical and employ bait-and-switch tactics on unsuspecting customers.

The bait-and-switch con is usually spotted in online or leaflet advertising with a company permanently promoting particularly cheap offers such as prices starting at £15, one room any size for £15, or a whole house for £75 etc.

 

What then usually happens is that the carpet cleaning representative will try to raise the agreed price with additional hidden charges. These are often explained by stating that “you were quoted for a basic clean, but your carpets need a deep clean” or “you need specific additional chemicals or special process not covered by the offer to remove these types of stains.”

Simply put, the “bait” is the misleading offer, and the “switch” is the attempt to scam the customer into paying an inflated price. And if the customer doesn’t agree to the new price, the clean is usually very rushed and the offending company out the door as soon as possible to minimise time and money spent on the job.

Unfortunately, this tactic is still being used in the UK even though it became illegal in 2008.
In England and Wales, bait and switch is banned under the Consumer Protection from Unfair Trading Regulations 2008; breaking this law can result in a criminal prosecution, an unlimited fine and two years in jail.

 

The BBC TV programme Watchdog brought this to peoples attention a number of years ago, however it is still being used today.

 

Watchdog Part 1

 

Watchdog Part 2

 

How to avoid being scammed by bait-and-switch

Firstly, we recommend avoiding any company that is currently advertising any suspiciously cheap deals. It’s simple:

A carpet cleaning franchise operator simply wouldn’t make a reasonable living if he were to clean carpets at the prices advertised (after paying franchise fees, running costs etc.).

And if they did manage to do so, it would be at the expense of any sort of quality service because jobs would have to be completed at breakneck speed in order to cram as many appointments as possible into their working week.

But aggressively pushing an inflated price on a customer and then carrying out a substandard service when they decline is simply not acceptable. 

Granted, there are sometimes genuine reasons for having to increase the price of a job: The rooms may be significantly larger than described. There may be additional areas or rooms added.

Always do your homework and if possible, get recommendations from family and friends. Using local companies, means you are more likely to have heard about their reputation – good or bad! Check reviews on Facebook, as people post under their own name and profile so probably more likely to be genuine. If reviews seem to be written in the same way, style, etc, they may not be genuine. Some tradespeople write their own, and if you are looking for that, it’s quite easy to spot.

 

      CLICKBAIT
THE MODERN BAIT & SWITCH TACTIC!

But in truth, bait-and-switch extends far beyond its legal definition. Bait-and-switch is prevalent in almost all social media platforms, online newspapers, magazines etc. You’re probably familiar with the techniques, even though you might not have considered them “bait-and-switch.”

Think of the last time you followed a clickbait link. You had sky-high expectations set by a too-good-to-ignore title, only to be disappointed by a lacklustre article behind it.
It annoyed you and wasted your time, but, in the end, that link did exactly what it was supposed to do. It got you to land on the page without providing you any value.

The idea behind bait-and-switch is to draw customers in with an attractive proposition, fail to deliver, and convert them under the fact they’re already there. Isn’t that exactly what that clickbait was aiming to do? Isn’t that exactly what’s happening when a white paper turns into a sales pitch halfway through? Interesting eh?

 

 

    How can we help you?

To discuss your carpet and upholstery cleaning and receive a quote over the telephone, simply call us now on 01942864474, or any of the local numbers listed listed on our Home Page.  We’ll start a conversation to help us understand your specific needs and how we might deliver them, then we can provide a best-value, obligation-free quotation.

                                                                                 

       INFORMATION WHICH WILL BE USEFUL TO HAVE READY TO RECIEVE YOUR TELEPHONE QUOTE:

CARPETS: Tell us which room and have the approximate size ready for us for each room. We accept measurements in imperial sizes, metric sizes, strides etc. If there are any stains, spillages, pet accidents, let us know. Some of these may need specialised treatments and we need to know in advance.

During our cleaning process we do everything possible to reduce, improve or remove spots and stains however 100% success may not always be possible and is NOT guaranteed.

Accidents of bodily fluids such as blood, human urine or human faeces are better dealt with by specialist companies who have the training and equipment to deal with this type of cleaning. THIS IS NOT A SERVICE WE OFFER.

UPHOLSTERY: Let us know the style of sofa; corner or straight, how many seat places; eg a four seater corner sofa and one armchair, three seater and two seater sofas, two footstools etc. Check for any labels which state the fabric composition or any cleaning symbols. We accept photographs of your furniture and labels by email, text or WhatsApp.

Popular fabric compositions to look for  POLYESTER, COTTON, LINEN, WOOL, SILK, POLYPROPYLENE, ACRYLIC, NYLON, VISCOSE, RAYON, MICROFIBER, COTTON VELVET ETC. 

If the label gives a % of the fabrics used i.e. 85% polyester and 15% viscose please let us know, we can then identify the best method of cleaning for your furniture.

 

This is an example of a fabric care label from a sofa made in Italy by Habitat. The fabric composition is  60% Cotton, 30% Acrylic & 10% Viscose.

The Care Symbols mean; (in order)  *Do not wash or wet clean, *Do not use bleach, *Can be ironed up to 150 degrees C, *Dry Clean Only, *Do not tumble dry. Which means this sofa can only be cleaned by a dry cleaning method.

THIS IS WHY THIS INFORMATION IS SO IMPORTANT.

 

We spend a lot of money on buying the sofas, chairs and carpets that suit our homes, when it comes to cleaning them, please do not ring round for the cheapest quote.
Quality cleaning and cheap price do not go hand-in-hand!

Sofa, Couch, Settee – Whatever you call it!

Current Covid restrictions are due to expire in England on 24 March 2022. However to keep our customers and our technicians safe we will continue working with our own newly reviewed Covid secure practice guidelines that we ask all customers to read and accept before we arrive for your appointment.

 

These guidelines are constantly reviewed and take into consideration Government advice and recommendations.

1. If you or any member of your household has received a positive Covid PCR or LFT test, or develop any of the symptoms of coronavirus (COVID-19) or any of the following symptoms:
• a new continuous cough
• a high temperature including fever & chills.
• a loss of, or change in, your normal sense of taste or smell (anosmia)
• shortness of breath or breathing difficulties.
• fatigue
• muscle or body aches
• headache
• sore throat
• congestion or runny nose
• nausea or vomiting
• diarrhoea

Please call us straight away to rearrange your appointment.

2. If any of our technicians develop symptoms or have been in contact with anyone that has developed symptoms another technician will be appointed to carry out your carpet /
upholstery cleaning, if there are no technicians available for your allocated appointment, we will call you to rearrange your appointment.

3. Social distancing will still be observed.

4. We will no longer be wearing masks, however if you would like us to wear one to enter your property, please let us know.

5. We ask you to direct us to the room/s where we are to be working and remain in another room with the door closed until all the cleaning has been completed.

6. We respectfully reserve the right to refuse any cleaning job if any of our guidelines are not met or the property is hazardous to the health and wellbeing of our technicians.

We thank you for booking Gerrards and for your full cooperation. We hope you remain well and keep safe.