The carpeting in a house can be a beautiful addition and is very comfortable to walk on, but also displays dirt and stains much more easily than hardwood or laminate flooring. When a deep cleaning is necessary, hiring a professional carpet cleaning company or renting a steam cleaner is the best option, but what about refreshing your carpet in-between deep cleaning?

In these instances, you should know how to steam clean your carpet with a steam mop.

How to Steam Clean Carpet With Steam Mop

When considering whether or not to use your steam mop to clean carpet, it is important to check the material that your carpet is made of.

Man-made fibers, woven, and Berber carpets may be damaged by high heat.

Be sure to check any manuals you may have received when the carpet was installed, or at least identify what type of material is used, before using a steam mop on it. 

We recommend that you test a small patch of hidden carpet first before using a steam mop to clean the entire carpet.

1. Fill the steam mop reservoir.
2. Attach the carpet glider or carpet attachment to the steam mop. Hot steam may start coming out of the mop quickly, so attaching the glider before plugging in/turning on your steam mop will help avoid scalding.
3. Remove any floor clutter, and move light furniture out of the way. For heavy furniture, wrap the legs with a waterproof tape, or wrap in a plastic bag or foil. Steam can damage wood and other leg materials.
4. Clean surrounding baseboards. Since steam creates a lot of humidity, water can condense or collect on the baseboards. If they are dirty, this makes dirty water drip down and soak into your carpet on the edges.
5. Vacuum the carpet. Steam mops do not have a vacuum mechanism, so loose dirt, hair, or small objects will just be pushed around by the mop.
6. Treat any spot stains with cleaner specific to your carpet. In some instances, steam can set certain stains into the carpet permanently instead of removing them.

Steam Clean Carpet With a Steam Mop

Using a steam mop to steam clean carpet is not exactly the same as using a steam cleaner because of the lack of a vacuum attachment. They are also not intended to be used with a scrubbing motion.

1. Plug in the steam mop and set it to the correct setting. Check the user manual to make sure that the temperature is correct for use on carpet. 
2. Steam Only setting is normally recommended.
3. Turn on the steam mop. They heat up quickly, so do not let it sit for too long after you have turned it on.
4. Start in the corner farthest away from the entrance/exit of the room. Your cleaning pattern should back up so you can exit the room when cleaning is completed.
5. Use a light touch! Move the steam mop back and forth over the carpet. Do not scrub, let the steam do the work.
6. Do not saturate the carpet. Keep the steam mop in motion so water does not accumulate in one area. Steam cleaners include a vacuum that sucks up the water, but steam mops do not.
7. Clean in a grid and keep track of what you have cleaned.

After You Steam Clean Carpet With Steam Mop

Once cleaning is complete, there are some important steps to make sure you get the longest possible life out of both the carpet and the steam mop.

• Allow the carpet to dry completely before moving the furniture back. This can take anywhere between 3-9 hours depending on the carpet material, how much moisture ended up being used, airflow, and other factors.
• If you need to walk over the carpeted floor before it is dry, you can wear clean socks, put on shoe coverings, or use other methods to not introduce new dirt to the carpet. 
• Towels work for a quick walk across the carpet, but do not leave them as walkways, since they will slow down the drying process of the carpet they cover.
• After the carpet is dry, the fibers are sometimes stiff. Vacuum the carpet again to loosed the fibers up, making them softer and more comfortable to walk on.
• Move the furniture back into place, and remove any protective coverings you may have used.
• Remove the cleaning pad. If it is reusable, wash it, either in the laundry or by hand. Follow the owner’s manual for specific methods.
• Remove the carpet glider or attachment used for cleaning carpet.
• Empty the water reservoir in the steam mop to prevent mildew from accumulating between uses.
• Store the steam mop.

What is a Steam Mop?

A steam mop is a light duty household appliance that is a mix in between a normal mop and a steam cleaner.

They are heavier than a regular mop because of the added steaming mechanism but are not even close to the bulkiness of a full-sized steam cleaner. This makes for portability and ease of use.

Do not assume that a steam mop is a replacement for the deep cleaning that a professional carpet cleaner can provide.

Commercial steam cleaners for carpet saturate the carpet with steam, hot water, and chemical cleaning solutions, and then a vacuum attachment sucks it back out.

• Using a steam mop will keep your carpet fresh and extend the time necessary in between deep cleanings, but they are still necessary.
• Instead of focusing on chemicals to clean your floors, a steam mop is usually only intended to use the heat and moisture of steam to help clean and disinfect floors.

Steam mops are normally intended for use on hard floorings such as concrete, tiles, and, especially linoleum and other non-porous surfaces. An additional attachment may be necessary when used to clean a carpet, but for a lot of steam mop models, this attachment is already included.

Dust mites can aggravate allergies and asthma, so removing them on a regular basis will help with your family’s daily health.

Vacuuming after cleaning with steam is a good idea in order to remove dead fleas and flea eggs, as well as expired dust mites.

Conclusion

Using a steam mop to clean carpet is a highly recommended method of keeping your carpet refreshed and germ-free for the periods of time in between deep cleaning. While vacuuming on a regular basis is also important for the health and cleanliness of carpeting, the additional high heat from a steam mop also helps get rid of pet urine smells and kills microorganisms, dust mites, and fleas.