Have you ever accidentally spilled candle wax on your carpet? What would you do? Panic and start rubbing the wax in further? Stop. Rule #1…don't panic.

Here is the best way to remove candle wax from carpet:

1. Remember rule #1: Don't panic.

2. Cool the wax down. Place something cold over the wax – like a frozen bag of peas. This will make the wax harden and more brittle.

3. Place a tea towel over top of the wax and gently hit the wax with a blunt object to break up tyhe chunks so that you can vaccuum and remove as much extra wax as possible.

4. Heat an iron on the lowest setting and quickly glide over a piece of bond paper to absorbe the melted wax. Use ordinary white or uncoloured printing paper, rathe1r than brown paper (brown paper is really white paper dyed brown and therefore brown colourinhg migh transfer to your carpet). Repeat for as long as you ge transfer, minding not to stay too long in one place as you might melt the carpet.

5. If some waxy spot remains, either leave it alone for a professional to deal with it properly, proceed further with a ServiceMaster Emergency Spot Kit.

“What are those black lines around the edges of my carpet?”

I’ve heard this same question a hundred times, so I’ll let you all in on a little dirty secret. But first, lets dispel any idea that it’s your housekeeping – or lack of it!

But what is it? Where does it come from? How do I get rid of it? Good questions.

It is caused by something that happens in all houses, but some more than others. Professionals refer to it as a condition known as “filtration soiling.” And, as you can imagine, your carpet is acting like a filter, trapping pollutants coming from the underside of your carpet. Positive air flow, emanating from the gap between the drywall and the sub-floor, trap pollutants in your carpet through the path of least resistance, the area where your carpet pad isn’t – around the baseboards.

The soil comes from various sources – dirty duct work, gas fireplaces, aromatherapy candles, auto traffic – and is usually greasy, carbon based soot particulates. We find the highest concentrations of it mostly in condo’s around the inner harbour (of Victoria, BC, famous for it’s float planes) and in homes with furnaces. We’ve been busy improving the air tightness of our homes, and consequently, the currents of air within our homes has gotten stronger.

What can you do to get rid of soil filtration? This is a difficult problem because both the carpet fibres soiled and the carpet backing is affected. Removing soil along baseboards is usually best done by hand, to minimize damage to the baseboards, with solvents to break down the specific type of greasy, carbon based soil. The solvents must then be adequately rinsed. Professionals are used to dealing with this and so it is best to rely on them.

That said, it is never a forgone conclusion that they can be fully removed. Severe filtration can, on occaision, cause permanent microscopic damage by scoring the delicate synthetic carpet fibres, causing them to appear grey. If the soils are removed successfully, they will probably gradually return again for the same reason. Regular cleaning every 12 – 18 months, with attention to the soil filtration will most likely be your best alternative.

Remember, don’t blame the maid for poor vacuuming. That is not the cause! Call ServiceMaster of Victoria for help.

ServiceMaster of Victoria has been providing tile & grout cleaning services for a good number of years. But many home and business owners are not aware that they can be cleaned, both efficiently and effectively.

How is this done and how good will they look?

Homes with carpet that also have ceramic tile entries or kitchens are able to be serviced at the same time the carpets are being cleaned. High powered carpet cleaning truck mounted equipment can also be used to clean the tiles efficiently and without a lot of mess.

Hot, almost boiling, water along with ServiceMaster’s Green grease cutting solutions, break up soils in hard to reach indentations and grout lines, removing the soil and moisture with a specialized “indoor pressure washing” system. The results can be almost perfect, especially when compared to what the tile & grout used to look like.

For more information or a no obligation quotation for cleaning your home or office, call ServiceMaster of Victoria at 250-384-3225 today!

The carpets in your home is bound to get soiled, as everything eventually does. But there are a few ways to curb or slow down soiling, particularly at entrances, that will keep your carpets from appearing to be in need of cleaning. Here are a few ways to get you thinking about how to keep your carpets cleaner, longer:

It goes without saying, that if you can keep the soil off your carpet, it will last longer. While this is obviously the case, many do not know that soil left on carpet can cause irreparable and lasting damage to the carpet fibre. So, if you can see soil on your carpet, damage is occuring. It shoud never be the case that you clean your carpet when they become filthy looking, because the soil that is allowed to stay on the fibre will shorten the carpets life. This is the reason why carpets should be professionally cleaned every 12 – 18 months, regardless if they look soiled or not.

Choosing the most appropriate furnishings for your home can be fun – and challenging. Homes are made to be lived in and things used, not just looked at. Choosing the best, and most practical items with which to furnish your home can be difficult if you are not really sure that they are made with quality fabrics that will stand up over the long haul. Having a good understanding of fabric types and knowing how to best care for them definitely helps.

Rugs and accent pieces are often bought with little or no consideration about the care and long term appearance of the piece. Things such as accent rugs are often misused, and rather well used instead of lightly used. Since they are mainly chosen as part of a designed look and to be used as contrasting accents for colour. Some pieces are not really meant to be used and can show signs of wear and damage early, and can become virtually uncleanable. There are really 2 main types of rugs: High quality rugs and those that are made to look like, but aren't really high quality rugs. Rugs made from wool and silk are the most prized, while those made from synthetic fibres just mimic wool to varying degrees of success.

Sometimes synthetic rugs are a better choice than wool rugs if the desire is to use the piece as as a barrier from direct outdoor soiling, such as an entry mat, rather than a higher priced wool rug. Any type of rug will not withstand heavy amounts of traffic and soiling, and therefore using one of lesser quality and price makes sense, as it can be disposed of when no longer useful. It's sad to say that this option exists at all, as everything should be built to last. Even professionals find that cleaning a rug of lesser quality of yields lessor results.

One type of popular choice of rug style these days is a long fibre shag rug, usually sold in very stark white or bright colour. Modern choices of rugs such as this type of rug, also referred to as a synthetic frieze, or California Shag, should be bought with care. These are not the same types of rugs that your parents had, for 2 main reasons. One, these type of shag's are a different shape of synthetic yarn which shows damage very quickly; Two, the fibres are very long making them difficult or almost impossible to vacuum and subsequently hold onto a lot of debris. Rugs of this variety should be occasionally taken outside and beaten, or overturned and vacuumed on the back side to vibrate out all of the things that can become lodged in the hard to reach areas. If you do decide that on one of these types for your home, try to avoid placing it in a well used area as the resulting damage from being well used turns the bright fibres slightly grey and dull.