Q. I have heard of people who have started their own carpet cleaning service to residential areas pretty much going door to door. I was wondering if I don't advertise and don't have a name am I still considered a business if I'm selling my carpet cleaning services to residents and do I need a license? I would like to be able to do it without having to pay for licensing and insurance and all that stuff.

A. You must have a license and insurance.people sue over anything these days and one small mistake in someones home can hurt you bad financially.I owned a cleaning company so i know first hand how easy it is to accidentally break something valuable or ruin a carpet Insurance saved my butt a few times!

Q. Need to clean five rooms, a hallway, landing and two flights of stairs in a London Victorian terrace house. The carpets are probably 20 years old and fairly grubby. I've seen normal carpet cleaning, carpet dry cleaning and carpet steam cleaning by different companies that will come do it. Or I could hire a machine and do something myself. What do people recommend for best cleaning, value, ease?

A. Professional Steam cleaning is the best choice. Their truck mounted equipment is far superior to anything that you can rent or buy because the steam has to be very hot to kill the bacteria. You can't get the steam hot enough with household or rental machines.

Q. Do any one have any ideas or suggestions on how I can go about getting new contracts for my new Janitorial business? I offer carpet cleaning, residential and commercial cleaning, move in/move out cleaning. Should I do cold calling to different businesses? Flyers? How can I go about putting a proposal for companies to bid on my company to clean for them? Help Me out people.

A. You might as well forget the Internet because it's global - you need to target your efforts locally. This is best done in the newspaper, direct mail, and cold calling. Here's an idea: Call the business and get a price quote from THEM instead of the other way around. You'll find out what price YOU need to charge to get their business that way.

A. That is really hard to say, Rug Doctor has a good rep but if you could go to some carpet suppliers, or Home depot, lowes and ask who they would recommend you may get a really good deal by a smaller company on a one man self employed

Q. Do they have better chemicals and equipment for cleaning the carpet than renting from the store, I want to make sure my carpet is top notch for move out inspection. cArpet isnt really dirty but i have these red stains from a cake icing on my sons carpet

A. I own a carpet cleaning company and I yes we do have better chemicals and equipment. I use a truck mounted unit that cost over 35k I carry my own soft water (cleans better) and have over 20 different kinds of cleaning chemicals in my van. Red stains are hard to get out but a good company should be able to get them out. Do not use any house hold chemicals on them as they can set the stains permanently. Always get a company that uses hot water extraction this is the type of cleaning recommended by the EPA and every major textile manufacturer in the us.

Q. I had some dirt spots in my carpet. I tried spot cleaning and then using my carpet cleaning machine to clean the rest of the carpet and to suck up the access water and cleaning solution were I hand scrub the carpet. After it dried up the spots are worse now? What can I do to correct this? I've tried using boiled water and my steam cleaning machine, it mostly dry now. It look like it work, but I will know for sure by tommorow. The first three answers are good, however the third answer did not give me a solution.

A. It could be that the spots are deeper than you think. If it got dirtier when you used the cleaning machine, it is possible that whatever is there is being drawn up as the carpet cleaner goes across it. I have used "Spot Shot" spray on carpet cleaner and it has worked great for surface stains. It would be worth a "Shot". Otherwise you can try using Oxy Clean with hot water in your carpet cleaner.

Q. My carpet is in need of a new cleaning and i dont have the money to go buy a new one, so i need to clean it. But i dont have one of those fancy carpet cleaning machines to do it for me. so what are some good methods to cleaning it? what is a good cleaning detergent to use?

A. Take the carpet down to the river and pound it against some rocks.

Q. Do you have any experience or recommendations? We need a professional treatment (rental stipulation) and I need to know how to decide which company or kind of cleaning! Preferably reasonably priced. I'm in Perth Australia if anyone has suggestions

A. As the steam cleaning method uses hot water, you can clean carpet even without detergents, that is why it is a perfect method, you can read more about steam carpet cleaning on this carpet cleaning website: http://carpetcleaningsolutions.org/ and you will understand that i am right. Chemical cleaning is good also cause it cleans well, but if you are interested in eco friendly cleaning then choose steam!