Hot Water Extraction (HWE)

One of the main reasons why we have carpets/area rugs in our homes and offices is to keep all the dirt particles stuck to their fibres opposite to being in the air we breathe. They are our home’s filters and every filter needs cleaning and maintenance. One of the biggest investments in people’s homes are actually carpets and other floorings.

When it comes to cleaning wall to wall installed carpets (especially in commercial settings), unremovable upholstered parts of furniture cleaning or tiles and grout cleaning, Hot Water Extraction has been shown as the best method of carpet and upholstery cleaning. All the preconditioning steps that go along HWE will bring the deepest possible cleaning and will leave carpets, furniture and tiles in your home looking fresh, rejuvenated and free of all dirt, allergens, germs.

When was HWE invented?

There’s no absolute certainty to it. There’s a patent registered with US Patent office in 1964 and it is for a machine that describes, pretty credible, portable hot water extractor. The patent holder is named Fred Hays. Latter the machine was brought to market under name the deep Steam Extractor. As you might presume, over the years there were many different variants of these “coffee pot” extractors, some with one and some with two canisters.

How does HWE work?

The whole advantage of Hot Water Extraction is that hot water under high pressure goes deep into the fibres and instantly gets vacuumed back in recovery tank, so carpets, upholstery or kitchen floors get dry as quickly as possible. Dry agitation; vacuuming; pre-spray application (light chemicals that will suspend the soil); second agitation with CRB (counter rotating brush) machine that will help to release the firm bond between stubborn stains, hair and dry particles and fibers; are all very important steps in preparation for HWE. Following HWE is basically rinsing fibres with hot water or proper rinsing agent. For extremely dirty and soiled areas (High traffic areas) multiple flushing strokes are required, followed up with couple “dry” passes. Drying should be complete in 6 to 8 hours, never more than 24 hours. Brushing, raking and use of air movers is always good way to speed up the drying process.

Why choosing HWE?

It is very important to understand the distinction between regular maintenance cleaning and restorative (deep) cleaning.

Maintenance cleaning is something we regularly do to keep our floors clean, like vacuuming, sweeping, moping, buffing and we should do it at least two times a week in order to keep them clean and to prolong their life by removing most of the dry particles from our floorings. Dry particles are 80% of all the dirt and when we frequently walk over them, we rub them into the fibres or surfaces which makes friction that abrade our flooring and make it reflex light in different direction. Then, those parts look dirty and worn, and very unlikely to recover new look.

Deep cleaning is basically restoration of carpet and upholstery fibres, and other floorings. Hot water extraction is one of the most efficient methods of quick drying deep cleaning. Beside removing all of the dirt, most stains and spots will be gone too. It’s a perfect combination and utilisation of physics (hot water, high pressure, powerful suction, scrubbing) and chemistry (adequate agents for lifting the soil and removing spots and stains). It is something we should do periodically, depending on use and traffic, every six months or a year, for some commercial settings even more often.

Here is the algorithm of how floor cleaning should look:   

If you want a service that fits your flooring cleaning needs, please feel free to contact us at contactus@fromdarktolight.ca or simply give us a call on 647-877-5977.

Thank you for reading!