Why is Carpet Cleaning Rarely Effective at Removing Biohazards?

Jackie* paid for professional carpet cleaning to remove blood from her carpets. When that didn't work, she hired someone to pour some enzymes on the spots, but the stains kept coming back! Then she called Bio-One. 

When Jackie asked us to help her clean some blood off her carpets, I immediately explained to her that from our experience, carpet cleaning is ineffective at removing biohazards. If she wanted to do it right, we would need to remove and replace the carpets. That's when she told me they had already tried two other methods that were ineffective. They were ready.

So why is carpet cleaning rarely effective at removing biohazards?

Materials

Carpet is made with a synthetic pile and a permeable backing. Chemical disenfection is only effective when the technician can access all the surface area of a substrate. This is not possible with pile or foam. Which leads us to the next reason.

Contruction

Carpeted flooring is made of three main parts:

1. Carpet
2. Pad
3. Subfloor

Bodily fluids pass right through the permeable backing of the carpet into the foam pad. The foam pad then holds most of the moisture. If the flow of liquids overcomes the pad's absorption capacity, then the liquid will continue down onto the subfloor, a semi-permeable OSB board in most cases. A heavy volume of fluid can result in the OSB board absorbing those fluids, which will then need to be cut out. Surface contact can sometimes be treated and sealed.

Carpet cleaning just isn't strong enough to reach down all three layers, which is why the surface may appear clean at first but stains reappear through capillary action later. 

Useful Life

Another consideration is the useful life of carpet, which as you can see from the chart to the left, is only 8-10 years. We commonly service homes with carpets 10, 20, 30-years old or more. When you have enjoyed that much use out of a carpet, it may be time to put it out to pasture. 

So how did things go with Jackie's situation? We gave her an on-site estimate same-day and scheduled removal of the contaminated carpet the next morning. We found an exact match for the carpet, and when the special order arrived, had it installed at 8:00 AM the next morning. Fortunately, home-owners insurance will often cover damage to property due to traumatic events. We submitted our claim to Jackie's insurance and heard back the next day that the claim was being processed and payment was on it's way! Here's what Jackie had to say:

"Many thanks, Travis!!! [We] really appreciate all that you have done to make everything right!!! Bio-One is #1!!!"

*Name changed