Few things are as cosy and domestic as having a cat or dog curled up on the rug in a nice warm spot. This is why a lot of us have pets sharing our lives and why most of us have carpets on our floors, at least in a few rooms. After all, it’s not just pets who lie on the rug and enjoy the softness and warmth. However, there are times when it seems as if your pets are out to ruin your carpets. Puppies and kittens (and sometimes older animals) relieve themselves right in the wrong place where you step on it. Cats try to sharpen their claws in the carpet instead of on the scratching post (or is it just my crazy cat who tries to use the living room carpet this way?). And all furry animals shed hairs, especially during the spring and autumn moulting seasons. Pets and carpets also get into a sort of vicious cycle with fleas, where those horrible little bloodsuckers (meaning the fleas!) hop from the dog to the carpet to the dog to the carpet and then onto you, where they bite you.
It’s not just carpets that suffer, either. Mats and the upholstery on the furniture also suffer. In some ways, upholstery seems to be affected worse by pets than carpets, but this is probably because we tend to notice the sofa more. Some pet owners try to stop the animals sleeping on the sofa or soft chairs, which works with dogs to a certain extent. However, there is no known force in the universe that can stop a cat snoozing on a sunny divan and your only hope is to move the couch where the sun won’t shine on it… and even this won’t stop the cat.
Nobody wants to be that crazy cat lady or dippy dog man with a house that smells of animal pee and where everything you eat is liberally laced with cat hair. However, I’d be the last person to say that you can’t enjoy pets if you want a clean home. It’s just a case of staying on top of things and cleaning the carpets properly.
Dealing with Pet Hair on the Carpet
Pet hair is the one problem that’s inevitable if you love animals. No matter what breed you have (except maybe a hairless Sphinx cat or a Mexican Hairless dog), hair and skin particles will get everywhere on the carpets, especially on the warm spots that are the premium sleeping positions. There’s not much you can do to prevent the problem from happening, apart from regular grooming. You can put a throw that’s easily washed over the couch if you like the look. Another cunning hack that works with beanbags is to put a second cover over the main cover of the beanbag, which means that you can whip off the outer cover and wash it with your regular laundry without all the hassle of emptying out all the stuffing in the bathtub. But pet hair in your home is inevitable.
A good vacuum cleaner and regular vacuuming will work wonders in getting a lot of the hair up, and it will also keep the flea population down. You can buy vacuum cleaners designed for removing pet hair. These will get a lot of the hair up but not all of it. However, to get all of the hair up and to really deal with the fleas, deep cleaning at least once a year is the only way. You might think that this is expensive, but it’s way cheaper than replacing the carpets every five years and it’s less toxic than flea-bombing the house.
Dealing with Little Accidents
All pets pee or poo on the carpets at times, especially when they’re young and are still learning polite canine or feline behaviour. Even when animals are older, they will have the occasional accident if they are shut inside by mistake. Cats will also express their displeasure by pooping where they shouldn’t. Unspayed female animals have another problem that they can’t help, because when they’re in season, they bleed out their you-know-whats all over the place. I’m shuddering with disgust at the memory of the last time my cat misbehaved…
You have to act quickly to get blood out of carpet or deal with other little accidents. The first thing to do is to remove any solid mess. Don’t use the vacuum cleaner; use loo paper (and wear rubber gloves). With pee, blot up as much as you can (again using loo paper or paper towels, or an old cloth towel that you can wash if you prefer). Next, apply a good dollop of cold water and some disinfectant. Scrub like mad, making sure that you don’t spread the stuff everywhere, then blot, blot and blot again. Finally, sprinkle baking soda on the spot to absorb odours, leave it for half an hour and vacuum up. Don’t skip the baking soda step — if your pet can smell lingering residues, they’ll think it’s OK to use that area as a toilet again. If your pet becomes a repeat offender in a certain area, deep cleaning the carpets and/or spot treatment is the only solution.
Dried or old pee on the carpets is harder to deal with and your best solution is to call in a stain removal expert to get this out.
Precision Carpet Cleaning Services
The good news for pet owners is that taking care of your carpets AND your pets doesn’t have to be that hard. This is why the team from Precision Carpet Cleaning (https://precisioncarpetcleaning.co.uk) are here to help. No matter what sort of pet you share your life with — or how many of them you have — they can help you, whether you need your carpets deep cleaned to get rid of smells and pet hair, or whether you need a spot of spot treatment after the cats have piddled on the carpet. PCC cater to the needs of homes and businesses all through the Greater London Metropolitan Area. Yes, businesses need to consider cleaning up after animals, too. Seeing eye dogs, sniffer dogs, police dogs, therapy animals and the post office cat may all be highly trained so that they don’t pee indoors (not sure about the post office cat, though!) but they still shed hairs in their workplaces!
All of Precision’s work is fully covered by their comprehensive insurance package. Having insurance in place is a great peace of mind to reassure all their customers and clients. Plus they know there won’t be too many claims because they train all of their carpet care technicians to a high standard. The company also offers the protection of their 100% satisfaction guarantee.
Precision Carpet Cleaning offers homes and businesses throughout London a full range of carpet care services, whether or not you need them for cleaning up after your pet or not. PCC services include:
- carpet shampooing (steam cleaning)
- bonnet buffing
- dry cleaning using the HOST system (this is an environmentally kind method that doesn’t leave toxic residues, so it’s very safe for pets)
- rug cleaning
- mat cleaning
- upholstery cleaning
- stain treatment
- applying Scotchgard stain protection
If you need regular carpet cleaning, then this can be arranged to take place at a schedule that suits you, which means that you get to pick the time of day (including evenings), the actual day (including weekends) and the frequency with which the carpet cleaners come around.
If you have any further questions about PCC’s London carpet cleaning services, please get in touch with their customer services team at any time. Or talk to them about making a booking!
