The Benefits of Green Cleaning

Some people might be a little put off the idea of having their carpets or upholstery professionally cleaned, as they don’t want to use harsh chemicals or anything that might cause harm to the environment.

Well, that’s not something you need to worry about if you choose to have your cleaning carried out
by the team at 1st Choice Chemdry.

We’ve found that we’re getting more and more custom form people who are concerned about damaging the environment, and who prefer to keep their carpets in top condition by having them regularly cleaned, rather than dumping them after a few years and buying new carpets, which obviously costs more money and leaves more carpets and upholstery in landfill rather than being used.

We also use natural ingredients in our cleaning solutions, and as little water as possible, which is better for the environment than soaking your carpets with excessive amounts of water or using harsh chemicals. The effervescent, carbonating cleaning solutions we use are actually so effective that we only need a small amount of moisture - a fifth to a tenth of the amount used by most steam cleaners.

We shy away from using soaps, detergents, and harsh chemicals because we’ve found that we get fantastic results just using our special crystal clear carbonating bubbles.

If you’re a company that’s concerned about your green credentials, it might be worth asking yourself if you could do more to prove that you’re committed to reducing your company’s carbon footprint – and environmentally-friendly, efficient carpet cleaning could be one step you could take in the right direction?

All Chem-Dry franchises can supply:
• Health and safety policy statement
• Risk assessment and method statement
• COSHH sheets for all products

Chem-Dry franchisees hold the ISO 9001:2000 accreditation and must carry at least £5 million
pounds worth of public liability insurance.

Why not give us a call on 0141 848 9634 and see if we can make a real difference to your home, office or business
premises?

Can 1stChoice Chemdry Give you a Helping Hand this Christmas?

Christmas preparations can really take it out of you, can’t they?

As if it wasn’t hard enough trying to organise gifts for everyone, a Christmas dinner, enough party food to feed the five thousand and the dreaded Christmas card list, there’s wrapping, kids school Nativity plays, office parties...and before you know it you’re looking at a trail of glitter and mince pie crumbs all through the living room, with the extended family about to descend on you for a week.
Wouldn’t it be great just to have someone in to take something off your hands? Well, there’s always 1st Choice Chemdry.

We might not be much good at wrapping presents and our mince pies aren’t quite Mr Kipling, but
when it comes to sprucing your place up ready for Christmas, we know exactly what you need to do.
 Don’t worry about the trail of mud that the dog left in the hallway, the red wine stain on the sofa
from when the neighbours popped over for festive drinks, or the fact that the curtains haven’t been
cleaned in longer than you can remember and you’re too ashamed to let your mother in law see
them. We can see to all of those last minute jobs for you, leaving you the time to get on with the
really important things, like finding the perfect party dress for the office do, or baking the booziest
Christmas cake known to mankind.

We can give your carpets a fantastic clean, getting rid of all traces of winter grime ready for any
guests you might have coming to stay. We’ll make sure that all your upholstery looks spick and span,
so the grubby marks on the sofa will be a thing of the past, and that spot on the rug that you can’t
quite get rid of will disappear. What’s more, if you’re pressed for time, we can come in and do the
job – and within hours everything will be perfectly dry and ready to use again; no lengthy drying out
processes that mean you can’t use the lounge for a couple of days after it’s been cleaned.

Give yourself a little gift this Christmas; let someone else tale some of the hassle off of your hands!

Clean up for Christmas!

We’re getting perilously close to the festive season, and while we’re thinking about planning the dinner, buying the presents and organising the office party, there’s something that some people forget until the last minute; the pre-Christmas clean-up.

If you have family coming over for the Christmas period, you’ll want to get the house looking top notch for when they arrive. Especially if it’s your in-laws, and they have a tendency to go round the house like a contestant on Four in a Bed looking for dusty things and stains on the carpet!

It’s a good idea to clear out the clutter pre-Christmas too, especially if you have kids. There’s only so much room for toys, gifts and even clothes and so when well-meaning relatives bestow even more upon their favourite nieces, nephews and grandchildren, there needs to be a compromise made. Launch a bedroom clear out with the help of the kids before Christmas – you could donate the unwanted toys and grown out of clothes to a charity shop in an attempt to help show the kids all about the meaning of Christmas, and leave space for this year’s favourite toys.

The kitchen is another area that’s likely to benefit from a clean-up. When it comes to cleaning the oven, you can either roll up your sleeves and get on with it, or ask an oven cleaning company to come in and do it for you. Either way you’ll feel really smug once you have a sparkling oven. Make room in your freezer for Christmas goodies – start sing up all the things that have been sitting at the back of the freezer for months and you’ll be able to fit more delicious foods in there nearer the time.

The fridge is another neglected area of the kitchen, wait until the day before you go shopping and give the fridge a good clean out with mild detergent. You could be eco-friendly and add half a lemon to the fridge to eliminate nasty smells if something has gone off in the salad drawer...

Carpets and curtains definitely benefit from a good clean at this time of year – carpets will have got grubby with the winter mud and leaf mulch, and curtains need sprucing up too. Are there any stains on your rugs or upholstered furniture that need removing? Get them out of the way before the mother in law notices them! Call in professionals like 1st Choice Chemdry if you need help shifting tough stains, or just want to make all your upholstery look good as new ready for another Christmas!

House Move Checklist

Are you moving house? It’s a pretty stressful time, so we’ve put together a helpful list of things to think about before you shut that door behind you for the last time...

Six Weeks before moving day

• Get quotes from removal companies, or if you’re planning to do it yourself, now is the time to ask around for friends who might like to help. For help finding an approved removal firm try the British Association of Removers http://www.bar.co.uk

• Make sure that your home and contents insurance are arranged from the day you move into your new home, and that your wordly goods are also insure while in transit.

• Order your removal sundries like boxes and bubble wrap.

• Clear out sheds and attics and have a car boot sale/eBay session/ charity giveaway with the things you don’t want to keep.

• Sort out additional storage if you need to.

Three weeks before you move ( or when you exchange contracts)

Tell all the utility companies when you’re moving out and arrange final meter readings if needed.

• Order new carpets and furniture for the new place.

• Notify DVLA of your change of address

• Tell dentists and doctors, and if you’re moving out of their area, find a new one at: http://www.nhs.uk/Pages/HomePage.aspx

• Start packing things you don’t need right now

• Change the TV licence details at: http://www.tvlicensing.co.uk

• Set up a redirection on your mail.

A week before you move

If you have pets and children, sort out someone to take care of them while the removals are under way.

• If your pets are micro-chipped, your vet of your change of address at https://www.petlog.org.uk

• Tell banks, employers, schools, and your local council

• Make a quick call to the removers to make sure they have everything booked in and the right details.

• Put all important documents (passports, birth and marriage certificates etc) in a safe place so that you don’t lose them during the move.

• Use up as much as you can in the fridge and freezer and defrost them as necessary

• Collect up any spare keys to the hose you’ve given people.

• Arrange for a professional cleaner to come in and get the house spick and span for your new owners – contact 1st Choice Chemdry for carpet and curtain cleaning.

A few days before you move

Write a helpful guide to the new owners with things like local doctor’s number, instructions on how to use the boiler etc.

Get your emergency supplies box ready, and include things like cleaning products, toilet rolls, medicines, snacks, tea and coffee, UHT milk, and a mobile phone charger.

Moving day!

• Arrange to pick up the keys to your new home

• Take all your meter readings

• Lock all windows and doors and make sure everything is secured.

Good luck in the new place!

Persian Carpets – their history and care

Persian rugs and carpets are much sought after and usually very expensive. A genuine Persian rug will be a testament to the art of the carpet weavers which is said to have originated in Iran originated more than 2500 years ago.

Originally they were created out of need rather than luxury, as they were used as a floor covering for nomadic tribespeople’s homes, to keep them protected from cold and damp conditions. Over the years, carpet weaving skills have been passed down through the generations, and the variety of designs, techniques and patterns has evolved due to international trade and demand.

The development of the Persian carpet over the centuries has mostly been influenced by the country’s rulers. For example, when Cyrus the Great conquered Babylon in 539 BC, he was entranced by the carpets, and it’s said that his tomb at Pasargadae was covered with them. Cyrus is the ruler most historians credit with introducing the craft of carpet weaving to Persia.

In 1949 Russian archaeologists discovered what was thought to be the oldest known knotted carpet in the Siberian Mountains. The carpet dates back to the 5th frozen tombs of Scythian nobles. It’s now on display at the Hermitage Museum of Leningrad (St. Petersburg).

If you are lucky enough to own a Persian carpet or rug, you’ll want to make sure that it’s looked after properly as these carpets are definitely an investment. Five steps to keeping your Persian carpet pristine:

1. Keep it out of the sun! Persian rugs are easily faded by sunlight so keep your carpet out of direct sunlight if you want to keep the colours true – especially antique rugs. Try to rotate it monthly if it’s in the sunlight some of the time; this won’t stop it fading completely but it will make sure that the fading is uniform and not just in one area.

2. If you have furniture on the rug, try to move it around as often as you can to create a new ‘pathway’ across it. This stops the rug wearing in just one place and keeps wear and tear to a minimum.

3. Don’t try to comb the fringe out; instead, flip the rug end over end to straighten any twisted fringe. Simply hold one end of the carpet and walking it to the other end, turning the rug upside down. This helps to straighten out the fringe, and then a quick shake of the rug should be all you need.

4. Vacuum your rug regularly; this keeps the fibres from becoming too trodden down and also keeps it nice and clean so that it always looks good. Be aware of any threadbare or worn areas of the rug, and use the appropriate attachments to avoid any further damage.

5. It’s also vital that if you spill anything on your Persian rug, it’s cleaned up immediately. Never use harsh detergents or bleach, just mop the spill with paper towels by gently dabbing it from the end of the spill towards the centre to stop the spill from spreading out. Only ever use water if you’re cleaning a valuable or antique Persian rug, and if this isn’t working, call in a professional century and had been preserved in the carpet cleaner such as 1st Choice Chemdry who will be able to treat it and remove the stain without causing any damage.

Keep Winter Grime at Bay

It’s the time of year when kids, pets and just about anyone who walks in your front door is likely to bring in unwanted extras on the bottom of their shoes (or paws) It’s all very well providing guests with a prominently displayed welcome mat, and asking people to leave shoes at the door, but there will always be one person who sails in oblivious to your clean carpets and spreads a trail of leaf mulch, mud or worse through the house.

Pets are a completely different matter and if you can stop a lively abrader and get him to wipe his paws, you’re a better person than most! Cleaning messy carpets after a grime invasion can seem like a mammoth task but if you leave the stains and dirt to bed in, it will be much harder to clean it back out again.

If a particularly mucky spill or walk-through appears, get straight to it with the kitchen roll and get as much of it up as you can. Emergency measures:

• Let the mud dry, and then vacuum up the dry dirt.
• Mix one tablespoon of liquid hand dishwashing detergent with two cups of warm water.
• Sponge the stain with the detergent solution using a clean white cloth,
• Blot the stain until the liquid is absorbed.
• Repeat Steps 3 and 4 until the stain has gone
• Sponge with cold water and blot dry.

To stop stains from taking hold in the unfortunate event of a Wellington boot malfunction, pre-treating can make a real difference, protecting your carpet and repelling troublesome stains. Even if you already have a stain resistant carpet, a ChemDry protectant will refresh it and perk your carpet up ready for the winter months.

Chem-Dry Repel Protectant repels liquids, which means that spills can be taken care of before stains set in. It can be applied to all types of carpets as it forms an invisible shield around each carpet fibre. The shield also increases the surface tension of the carpet fibres, preventing spills, dirt and stains from being ground in or absorbed by the carpet fibre. It’s also perfectly safe to use in a house that also has messy kids and animals!

Fall in love with your furniture

 

We all have days when we look around the home and decide it’s all got to go, we can’t possibly live with that carpet, suite or dining room furniture any more. You get on the Internet and start daydreaming about a total refurb, and then you might even start scouting out credit deals on a new sofa.

Don’t panic! Sofas can be a problem; they just start looking tired after a while, there’s a stain where one of the kids dropped their dinner, or the dye from those new jeans rubbed off on the cream suite and now it’s a bit, well, grey. You might not need to throw it on the scrapheap just yet. Save yourself some cash and call in professional upholstery cleaners like 1^st Choice Chemdry and we’ll see if we can get that sofa and suite looking tip top for you again, without the need for a credit check or trawl around the shops.

A good clean and protect treatment can give a tired-looking sofa a completely new lease of life. It won’t even need to be out of action for days; we use less water so that the drying time is much shorter, typically 4-6 hours. We use the power of carbonation to lift away all the dirt and soil to the surface of the sofa fabric, and from there it’s sucked away using powerful extraction equipment.

Whether your old favourite furniture is old and stained or you just want to perk the colour up a bit, our expert technicians will be able to brighten fabric colours and remove the stains that have been bugging you every time you look at them. You won’t have to cover that patch up with a cushion any more, and you might even remember why you fell in love with the suite in the first place!

We use cleaning ingredients that are copied from nature – no harsh soaps, detergents or chemicals, only the power of crystal clear carbonating bubbles. This means that you get deep cleaned upholstery safely and gently, without soapy cleaning chemicals. The quicker dry time also avoids soggy carpets or sofas which can be a breeding ground for mould and bacteria.

So…don’t rush out and splurge on a new sofa – fall in love with your old one again!

SPECIAL OFFER:  Pay for a clean and protect on your suite and you can have any carpet up to 20 m² cleaned FREE OF CHARGE…just Call us on 0141 848 – 9634.

Back to School

It hardly seems possible  that the summer holidays flew by so quickly, but now it’s time to look around, survey the wreckage and get everything back
in some semblance of order again. So where do you start?

No doubt the house has been fully and comprehensively cluttered by your little darlings so the first step in a post-holiday clean-up is the de-clutter. Now, we’re not suggesting that you go through the kids bedrooms and throw out the toys they should have grown out of by now, that’s just asking for a tantrum. Instead, focus on getting your own house – or room – in order.


Start with the wardrobe; you know that tee you’ve been clinging to all through the summer is worn to death, and you know you’ll want to replace it next year, but you still have it hung up in the wardrobe. Cull it. Get rid of anything you’ve been meaning to repair and haven’t anything that’s faded, out of shape or falling to bits. You’ll find another one. We promise.


Autumn is also a good time to tackle the linen cupboard, moving everything around so that the things you use most are within easy reach, and things like lightweight summer duvets are consigned to higher shelves where they can wait until the next warm spell arrives.


Are you a hoarder? We bet that if you go through your bedroom and bathroom cabinets right now there’s a whole load of makeup you never use, beauty samples you keep meaning to try out, and that eye shadow you wore once that made you look like a refugee from the eighties. Be ruthless. Throw them out. Anything out of date can be binned, too. Didn’t know that make-up went out of date? We’re afraid so.


Apply the same ruthlessness to your kitchen cupboards, and throw out or donate any food that’s out of date or just never likely to be used. We all have cans in the kitchen cupboards with soups and sauces we’ve bought and then decided against. Or multipacks where only one has been eaten because the kids didn’t like them. You can donate in-date food to local food banks, and anything past its best, well it’s not as if you were going to eat it anyway. We know waste is bad, but if it’s just going to sit in your cupboard, taking up space where the nice food could be, you may as well just get rid of it.


Once you’ve done all that, you should be feeling very pleased with yourself. The last thing to do is give the carpets and upholstery a really good clean to get rid of the dust, mud and dirt that’s probably been ground in by marauding children over the holidays. The best thing to do, as you’ll be tired from all that de-cluttering, is make a nice cup of tea, sit down and let the professional carpet cleaners do it for you

SPECIAL AUTUMN DEAL

1st Choice Chemdry to the rescue! If you book a ‘Clean and Protect Suite’ package, you can also have any carpet up to 20 m2 cleaned FREE OF CHARGE. Call us on 0141 848 – 9634 for more details.

Sofa Stain Removal 101

Everybody knows that upholstered furniture is a magnet for stains, especially in homes with pets or children in residence. Stains on sofas and upholstery can be harder to remove than on clothing because you can’t just pop a sofa in the wash – and replacing a rug, curtains or sofa will be much more costly than replacing a t-shirt!

Here are a few tips for minimising stain damage.

Deal with spills as they happen and don’t leave them! There’s no need to panic over a little accident, just blot the spill with an absorbent cloth, without scrubbing at it. In some cases that might be all you need.

If it’s still there, try using household upholstery cleaner in an inconspicuous spot first. Or try some of our home products. Even if it’s stained, resist the temptation to rub at it as it could have the opposite effect. Try spraying a towel with water (not the sofa) and gently dry the affected area. Don’t ever put water directly onto upholstery as you could end up with a water mark.

Specific stains can need special treatment:

• Mud and dirt – just brush it off when it’s dried and don’t wet it.
• Blood: Make a solution with a pint of water and 30g salt then wet it, blot it and wet it again. If the stain is still there, you could also try a weak hydrogen peroxide solution – but test this somewhere you can’t see it first.
• Fruit Juice stains – blot these with a solution of ratio 1:3 vinegar to water.
• Red Wine - soak up as much of the stain as you can with a clean dry cloth and don’t be tempted to rub at it. Then, blot the stain with a diluted detergent water mix and soak up with a dry cloth. Hydrogen peroxide mixed with detergent in equal parts is a last resort (test it first on an inconspicuous area though.)

To keep stain damage to a minimum, go for a sofa with stain resistant fabric, and consider having it re-treated regularly. To spruce up your furniture after you’ve eliminated spills, and keep it looking in top notch condition, a professional cleaning service such as 1st Choice Chemdry can really make a difference!
Call us for more information on professional cleaning services for homes and business premises.

Flood Alert!

The weather has been back in the news recently with a spate of flash floods and storms that have affected just about every part of the UK. Here’s some advice on what to do when the weather’s looking decidedly difficult.

Flood Warning

If you’ve been told floods are highly likely in your area, and there is a flood alert/warning in place, keep a battery-operated radio to hand so that you can keep up with updates and forecasts, and get your flood kit ready. This should comprise your insurance documents, waterproofs, first aid kit, a torch, bottles of water and any items like prescription medication, baby care and personal care items. It’s also good to pack some non-perishable food items.

• If the flood is imminent and the alert is now a warning, turn your gas and electricity supplies off, move family members and pets to the highest part of the building and make sure you take your flood kit with you. 
• Put down any protection you have; airbrick covers, sandbags etc.
• Plug your water inlet pipes with towels or cloths, and disconnect appliances that use water, like dishwashers or washing machines.
• ONLY if you have time, move anything expensive or electrical upstairs. 

Already Flooded?

Sometimes there is no warning. And even if there is, there’s only so much you can do to protect yourself, so what do you do if you find your home flooded? The main thing is to keep yourself and anyone else in the building safe, even if this means you have to evacuate your home on the advice of the emergency services.

Call your insurance company as soon as you can, tell them what’s happened and ask them to organise a professional disaster recovery team.  Most insurers have 24-hour emergency helplines. If you haven’t had time to find your policy details it’s not the end of the world - although these will save time. You’ll be on their database and if you have a tablet or phone you should be able to find their emergency number online.

Always arrange repairs and emergency cleaning through your insurer as they may not pay up otherwise. 1st Choice Chemdry is used by many of the major insurance firms so you could ask for us by name if you prefer. They may pay the costs of recovery direct, but if they don’t, make sure that you keep receipts for work done. Take photographs of the damage to help your claim.

ALWAYS wait for a qualified person to deal with any electrical repairs, and don’t touch any electrical appliances or plugs while you’re standing in water.

Keep water damaged items so that you can claim for them if they need to be replaced, unless your insurer tells you to go ahead. Again, take pictures where you can. Use a permanent marker to show the water levels and list everything that was damaged, even down to the food in the fridge and freezer.

Buying a new sofa in the summer sale? Keep it looking good for longer!

Those summer holiday sales are hard to resist aren’t they? If you’ve been thinking about treating yourself to a new three piece suite or comfy sofa, and there it is, you spot it in the sale down the road at 30% off, you naturally get straight in there and make the deal.

Once your new furniture has been delivered, you’ll need some tips on how to take care of it so that your purchase lasts you for many years to come and you’re not out looking for a replacement sofa in 18 months’ time!

Keeping your furniture clean is something that’s virtually guaranteed to extend its life. You can take care of it as much as possible yourself by making sure it’s protected, whether leather or fabric, with a good stain repellent, and wiping up any spot stains, spillages or accidents as soon as they happen.

Another way to really look after your upholstery is by having it professionally cleaned.

Once you’ve had the sofa for a little while, treat it to a proper, thorough clean by 1st Choice Chem-Dry to freshen it up and restore it to its nearly-new glory. It will perk up the colour as well as removing any traces of stains or spills that you thought you got rid of but are still there if you look really hard.

If your furniture is fabric upholstered it will be lovely, clean and dry within four to six hours (unlike some cleaning methods that leave your furniture or carpets out of action for a day, sometimes even two days).
If your sofas are leather, don’t worry as 1st Choice Chemdry can tackle those too. We don’t advise you using any of the any generic cleaning products on the market at the moment for cleaning leather, because some of them can damage the leather, breaking down the finish, drying the material out and causing it to crack.

We have a special range of Chem-Dry leather cleaning products which have been proven safe and effective for use on leather furniture, and they are recommended by 300 tanneries and manufacturers. Keep some leather cleaning products at hand for those little accidents, and make sure that if it’s looking a little weary, you get your sofa expertly perked up by a qualified professional furniture cleaner.
Just a little love and attention will keep your sale buy sofa looking fabulous for many months to come…

Keep carpets clean – it might help prevent allergies and hay fever

If you know the misery of hay fever, or someone in your household suffers from allergies, you will really benefit from making sure that all your carpets, curtains and upholstery are clean, pollen and hair free this summer,

It’s even harder to keep your carpets clean in the summer moths – the doors are open, people are walking in and out, and you’re more likely to entertain or have visitors bringing pet hair indoors if you don’t have pets of your own.

It’s not just pollen; other airborne allergens can cause summer misery too. The farmers are out fertilising their fields and particles of this, pesticides and other nasties can make their way into your home when doors and windows are open, and bed in to your upholstery. What you need is a really deep professional clean that gets rid of all the things that make you itch, wheeze and sneeze.

A 1st Choice Chemdry clean will get deep into the fibres of your carpet and upholstery, giving a really thorough clean using as little water as possible, using state of the art cleaning techniques and equipment to suck all the pollen, dirt and grime out of the carpets leaving them spotless and allergen-free.

You needn’t worry that your carpets or furniture will be out of action for too long, because using less water means that everything dries much faster than with traditional steam cleaning, or any equipment you can hire to do the job yourself – so if it’s an emergency “Did you see that stain?” moment before a big party, or just the desire to relieve hay fever misery for a loved one, 1st Choice Chemdry can get straight in there and get the job done with the minimum of fuss and disruption.

A proper, thorough clean by Chem-Dry can also help to  add to the life of the fabrics in your home, and don’t worry about any job being too much for them; tour technicians are professionally trained to be able to handle delicate and difficult fabrics, including Haitian cotton, wool, velvet and some fabrics that conventional cleaning methods won’t touch.

Get rid of that pollen and dust, relieve the allergies and make your home summer sniffle proof with a deep professional clean from 1st Choice Chemdry!

When tenants go bad…professional cleaning for landlords!

It’s no great surprise that disputes over cleanliness are the top of the list of all disputes in the UK private rental sector; and reports say that the problem just seems to be getting worse.

Last year’s review by the Tenancy Deposit Scheme (TDS) revealed that complaints about cleaning rose from 49 per cent in 2009 to 56 per cent in 2013 – the highest levels since 2007 when the TDS was introduced.

Landlords and letting agents have reported seeing a growing number of properties that are in need of professional cleaning services once a tenant has moved out, and that a general lack of respect for the homes they are living in combined with questionable hygiene levels has left some landlords with no option but to get their property sorted out by a professional cleaning service before they can even think of letting it out to another tenant.

Many tenants don’t see a need to leave a property in the same condition they found it – and some leave their former homes in what can only be described as a filthy state. Stains and marks on carpets are a major problem, as are dirty bathrooms, pet hair and excrement on floors, furniture and soft furnishings.

Tenants are often shocked that their landlords charge them for the costs of getting their properties habitable, claiming that the issues they left behind are simply down to ‘reasonable wear and tear’.

According to the TDS, when a tenant moves out, they should be made aware of any cleaning issues that have arisen, and how much it’s likely to cost of the problems aren’t rectified.  Stained and marked carpets are a really common bone of contention, and one that crafty tenants like to try and hide with rugs and furniture, although savvy landlords know to check everywhere. In some extreme cases, tenants have even been known to try and hide stains by cutting them out and filling the hole in the carpet with carpet from an area that’s hidden, such as under the bed!

At the end of the day, if you’re left with a house that’s been less than looked-after by ungrateful tenants, sometimes you just have to call in the experts to get the house back up to scratch so that another tenant can move in. At least there are reputable professional cleaning companies like 1st Choice Chemdry to help make your property good as new once again.

If it’s happened to you – give our friendly team a call and we’ll see how we can help.

Cleaning Up after a Fire in your Home

Once the initial shock and upset has subsided, time is of the essence when you’re dealing with the damage caused by a house fire. It can be incredibly traumatic to see your possessions ruined or damaged by smoke, even in a small fire, so it’s important to get things restored to some semblance of normality as soon as possible.

The contents of your home, along with the building’s structure, can all be damaged in a house fire, and secondary smoke damage can make things a whole lot worse. That’s why we’d recommend getting in a professional disaster restoration firm like 1st Choice Chemdry to make sure that your well-intentioned efforts to get things back to normal don’t actually make the damage worse. This is something that you should be able to organise though your insurer; 1st Choice Chemdry are called upon by many UK insurance companies to sort out the aftermath of a house fire.

As soon as the building has had all the correct safety checks, you should ventilate it as much as possible. This will help to remove the nasty stale smoke odours. Then call your insurance company (or your landlord, if you rent your home) to arrange a clean-up. Your insurer might take over on your behalf, which is great, some insurers work with their own approved contractors and others will let you choose someone and just cover the cost.

If you are not insured, you will need to make your own arrangements.

Before the professionals arrive, try not to walk through the affected areas if you can avoid it, as this will just move the soot around and grind it deeper into the carpets and upholstery. If the damage is everywhere, or in an area that gets a lot of traffic, you could put old towels down to prevent transfer.

DON’T try washing carpets or upholstery yourself. Leave it to the experts who will have their own professional products to do the job properly.

As soon as the disaster restoration experts are on the scene, they will start working to make sure that your home is back to normal. The first task will be to get rid of the soot and smoke contamination. Then we’ll remove any damaged items that need to restored outside of the home, eliminate any lingering smoke odours and finally thoroughly clean your home so that it looks and smells fresh again.

We’ll restore any items that we can using our professional range of cleaning products and move any furniture back into the house as soon as the work is done.

If you need advice about our services, please contact our friendly team who will be delighted to help.

Why you need to keep your hotel tip top clean

As anyone who runs a busy hotel or B&B will tell you, keeping the place clean is an ongoing chore. Most guests are respectful, and keep rooms tidy and reasonably clean, but there will always be the odd guest who leaves their room in a state or simply has an accident with a cup of coffee or glass of red wine.

Emergency measures can help to get rid of the majority of stains on the spot, even if it’s just a make-do job until the room is vacant for a deep professional clean. Sometimes, when the job is left a little bit too long, as it was in the failing Blackpool hotel The Vidella, it’s down to experts like The Hotel Inspector and Chemdry to get everything spic and span and turn things around.

Watch the episode here

So, it’s vital that you keep on top of spot removal and zap the little spills and stains that make your business premises look drab.

Stain removal emergencies

Stains are all par for the course in the hospitality business, so knowing how to remove some of the most common problems before they bed in is a useful skill! Of course, we recommend Chem-Dry professional home care products and also pre-treating with Chem-Dry Protectant, which combined will give you a head start on successful stain removal.

Have you ever been faced with a chocolate trodden into a carpet or on a table cloth? Of course you have. The problem with getting a chocolate stain out is that it’s a combination of greasy and non-greasy substances that makes removal that much harder. Expert advice is to remove the greasy part of the stain first with cool water and detergent, and allow the stain to dry. Once dried off, sponge the greasy part with stain removal products. Chem Dry Grease and Oil Remover also works for butter and oil stains so is ideal if you prepare and serve food in your establishment.

Another tricky stain to fully remove is blood – even just a shaving nick can produce a surprising amount of it, and spots on the bedding or carpet really don’t look good! If the spots are fresh, try hydrogen peroxide on the affected area, and an unusual tip from one house keeper is that using shaving foam will remove blood stains on pillows, rugs and upholstered furniture. Chem Dry Stain Extinguisher is the perfect product we recommend to expertly remove blood stains, though.

 What about red wine stains? There is a multitude of advice around on how to get a Merlot (or any other red wine) spillage out of a carpet. The famous treatment for that particular accident is a dose of white wine, and it does seem to work if applied quickly enough.  Alternatively, try Stain Extinguisher and watch that wine disappear!

How long should a carpet last?

There are so many different types of carpet available that it can be a bit of a minefield deciding which type is best for your home. Things like the fabric, the grading and the cost all come into play when you’re making that decision.

Two major factors in a carpet’s lifespan are the pile (the way the fibres are woven into the carpet) and the fabric.

• A deep pile (shag-pile) is lovely, soft and luxurious but the pile can flatten in busy areas and it wears out faster than some other types.
• Twist pile carpets are woven with tightly twisted yarn, and generally suit most rooms.
• Looped or Berber carpets are very durable and good in areas that are busy, like hallways.
• Axminster and Wilton carpets are very high quality, log lasting carpets known for their longevity.

Fabric-wise, wool is well-known for being durable, especially when it’s blended with man-made fibres. It’s more water repellent than other fibres, which makes it pretty good at resisting stains, and gives you more time to treat them before they sink in. A wool carpet could potentially last for 20 years, so you’d better make sure you really like it!

Synthetic fibres like polyester and nylon are very popular, and although they aren’t as durable as wool, they can still last well if properly cleaned and cared-for.  Polyester isn’t as long-lasting as nylon, so it’s not usually recommended for high traffic areas. Polyester carpet can last from 5 to 7 years and nylon carpet a bit longer, with a 15 to 20 year life expectancy if looked after.

Keeping your carpets clean

If you’ve paid a lot for your carpet, getting it treated and professionally cleaned are ways to keep it looking great for longer, and extend its lifespan.  If you buy a carpet that’s already been treated for stain resistance, make sure that having another professional stain resistant treatment doesn’t invalidate any warranty you’ve got.

Nylon is a very absorbent fibre which means that stains and spills will damage the fibres. Most already have a pre-treatment when you buy them, but regular professional carpet cleaning will ensure that any accidents are dealt with and the pile looks fresher for longer.

Polyester carpets are reasonably water repellent and easy to look after. Keep them regularly vacuumed and invest in professional carpet cleaning to keep them looking spruced up. Another tip for polyester carpets is move your furniture around every now and again as polyester carpets do have a tendency to flatten out over time.

Accidents happen, but treating stains as soon as they occur is vital if you want to keep your carpets in good condition. Invest in some professional stain removal products from Chem Dry and you’ll always have something on hand to help!

For advice about professional carpet cleaning, contact the team at 1st Choice Chem Dry.

Top tips to remove tricky stains from office carpets

With the best will in the world, it’s impossible to avoid carpets getting damaged in an office environment. It just takes one spilled drink, a trampled pen or a rainy, muddy day to make the carpets look shabby and mucky, but there’s no need to worry – not only can Chemdry come in and professionally clean your carpets for you, we can give you some emergency spot cleaning remedies for those immediate needs.
Our ever so easy guide to removing spots and small stains

Whether the office emergency clean-up is an entire cup of coffee or just a little spot of printer toner, accidents will happen, so it’s best to have a few contingency plans up your sleeve just in case a clumsy employee strikes. Oh, and a phone number of someone who can professionally clean up afterwards, too, of course!

You might also like to be prepared by getting in some Chem-Dry professional home care products so that you’re ready next time? Carpets which have been treated with Chem-Dry's Protectant have a big advantage when it comes to getting rid of stains.

Stain Removal Tips

• Time is of the essence – act quickly to minimise damage. The longer a stain stays untouched, the more opportunity it has to set into the carpet.
• Make sure that you’re using the right product for the job. Check the type of spillage against our handy list, and find out which product to use for water or oil based spots.
• Try to remove as much excess stain as you can by blotting, brushing or scraping, but don’t, under any circumstances, rub it in.
• Test carpets and fabrics before you do anything with a small amount of  Chem-Dry Professional Strength Spot Remover or Chem-Dry Grease & Oil Remover on a small area that’s out of sight, such as under a desk or near the wall. Blot it dry and look at it after ten minutes; Make sure that none of the carpet colour has transferred to the cloth, and that once dried there’s no  discoloration in the area you cleaned.
• Stop stains from spreading by working from the outside edge of the stain to the inside.
• If the stain still won’t budge, call a professional carpet and upholstery cleaner like Chemdry, and ask them to apply the Powerguard Protector at the same time and after every professional clean, to give you a head start on getting shot of troublesome stains in the future.

Dos and don’ts after a fire in your property

 It’s a property or business owner’s worst nightmare – a fire.

There’s no getting away from the fact that a fire will cause your property a great deal of damage, even if it’s put out relatively quickly or is a small fire.  It’s not just the fire – smoke damage can be devastating and cause a huge amount of damage.

If your premises are hit by a fire, you need to act quickly to prevent the damage worsening, and also know what NOT to do yourself if you don’t want to make things worse. Our advice is that you need to call the professionals – insurers and disaster recovery experts – to get the mess assessed and cleaned up as soon as you possibly can.

If you’re faced with the after effects of a fire, you’ll be pleased to hear (once you’ve recovered from the shock) that there are people who can get straight in there and help you sort everything out. There’s no need to panic.

What should you do after a fire?

You can do some things yourself to make the clean-up easier before the professionals get involved.

• If you can, cover up the carpets – if you can find old sheets or towels these are ideal. It just stops the damage from getting worse.
• Open all of the windows to clear the smoke contamination and air the room(s) out. This helps prevent any long term odours from building up.
• Call your insurance company and arrange for a specialist cleaner to visit.  

  

What NOT to do after a fire?

There are many things you should avoid doing after a fire; even if they seem common sense, they might actually make the damage worse. So, even if you’re tempted, don’t do any of the following.

• Don’t attempt to clean any of the furniture or upholstery in the building yourself. The temptation to do so might be hard to resist, but it’s likely that you’ll make things worse, spreading smoke residue and soot around. Wait for the professional disaster recovery experts to come along – they will have specialist equipment to clean everything properly.
• Keep your hands off! If you touch affected areas you’ll only spread the damage around and make the professional clean-up process take even longer.
• Don’t attempt to use your electrical appliances before you’ve had them properly tested – they could be damaged too and you might end up causing another fire, which is the very last thing you need!

For advice about our range of professional cleaning services, or to get a quotation, please feel free to contact us.

Why your premises need a spring clean

Why your premises need a spring clean
The sun is with us again, and doesn’t it show up the fact that the windows haven’t been cleaned all over the winter? As the sun steams in through the office widows, it highlights the muddy stains and marks on the carpets left by the detritus of winter, and the Christmas drinks that got spilled on the floor.
If you want to perk up your employees’ working day, a clean office can make all the difference. Tackling workplace clutter is an important way to make the staff feel more business-like; research shows there’s actually a direct correlation between productivity and clutter â€" it tends to decline along with your profits as the clutter and untidiness increase.
Keeping everything clean benefits office health, too. Clean surroundings, less germs and dust lead to a reduction in people calling in sick with colds, coughs and niggling office illnesses. Having the carpets and upholstery professionally cleaned, giving staff the tools to keep their desks fresh and work surfaces hygienic can only be a good thing if you want to keep your workforce fighting fit.
Top tips to keep it clean and fresh
Freshen up the workplace by replacing bulbs and carrying out little repairs - fix that desk trim, get the window working and generally give the place a once over for any maintenance issues.
The wear and tear on your flooring over winter means that it’s going to be in need of some TLC come springtime. Have carpets and any other flooring professionally cleaned to bring back the freshness and make the place feel like new again.
Encourage employees to keep their own workspaces clean. A survey from the US revealed that 92 per cent of workers regularly ate at their desks, so do you have sanitising wipes or spray easily accessible to people so that they can keep their own environment dirt and bug-free?
Keep the bathrooms clean; this should go without saying but the toilets should be cleaned daily and given a really good deep clean on a regular basis to remove all traces of grime and dirt. A quick once over with a bottle of bleach won’t cut it if the sinks are stained, taps are dripping or the hand driers not working properly.

Giving your premises a good spring clean

The sun is with us again, and doesn’t it show up the fact that the windows haven’t been cleaned all over the winter? As the sun steams in through the office widows, it highlights the muddy stains and marks on the carpets left by the detritus of winter, and the Christmas drinks that got spilled on the floor.

If you want to perk up your employees’ working day, a clean office can make all the difference. Tackling workplace clutter is an important way to make the staff feel more business-like; research shows there’s actually a direct correlation between productivity and clutter â€" it tends to decline along with your profits as the clutter and untidiness increase.

Keeping everything clean benefits office health, too. Clean surroundings, less germs and dust lead to a reduction in people calling in sick with colds, coughs and niggling office illnesses. Having the carpets and upholstery professionally cleaned, giving staff the tools to keep their desks fresh and work surfaces hygienic can only be a good thing if you want to keep your workforce fighting fit.

Top tips to keep it clean and fresh

Freshen up the workplace by replacing bulbs and carrying out little repairs - fix that desk trim, get the window working and generally give the place a once over for any maintenance issues.

The wear and tear on your flooring over winter means that it’s going to be in need of some TLC come springtime. Have carpets and any other flooring professionally cleaned to bring back the freshness and make the place feel like new again.

Encourage employees to keep their own workspaces clean. A survey from the US revealed that 92 per cent of workers regularly ate at their desks, so do you have sanitising wipes or spray easily accessible to people so that they can keep their own environment dirt and bug-free?

Keep the bathrooms clean; this should go without saying but the toilets should be cleaned daily and given a really good deep clean on a regular basis to remove all traces of grime and dirt. A quick once over with a bottle of bleach won’t cut it if the sinks are stained, taps are dripping or the hand driers not working properly.

Why your premises need a spring clean

The sun is with us again, and doesn’t it show up the fact that the windows haven’t been cleaned all over the winter? As the sun steams in through the office widows, it highlights the muddy stains and marks on the carpets left by the detritus of winter, and the Christmas drinks that got spilled on the floor.

If you want to perk up your employees’ working day, a clean office can make all the difference. Tackling workplace clutter is an important way to make the staff feel more business-like; research shows there’s actually a direct correlation between productivity and clutter – it tends to decline along with your profits as the clutter and untidiness increase.

Keeping everything clean benefits office health, too. Clean surroundings, less germs and dust lead to a reduction in people calling in sick with colds, coughs and niggling office illnesses. Having the carpets and upholstery professionally cleaned, giving staff the tools to keep their desks fresh and work surfaces hygienic can only be a good thing if you want to keep your workforce fighting fit.

Top tips to keep it clean and fresh

Freshen up the workplace by replacing bulbs and carrying out little repairs - fix that desk trim, get the window working and generally give the place a once over for any maintenance issues.

The wear and tear on your flooring over winter means that it’s going to be in need of some TLC come springtime. Have carpets and any other flooring professionally cleaned to bring back the freshness and make the place feel like new again.

Encourage employees to keep their own workspaces clean. A survey from the US revealed that 92 per cent of workers regularly ate at their desks, so do you have sanitising wipes or spray easily accessible to people so that they can keep their own environment dirt and bug-free?

Keep the bathrooms clean; this should go without saying but the toilets should be cleaned daily and given a really good deep clean on a regular basis to remove all traces of grime and dirt. A quick once over with a bottle of bleach won’t cut it if the sinks are stained, taps are dripping or the hand driers not working properly.

What to do when your premises are flooded

It’s something that many UK businesses have had to cope with this winter – hopefully the worst is over as we head into spring but given the unpredictability of the British climate, floods are never something to be complacent about. Of course, flooding can also be down to burst water pipes and other problems, so it’s not always the weather to blame!

If your property is hit with a flood, here’s our list of dos and don’ts to take into account before you call in the disaster recovery experts…

Things to do after flood damage

Even if you’re following our advice to call in a professional, there are still things that you can do to make life easier, saving you or your business time and money in the long run.

1. Prevent the situation from getting any worse by making sure that the water mains has been turned off, if the flooding has been caused by a burst pipe or similar.

2. Mop up any residual water as much as you can, to avoid any secondary damage. This is a vital step as it stops the damage from getting and worse and makes repairs easier and more cost-effective.

3. Open all the windows to give the room as much ventilation as possible. The room or rooms will need to have dried out before a professional will be able to come in and start work.

4. If possible, blow cold air through the area that’s been affected by the flood.  Make sure that any equipment you use to do this isn’t affected by the water damage!

5. Make an urgent call to your insurance company and ask them to send out a specialist flood and water damage repair company.

Things that you shouldn’t do if your premises are flooded

Once you’ve covered all the right things to do in the case of a flood, you need to know what to avoid doing if you want to keep any damage and cost to a minimum…

1. Leave the carpets where they are and don’t try to lift them up, even just to see how soaked through they are. Just leave the carpet removal to the experts and you won’t go far wrong.

2. Don’t apply heat to the area that’s been flooded as direct heat could damage the contents of the room. The experts will have specialist equipment on hand designed to do this safely and effectively, so there’s no need to even attempt it yourself.

3. Don’t use cleaning products or bleaches on the damaged areas, as they could cause even more damage. Leave it to the specialists!

If you’re faced with flood damage – don’t panic! Call in experts like 1st Choice Chemdry and your flooded nightmare will be back to its fresh, clean best before you know it.

Keep it Clean – it’s Valentine’s Day!

When you’re preparing for that romantic Valentine’s night in for you and your significant other, you might be thinking about the meal you’re planning, the expensive wine and the perfect flowers, or perhaps how your evening of romance might progress later on. The last thing you’ll probably be thinking about is cleaning.

Inviting your beloved back to a less than fresh house isn’t likely to impress, though. You might have got used to that stain on the carpet, or be able to ignore the dirty looking sofa, but how can you expect to snuggle up for that soppy date on a sofa that has to be disguised with a badly-matched throw that your mum gave you, just because it looks so bad? If your living room looks like an unkempt disaster area complete with aged stains and a musty smell, the prospect of your beau wanting to investigate your bedroom will be drastically reduced.

We know how it is though – you just don’t have time to give the whole place a thorough spring clean before you light the scented candles and open the wine. You’re already panicking about what to wear, and the thought of attempting to scrub months-old coffee stains out of the carpet really isn’t appealing. Besides, you need to get your hair done.

That’s where a professional carpet and upholstery cleaner could save the day. Imagine how impressed your potential lover will be when he or she walks into a fresh, clean smelling home, and looks around to see the immaculately-laid table, bouquet of expensive flowers and bottle of classy wine waiting. Not to mention you, in your best clothes with a serene smile on your face.

You can feel happy in the knowledge that your Valentine won’t be afraid to get a bit closer to your upholstery - because it will be clean and fresh. You might even find that the gorgeous clean carpet attracts some closer inspection if you’re lucky!

One word of advice though. Even if you’ve gone the whole way and called in expert carpet and upholstery cleaners like 1st Choice Chemdry to make sure that everything is just so for your romantic night in, it’s probably not a good idea to insist that all wine glasses stay on the table, or stare at your beloved while they eat, just to make sure they don’t spill anything on your newly perfect carpets…

Keeping your hotel spotlessly clean

Experts like Alex Polizzi, The Hotel Inspector, know that keeping your hotel looking spotless doesn’t stop at reception or the dining room – if you want to make a really good impression, and gain that all-important repeat business,  your bedrooms need to be up to standard at all times.

Bed linen needs to be beautifully fresh and clean, and anyone who regularly watches ‘Four in a Bed’ will know how particular many guests are when it comes to the finer details. Keep that grouting clean, make sure the bathroom is sparkling and dust every bedroom regularly if you don’t want to lose marks for cleanliness. Carpets are a major area where a hotel or guest house can fall down – you might think that your guests won’t notice that stain on the bedroom carpet, but many reviews on sites like TripAdvisor mention dirty carpets, and mark hotels down for it. It’s well worth keeping on top of your carpet cleaning if you want to make a good impression on your guests.

We all know that hotel guests can be messy. A chocolate, coffee or red wine stain can be difficult to remove if you don’t notice it until the following day, even with cleaning products which are specifically intended for carpet stains. If you attempt to remove a difficult stain with a standard carpet cleaning product but you don’t manage to remove all of it, you can end up sealing what’s left of the problem stain into the carpet fibres so that even when you ask a professional carpet cleaner like 1st Choice Chemdry in to tackle the problem, it might refuse to budge.

There are several different tips and tricks for emergency treatment of stains, but our advice is simple: just treat spillages of wine, coffee or any other liquids immediately soak up as much of the liquid as possible with a clean, dry cloth and keep the stain damp with a wet towel while you call in a carpet cleaning expert. It’s a lot easier to shift a tough stain if it’s still damp.

1st Class Chemdry were called in by the fabulous (and very stern) Alex Polizzi to help spruce up a failing hotel in the new series of Channel 5’s The Hotel Inspector. You can see our handiwork on the show, which airs at 9pm on 13th February.

Spruce up your home this New Year

It’s the perfect time of year to think about making your home look its best – the mess and clutter of Christmas is out of the way, the parties are over, the guests have gone home, and now you’re hit with an urge to de-clutter.

De-cluttering is one of the best ways of getting rid of the detritus of the past year and moving on to a bright new one – so once you’ve filled the requisite number of black bin bags with junk, you can move on to making the carpets and soft furnishings look tip top.The TV adverts for expensive new sofas will be out in force in the New Year, but why spend lots of money on a new suite if you can make the existing one look fabulous again? Remember why you fell in love with it in the show room, when you get 1st Choice Chemdry in to give it a proper clean. A really good professional clean will add more life to tired looking fabric, brighten up the colours and get rid of any stains that have been annoying you for ages, giving you a brand-new looking suite for a fraction of the cost of a new one.

If your furniture is covered with an awkward fabric, such as velvet, or it’s a difficult to keep clean white shade, don’t worry, our technicians will still be able to restore it to its former glory.Once you’ve got your suite looking spot-on, you’ll start noticing that the carpets and curtains look a bit grubby too. Don’t worry, 1st virtually any type of curtain fabric, and what’s more, you don’t even have to worry about taking them down, as in most cases we can clean them in-situ for you.

Once we get to work on your carpets, you’ll be amazed and delighted with the result. Not least with the speed we can clean – and dry – your carpets. If you’ve ever had carpets steam-cleaned, you’ll know how annoying it is to wait days for them to thoroughly dry out. We can have your carpets clean and dry within a few HOURS.

We use effervescent, carbonating cleaning solutions that need very little moisture, are copied from nature and are free from detergents and harsh chemicals, to give you a healthier, cleaner carpet without the dirty water that steam cleaning can leave behind.

Start the year with a spotlessly clean home!