Carpet & Upholstery Cleaning in Geneva

Hot water extraction, bonnet shampoo or dry powder: which method for which textile?

There are several ways to clean a floor textile and they are not interchangeable. The right one depends on the fibre and on what sits underneath it, not on what the technician happens to own. It is the first question worth asking any provider.

Hot water extraction is the reference method for synthetic fitted carpet. A solution is injected into the pile under pressure and immediately vacuumed back out together with the soil it has released. The strength is genuine depth of cleaning and the fact that what goes in comes back out; the trade-off is that it introduces water, so drying has to be controlled.

Rotary bonnet shampooing works at the surface with foam and a brush. It restores a clean appearance quickly over a large area, which is why it is common in commercial settings, but it leaves more residue behind and it is too aggressive for natural fibre. Dry powder cleaning brings almost no moisture: the powder is worked into the pile, left to bind the soil, then vacuumed out. That is the answer when drying is not possible — premises that must reopen in the morning, carpet laid over parquet, a poorly ventilated basement — but it should not be expected to match extraction on heavily soiled carpet.

For wool, silk, jute and sisal none of those three applies as it stands. Those fibres are treated by hand with controlled dosage and temperature. A wool rug run through a machine like synthetic carpet can felt, shrink or bleed dye, and none of that can be undone.

Why does carpet get dirty again quickly after a poor clean?

This is the most common complaint and the explanation is straightforward: detergent residue. If the injected solution is not fully vacuumed back out it stays in the pile. Soapy residue is tacky, it attracts dust, and the carpet looks soiled again within weeks — often sooner than before it was cleaned.

A second effect surprises people more. A stain that appeared to be gone reappears two days later, in the same spot, as a ring. That is not a failed clean but wicking: soil sitting in the backing or underlay travels upward with moisture as the carpet dries. It is precisely why a clear-water rinse and thorough extraction matter more than machine power.

The third failure is over-wetting. Too much water and too little extraction means the carpet takes two days to dry, the installation adhesive can be affected, the subfloor takes up moisture and an odour settles in. On carpet glued to a concrete slab that is a real mould risk. The discipline is therefore not to inject a lot but to extract a lot.

Persian and oriental rugs: why they are handled separately

A hand-knotted oriental rug in wool or silk is not a floor covering, it is a valuable textile. Three characteristics rule out machine treatment.

First, the dye. Many older rugs are coloured with vegetable dyes that bleed when they meet water that is too warm or a pH that is wrong for them. Red is the worst offender: it migrates into neighbouring pale areas and the damage cannot be reversed. A colour-fastness test on a discreet area is the first thing to do, before any wetting.

Second, the structure. The fringes are the most fragile part and a rotary brush will tear or tangle them. A hand-knotted rug is worked by hand, in the direction of the pile, with generous rinsing and gentle extraction. Third, drying, which is done flat, out of direct sun, with air movement. A wool rug hung up to dry deforms under its own saturated weight and does not return to its original geometry.

For the same reason we do not promise restoration. Cleaning, yes. Returning a rug worn down to the foundation to the way it looked twenty years ago, no: worn pile is lost material, not soil. We say so at the inspection stage, before taking any payment.

Stains: what comes out, what sometimes comes out, what never does

Being straight about this prevents a great deal of disappointment, and any provider who claims everything comes out deserves your suspicion.

Almost always removed: coffee, tea, wine if addressed reasonably soon, mud and soil, most foods, cooking grease, traffic marks and the darkening of walkways. These are soils that sit in the fibre without having altered it.

Sometimes removed, depending on age and fibre: ink, ballpoint pen, cosmetics, candle wax, chewing gum, older blood, recent pet urine. The outcome depends on how long it has been there and on what was attempted beforehand — a household product grabbed in a hurry often makes the job harder rather than easier.

Never removed, and worth knowing in advance: a burn, where the fibre has melted or charred and material is simply gone; bleach or acid discolouration, where the dye itself has been destroyed; old urine that has settled into the underlay, whose smell returns with every rise in humidity; oxidation yellowing of natural fibres; and dye migration from a coloured rug onto pale carpet. In those cases the honest answer is a local repair, an inserted patch or replacement — not a second clean.

Dust mites, allergies and pet odour

Carpet is not inherently a hygiene problem; it is a dust trap, which is also its advantage, because particles that settle into it are no longer suspended in the air you breathe. The problem starts when that trap is never emptied: routine vacuuming lifts the surface layer, not what has worked its way down to the base of the pile.

For an allergy-sensitive household two things matter more than the product used. The first is deep extraction, which removes accumulated allergens instead of putting them back into circulation. The second is fast drying, because dust mites need humidity — carpet still damp two days after cleaning works against the whole point. This is one case where dry powder cleaning, weaker on soil, can be the better choice.

The CHF 50 anti-dust-mite treatment is added to the clean, not offered instead of it. We do not present it as a medical outcome: it is a contact product applied after extraction that acts on the population present, and it does not prevent recolonisation if room humidity stays high.

Pet odour follows a different logic. Masking urine smell achieves nothing useful, because the molecule sits in the underlay and rises with every increase in humidity. It needs a targeted enzyme treatment on the affected area, and sometimes the finding that the underlay itself is saturated and has to be replaced. We say that rather than selling an air freshener in place of a solution.

How long does drying take, and what should you avoid meanwhile?

After properly extracted hot water cleaning, allow 4 to 8 hours for fitted carpet and longer for a thick wool rug. The decisive factor is not heat but air exchange: a ventilated room dries faster than a heated room with the windows shut, because saturated warm air stops absorbing anything.

While it dries the carpet can be walked on with shoe covers, but furniture should stay off it. A metal or stained-wood furniture foot resting on damp fibre leaves a rust or dye mark that becomes permanent damage. When furniture has to go back the same day we set it on protective blocks.

If drying has to be short — commercial premises reopening in the morning, a flat being handed back to the managing agent the next day — say so when the quote is prepared. The method changes: either we schedule the work for the evening with forced ventilation, or we switch to dry powder cleaning, which brings almost no moisture. Choosing the constraint in advance is far better than discovering damp carpet at handover.

End of tenancy: is carpet inspected in Geneva?

Yes, and it is an expensive item when it is handled badly. At the check-out inspection carpet is judged on three things: darkened walkways, visible stains and smell. A régie — the managing agent acting for the landlord — that finds carpet has not been cleaned will withhold the cost of a professional clean from your deposit, at a rate it chooses itself.

Two situations need to be told apart because they are treated differently. Normal wear — flattened pile in a hallway after several years — is not your responsibility: it is depreciation and it is written off against the length of your tenancy. A stain, a burn or an odour, on the other hand, is damage and stays with you regardless of how old the carpet is. A documented professional clean is exactly what makes that separation possible: whatever remains afterwards is wear, not neglect.

Our end-of-tenancy service includes thorough vacuuming of carpets. Deep cleaning by hot water extraction is a separate line, because it means a different machine and additional time on site. When a property has carpet in the main rooms we quote it together with the end-of-tenancy package from the outset, so that it does not turn into a reservation raised at handover.

Hiring a machine or calling a professional?

Hiring an extraction machine from a DIY store is a genuine option and sometimes the right one. For a 12 m² bedroom in synthetic carpet with no set-in stains, and with enough patience to rinse properly, the result can be perfectly acceptable for a modest hire cost.

Three differences explain the gap once the situation gets harder. Extraction power first: hire machines inject adequately but recover weakly, which leaves more water and more residue behind — exactly the cause of rapid re-soiling and wicking. Dosage second: using too much product is the most common mistake and it is invisible on the day. Diagnosis third: identifying the fibre, testing colour fastness, recognising a stain that will not come out and saying so — that comes from having worked on hundreds of floors.

Our position is consistent. If you have one bedroom in synthetic carpet and some time, hire a machine, rinse twice as much as you think necessary and ventilate. Call us if there is wool or silk, a hand-knotted rug, pet odour, a large area, a check-out inspection at stake, or a short drying window.

Which method suits which textile

On natural fibre a colour-fastness test is carried out on a discreet area before any wetting. If the dye bleeds we stop and tell you rather than carrying on.