Carpet Cleaning
Most of what makes carpet look worn is not wear — it is sand. Fine grit works down to the base of the pile and grinds against the fiber like sandpaper every time someone walks across it, and it is invisible until the fiber is already damaged. Spiker cleans carpet with truck-mounted hot water extraction (commonly called steam cleaning): we pre-treat to release the soil, rinse hot, then neutralize the carpet so it does not re-soil quickly. Trained to the IICRC S100 standard.
What actually matters
Most of what makes carpet look worn is not wear. It is soil. Dry particulate — sand, grit, dust — works down to the base of the pile and acts like sandpaper every time somebody walks across it. That is what actually destroys carpet, and it is invisible until the fiber is already damaged. A carpet that gets properly extracted on a reasonable cycle lasts dramatically longer than one that does not, which is why this is maintenance rather than cosmetics.
The traffic lanes in a hallway hold several times the soil of the carpet three feet away, and they need more pre-spray, more dwell and more passes. Anyone charging the same effort per square foot across an entire house is not looking at the carpet.
Filtration soiling — those dark grey lines along baseboards and under doors — is not dirt tracked in. It is airborne particulate pulled through the carpet edge by airflow, and it needs a different treatment than traffic lane soil. It is also one of the few things we will tell you upfront may not fully come out, because by the time it is visible the particulate is often embedded in the fiber itself.
What is actually included.
Ours, and the cheap version.
| Spiker | A very low advertised price | |
|---|---|---|
| Price you are quoted | Published in full at the bottom of this page, before you call | Advertised figure; the real number arrives once somebody is in your living room |
| What counts as a room | Up to 15×15 ft, stated in writing. A staircase is one room | Commonly undefined — hallways, closets and foyers become rooms on arrival |
| Dwell time | Real dwell before extraction; chemistry needs minutes to break an oil bond | The first step cut, because it looks like standing around |
| Acid rinse | Always. Neutralises the alkaline and carries residue out | Usually skipped — the customer cannot see it on the day |
| Pre-vacuum | Every job. Free if you do it, priced per room if we do | Often assumed to be part of the machine |
| Furniture | We clean around it and say why moving it back onto damp carpet causes mildew | Moved and set back the same day |
| Pet urine | UV-mapped first, then flooded and extracted — an attempt, never a guarantee | Surface pass, often sold as removal |
| What you are told | What will not come out, before the work starts | After the invoice |
How we do it.
Same four phases, every job.
Inspect
We walk the job with you before anything gets wet. Fiber identification matters more than most people realize — a burn test or a close look at the pile tells us whether we are dealing with nylon, polyester, olefin or wool, and each one takes a different chemistry. We find the traffic lanes, the filtration lines along baseboards, the spots you have already tried to treat, and we tell you honestly which ones will come out and which ones will not. A stain that has been sitting in a jute backing for two years is a different conversation than last week’s coffee, and you deserve to hear that before we start rather than after.
Pre-treat
Pre-spray goes down matched to what we found in the inspection, and then it sits. Dwell time is the step cheap jobs skip because it looks like nothing is happening, and it is the step that does most of the work. Chemistry needs contact time to break the bond between soil and fiber. Spray and immediately extract and you are just rinsing the surface. On heavy traffic lanes we agitate with a groomer to drive solution down to the base of the pile where the soil actually lives.
Clean
The machine stays in the truck. That is not a detail — a truck-mount produces heat and vacuum that no portable unit can approach, and vacuum is what determines whether soil leaves the building or settles back into the fiber as it dries. We work in overlapping passes with dry strokes between wet ones. Hot water extraction is the method the Carpet and Rug Institute and most major carpet manufacturers publish, and for most carpet it is the method required to keep the warranty valid.
Protect
We groom the pile so it dries standing up instead of matted flat, set up airflow, and apply protector where it makes sense for the fiber. Then we walk it with you and tell you the truth about the next twenty-four hours — what will look different when it dries, what might wick back and need a second pass, and how long to stay off it. Most callbacks in this trade are not cleaning failures. They are expectation failures.
Carpet Cleaning questions
we actually get asked.
Carpet starts at $50 per room, where a room counts as up to 15×15 feet. A staircase is priced as one room. Every job is subject to a $200 minimum service charge. Add-ons: pet enzyme $25 per room, Scotchgard $25 per room, pet odor $30 per 3×3 area, and pre-vacuuming $25 per room if the carpet has not been vacuumed before we arrive. You get the full number before we start.
A full staircase is priced as one room — $50. Add-ons apply to it exactly as they apply to a room. Hallways and landings are quoted on the walk-through.
Most manufacturers require professional cleaning every 12 to 18 months to keep the warranty valid. In practice it depends on the house — a couple with no pets can stretch it, a family with kids and a dog should not. If you can see the traffic lanes, you are past due.
Only if it is done badly. That reputation comes from shampoo methods and from cheap operators who leave detergent residue behind. Residue is sticky and it attracts soil, so the carpet resoils quickly and people blame the cleaning. Proper hot water extraction rinses the chemistry back out — water in, water out.
Four to eight hours for most carpet. Airflow is the biggest variable — ceiling fans and cracked windows can bring it closer to four. Thick carpet, dense padding and humid days push it longer.
No, and there is a specific reason. When a company moves furniture, cleans under it, and puts it back on damp carpet, that carpet cannot dry. Foam blocks and plastic tabs lift the legs, not the piece, and there is not enough airflow underneath. The result is mildew, sometimes mold, trapped where nobody looks until it smells. We get called to fix exactly that after other companies do it. We clean around furniture thoroughly, and if you want the carpet under a piece cleaned properly, move it out of the room and bring it back the next day once everything is dry.
Whatever you clear, we clean. We are a carpet cleaning company, not a maid service — we do not pick up clothing, toys, pet waste or clutter. That is not us being difficult, it is how you get the most cleaning for your money. Prep time is not cleaning time, and on some jobs clearing a room takes longer than cleaning it. The more carpet you expose, the more carpet we clean.
Move the piece out of the room entirely before we arrive and bring it back the next day once the carpet is fully dry. That is the only way to do it without trapping moisture underneath. Any company willing to slide your sofa back onto wet carpet the same day is creating a mildew problem you will pay for later.
Because dry soil has to come out before any moisture goes down. Wet dirt turns to mud in the pile and no amount of extraction fully recovers it. Vacuum the rooms before we arrive and there is no charge. If it has not been done, we do it at $25 per room.
Pet enzyme treatment is $25 per room. Scotchgard protector is $25 per room. Pet odor treatment is $30 per 3×3 area. Pre-vacuuming is $25 per room only if the carpet has not been vacuumed before we arrive. Every job is subject to a $200 minimum service charge.
That is wicking. The stain went deeper than the carpet face — into the backing or the pad — and as the carpet dries, moisture pulls the remaining material back up to the surface. It is not a cleaning failure. It means the contamination was deeper than one pass could reach, and it needs a second treatment or a sub-surface flush.
There is no fixed schedule. Two adults with no pets and no kids will usually go 12 to 18 months. Add animals and it moves to 6 to 8 months. Animals plus children is closer to every 6 months, with protector annually or sooner. The real answer is the carpet — when oils build up enough that the traffic lanes look grey, it is already overdue.
How we actually do it,
start to finish.
Every step, in order, in Brian’s words — including the part most companies leave out. Nothing here is a sales pitch; it is the job.
1. Brand open
Spiker Carpet and Tile Care. Two locations, Galt in Sacramento County and Lodi in San Joaquin County. Thirteen years doing this. Here's exactly how we do it, start to finish.
SPIKER CARPET & TILE CARE / Galt, Sacramento County · Lodi, San Joaquin County / Thirteen years · Trained to the IICRC S100 standard2. Blacklight inspection
First thing we do is turn the lights off and go through the room with a blacklight. Pet urine glows. That tells us exactly where the problem is and how far it spread, before we touch anything.
STEP 1 — FIND THE PROBLEM3. The branch
If nothing lights up, there's no urine treatment needed and we go straight to the deep clean. If it does light up, we deal with that first. Let's follow the clean floor first, then come back.
4. Prespray
One treatment goes down across the whole floor. It has to sit for a few minutes and do its job before anything else happens.
STEP 2 — PRESPRAY5. Macro, oils releasing
Here's what's actually happening down at the fiber. All that oil and soil is stuck to the strand. The treatment breaks the bond and lifts it off, so it's floating loose instead of glued on.
THE OILS RELEASE6. Hot water extraction + acid rinse
Then we come through with hot water extraction — commonly called steam cleaning — using high pressure and a rinse that brings the carpet back to neutral. That rinse matters. Leave the floor alkaline and it attracts dirt again fast.
STEP 3 — HOT WATER EXTRACTION (commonly called steam cleaning) + NEUTRALIZING RINSE7. Sand pulling from the backing
This is the part a vacuum can't reach. Sand works its way down to the bottom of the pile and sits against the backing. Every time you walk on it, those grains grind against the fiber and cut it. Pressure and hot water pull it up and out.
EMBEDDED SAND — WHAT A VACUUM CAN'T REACH8. Protector
Last step is protector. We spray it on and brush it in so it sits right where it needs to be — little beads formed at the top of every fiber. That's the shield that keeps the next spill sitting on top instead of soaking in.
STEP 4 — PROTECTOR APPLIED AND GROOMED IN9. The four hour rule
Now stay off it. Four hours minimum, no exceptions, no socks, no quick trips. Those beads are still soft. Walk on them before they set and you flatten them into the fiber, and the protection you just paid for is gone.
STAY OFF THE CARPET · 4 HOURS MINIMUM10. Return to the urine branch
Now back to that spot that lit up.
11. Enzyme treatment and flood
Urine spreads out underneath. What you see on the surface is always smaller than what's actually down in the pad. So we treat an area bigger than the spot, not just the part you can see. An enzyme treatment goes down to work on the bacteria and the oils that cause the smell.
TREAT WIDER THAN THE STAIN12. Flush to clear
Then we flush it and pull the water back out, over and over, watching what comes up. Yellow, lighter, lighter, until it runs clear. Then we let the enzymes keep working.
13. The honest limit
Straight talk. Flood and flush is an attempt, not a guarantee. If urine has been sitting long enough or gone deep enough, it may not fully come out. We'll tell you what we're seeing before we start, not after.
FLOOD AND FLUSH IS AN ATTEMPT — NOT A GUARANTEE14. Finish the room
Then we clean the rest of the room and put the protector back down over everything.
15. The vinegar tip
Here's a free one. If you have animals, the smell isn't only in the floor. Their oils are on your walls. Measure to the top of your tallest animal, go twelve inches above that, and everything below that line gets wiped with plain white vinegar and water. Walls, doors, doorjambs. That band right there is where the wet dog smell actually lives, and almost nobody cleans it. Test a small hidden spot first so you know your paint is fine with it.
PRO TIP — WIPE THE WALLS, 12 INCHES ABOVE YOUR TALLEST PET AND DOWN16. Close
That's the whole process. No shortcuts, no mystery. Spiker Carpet and Tile Care.
Carpet Cleaning across
six cities.
Now the numbers.
Every one up front.
Every job gets pre-vacuumed. The only question is who does it.
Dry soil has to come out before any moisture goes down. Once water hits loose grit it becomes mud in the pile, and no amount of extraction fully recovers it. This step is not optional on any job we run — skipping it is how cheap operators make carpet look worse a week later.
PRE-VACUUM INCLUDED IF YOU DO IT · $25 PER ROOM IF WE DOWhy we will not move your furniture back onto wet carpet.
This is the single most common callback in this trade, and it is entirely avoidable. When a company moves furniture, cleans underneath, and sets it back down on damp carpet, that carpet cannot dry. Foam blocks and plastic tabs do not create enough airflow to fix it — they lift the legs, not the furniture. What follows is trapped moisture and the odour that comes with it, held under the piece where nobody looks until it smells.
WE CLEAN AROUND FURNITURE · MOVING IT BACK ONTO WET CARPET CAUSES MILDEWCarpet Cleaning — what it costs
Most homes book two or more rooms.
$200 minimum service charge per visit. We confirm your full price before we start. No surprises.
Ready when you are.
One call. Cleanest floors you've had.
GALT (916) 919-7642 · LODI (209) 663-0823 · MON–SAT · 9AM–5PM
WE DO NOT MOVE FURNITURE · PRE-VACUUM REQUIRED