I had my carpets done a few weeks ago to clean 3 rooms, two full sets of stairs, and a hallway…read more(counted as 5 rooms and hall). In spite of other bad reviews I can give L&N a strong recommendation, if you have realistic expectations. Here are some thoughts:
1. The price was very competitive. The lowest among the 'major' cleaning services that advertise in local flyers. I called at least 3 to compare and went with the cheapest.
2. I've used at least two different professional services, borrowed my friends bissell carpet shampooer, and rented a push behind carpet cleaning unit from a vacuum store. In comparison, the results of L&N were better than one of the professional services, the borrowed cleaner, and the rented cleaners I've tried.
3. My carpets are 12 years old and have gone through 4 kids (ages 6 to 15), their neighborhood friends (our house is a hangout place), and at least a dozen dog pee accidents over the 12 years. You can imagine the cumulative effect, but its not in the budget to replace carpets yet, and we were hoping that this cleaning would give us hope that we could stick with this carpet another few years. Hope was given.
4. Based on what was said in (3) we also have realistic expectations. Not expecting like new carpets, but wanted them clean enough that they looked presentable. On the day of, they two man cleaning team called 30 minutes before arriving and arrived well within the 4 hour window we were scheduled for. They were very professional and were in and out in about a hour. When they left, the carpets looked great!
5. Wicking part 1: This is the issue. If you don't have pets or liquid spills, then most likely your carpets will have mostly surface dirt which can be dealt with in a number of cleaning methods. However, on older carpets, once a pet has an accident, the urine can soak into the carpet padding below and dries. When you use any 'steam' or liquid type cleaner, the moisture reactivates the dried urine/liquid. At first the carpets will look great when cleaned. But as the carpets dry, this drying process actually draws the urine/liquid back to the surface through a process known as wicking (it has to do with fluid dynamics through fibrous material, but trust me it happens). Soooo, a day or two later when the carpet is dry, it will have what look like new stains, and in some cases will actually look worse than before the carpets were cleaned.
NOTE: This is clearly spelled out in the L&N paper work. However, L&N will return to retreat the wicked area if you call within 7 days. This is also in the paper work, but I would confirm over the phone.
6. Wicking part 2: After the initial treatment the carpet and stairs looked awesome. I put fans (box and ceiling) on the carpets as fast drying can help limit wicking (so I'm told). Sure enough, 24 hours later, there were noticeable big brown wicking spots ($%@!* dogs). I called L&N immediately and scheduled a 2nd visit, free of charge. I was cordial and offered to schedule the revisit at their convenience. They were appreciated and they were able to come 2 business days later. A different crew came by (as the original crew was scheduled elsewhere), they retreated the carpets (took 10-15 min) and after drying, the carpets look great! Not like new, but really, really nice. Much better than any other method used in the last 5 years.
7. Finally, while it took the two man crew 1 hour do do the original 5 rooms, which seems fast, given that there were two people, its really more like 1.5-2 man hours. Also, as pros, they work at least twice, if 3 to 4 times as fast as I could do it, as I know that doing the same space with the rental, it would take me 4 to 6 hours. Trust me, the math works out, and if you have realistic expectations, the value is good.
