ecohome guy

First off, I confess a preference for hardwood floors over carpeting. I'm quite certain this bias started after we moved into a home a few years back that had flea-infested carpeting. I would sit in my carpeted home office and within minutes have flea bites all over my lower legs. What other nastiness was the carpet harboring? Like a lot of people, I assumed that hardwood flooring provided better indoor air quality than carpeting. Older carpeting frequently contained PVC backing and could off-gas some nasty chemicals.

Still, nothing ties a room together like the right rug. Carpeting has also become much more eco-friendly in the last few years. My friend Daryl Brandon of Dr. Green's Carpet Care informed me that carpets are your home's largest air filters, trapping pollutants that are otherwise stirred up with hard flooring.

The other thing about carpeting was the cleaning. You know, that hot water extraction process that soaked your carpet and took hours to dry?  And was it my imagination, or did the carpet seem to get dirty quicker after the cleaning? Once again, Daryl informed me that that sticky residue left behind by the detergents and soaps the steam cleaners use actually attracts dirt and causes the carpet to get dirtier faster.

So I had Dr. Green come out and clean a couple of rooms in our house.

Dr. Green uses non-toxic, biodegradable cleaning solutions that don't leave a chemical residue in your carpet. I was surprised to find that Daryl's plant- and hydrogen peroxide-based solutions cleaned as good or better than the chemical detergents and were dry in about 30 minutes. But Dr. Green believes it's not just the cleaning solutions that make a green cleaning company, it's also the process that makes a company truly green.

Water conservation is a big factor in Dr. Green's process. Most steam cleaners will use 30 - 40 gallons of water for the typical home cleaning. Dr. Green uses about 2 gallons for the same area! Just imagine how much water is being wasted every day for just one steam cleaning truck with several jobs per day.  Now realize that there are over 1,000 carpet cleaning companies in the ATL metro area alone (some with a fleet of vehicles), and the majority use the steam cleaning method.

Dr. Green commutes to the client in small gas-friendly SUVs instead of large gas-guzzling vans. Once there, they turn off their small vehicles and push their electric powered equipment into your home or place of business, closing the door behind. No gasoline generator is left running outside.

It's been a couple of days since Dr. Green's visit. The bedroom carpets look great and a large pet stain that Daryl removed hasn't reappeared. And that rug in the living room that ties the room together?  It looks brand new.

The next time you need your carpet cleaned, give Dr. Green a call. You can find him online here.