The short answer is no you can’t disinfect soft goods so don’t waste your money however you can sanitize effectively and safely. Many consumers buy these products under false or misleading pretense. Words like clean and disinfect or clean and sanitize are used to upsell the tickets. Before going further some definitions are in order. To sanitize means to bring back to a safe level for human occupancy. To disinfect is to kill microorganisms which is impossible to kill all microorganisms on a soft surface like rugs, carpets,upholstery or even tile.
Think about the bacteria laden soil in grout in commercial bathrooms and restaurants. You can spray all the bleach you want but if you don’t remove the impacted unhealthy soils impacted in the grout through high performance hot water extraction you have done very little. The same is true of carpets and rugs. You see, deep cleaning has always been a green activity. It provides the ability to remove unwanted matter(soils, oils, bacteria, molds, allergens) from the indoor environment.
Do you really need to buy a sanitizer at a cleaning appointment? Unless there is a particular issue that you are trying to solve like pet urine, mold remediation, vomit, blood and others I’d say no. The heat and cleaning of high performance hot water extraction provides a health benefit to any indoor structure if done properly and with accepted standards. Also many disinfectants and biocides can negatively impact the stain resistant properties of carpets. There are good sanitizers on the market that we use at Bock’s Steam Star that are thyme based and won’t affect the stain resistance. Additionally they have been approved by the EPA Design for the Environment program. If you have a concern we offer Free onsite consultations anywhere in the Kansas City Metro. Call 9134387767 or www.steamstar.net to schedule.
