Invariably, I am asked the question as to what exactly is the benefit of having your carpeting protected. If you know for certain, or your experience is such that there will be no chance of spills, large amounts of soil being ground into your carpeting, and or no pet stains, then I would say that protection is unnecessary for you.
What is protection?
That’s a good question. Essentially, most protectors now have fluorochemicals with Teflon. This means that your carpeting will be coated with Teflon. Many of us have teflon coated cooking pans at home. Over time, the teflon can become scratched away from the surface by the usage of abrasive cooking utensils. If you clean your teflon coated pan carefully, and you do not cook with metal utensils, instead using softer materials such as plastic or wood, the teflon pan will look and stay like new for a very long period of time.
When we apply protection to carpeting we are essentially coating the fibers just as the cooking pan is coated with the same teflon. If you do not wear shoes on your carpeting, and you vacuum your carpeting frequently to remove abrasive soil, your protection will last for a very long time. If however, you do wear shoes and you do not vacuum as frequently as is required, and then add in children, and of course pets, we then have a situation where the application of protection is necessary at least annually.
Will Protection Wear Away After Cleaning?
Generally, it is only necessary to protect heavily traveled rooms and traffic lanes. Remember your teflon coated cooking pan? Even at temperatures of 400 degrees and hotter, the teflon was not affected. Food substances easily lift from the surface, and it cleans beautifully each time you clean it. The only thing that harms teflon is abrasives. In other words, I cannot remove the teflon by cleaning the carpeting, or by using strong chemicals. So now you know the truth, and if any carpet cleaner ever tells you that they removed the protection by cleaning the carpeting, that would be very difficult to do. What can be removed by carpet cleaning is any residual teflon or teflon which has been scratched away from the fibers of the carpeting.
Now for the biggest misconception about protectors like Scotchgard. The answer is NO! What’s the question you say? Does Scotchgard keep my carpet clean? Well, actually in a way it does help to keep your carpet clean because the dirt and oils do not stick to the carpeting due to the teflon coating. This means the soil can easily be vacuumed out, which essentially means that the carpeting stays cleaner, but it does not mean that it keeps your carpeting clean. Additionally, protection provides benefits such that your carpeting is less susceptible to: stains, damage from abrasives, and premature wear.
How do you know if you are actually getting what you are paying for?
First of all, protector can only be applied separately after the carpeting has been cleaned. It usually has a light or mild solvent scent as it is being applied. If you are unsure whether or your not you are getting the product, have the cleaning technician apply the same protector to a paper towel (white towel). Once the protection on the paper towel has dried, it should be able to repel water. If not, then you probably did not get what you were paying for, and believe me I understand, because applying protection is a sizeable investment.
What is the best type of protection?
By leaps and bounds, the best protector available is made by Dupont, it is called DuPont Teflon Advanced. It contains acid dye blockers as well as stain resistant teflon. We like to call it bullet-proof. Scotchgard is very good, but it does not contain acid dye blockers. Most of the foods, beverages, even soil, and pet stains are acidic (acids). Therefore, an active acid dye blocker means that the carpeting can nearly not be stained. Extremely hot coffee, bleaches, and some other types of stains cannot be stopped completely, however, if you act upon stains occurring immediately, and you have had your carpeting protected properly, it will resist practically every type of stain.
In the future I’ll explain UV protectors which can insure that your carpeting never ever fades out. Also, we’ll go into the world of re-color. If you have bleached stains, or even dye stains in your carpeting, nearly every one of them can be fixed or re-colored to match the original color. Imagine bleach stains completely repaired.
