Carpet Cleaning with no residue...

Some of you may have heard my yapping about the messy work in our house the past couple of weeks. For those who haven't...we got a new boiler. Which meant that our OLD boiler (as in original to the 1914 house OLD, and wrapped in asbestos) had to be removed...and then a new boiler installed. Oh, and we also switched out our super inefficient electric baseboard heaters for new copper fin hot water baseboards, which is GREAT, but meant that the workers were running pipe all over the house and various already messy rooms had to be cleared out, etc... ARGH.. Chaos here. And lots of dirty carpet...

ANYWAY, the point of this post is not to complain about the messy chaos of my life, but rather to let you know about the CARPET CLEANERS I found. Based on the recommendations of a couple of friends, we had ZeroRez come to clean the carpets. ZeroRez (as in zero residue) uses no toxic chemicals in their cleaning. Instead, they use 'empowered water' via low-pressue spray to loosen embedded dirt and clean the carpet by eliminating bacteria. The dirt and water is then removed with a unique extraction wand. They claim that the carpet is clean without any residue and the dry time is dramatically reduced.

They also do tile, drapery, air ducts, leather, upholstery, hard surfaces (e.g., countertops) and hard flooring, and they have a 'protectant' service as well that they claim protects against bacteria. If you're in the market for some deep cleaning, check them out at http://www.myzerorez.com. We had our basement carpet, one bedroom area rug, and the bathroom tile floor done, and the total cost was $218. This is a bit pricier than some traditional cleaning services, I think, but they claim that the spot removal lasts (b/c they get it all out rather than just the stain at the surface) and that it is gentler on your carpet (less wear & tear)...plus the piece of mind that you don't have to worry about kids or pets on the carpet due to chemicals.

Make a comment if you've have experiences with other low/nontoxic cleaning services...