The nitty gritty on Twin Cities area carpet cleaners

'Tis the season to get your home ready for holiday guests (or just nice and clean for you to enjoy). A good cleaning can make carpets and rugs look like new, help them last longer, and even improve indoor air quality. When it's time to call in the pros, you'll want to look carefully for an outfit with a reputation for doing good work at a fair price.

Twin Cities Consumers' Checkbook's ratings of local carpet and rug cleaners reveal big differences in the work companies do and how much they charge to do it. The highest-rated companies in Checkbook's comparisons were more than twice as likely as the lowest-rated companies to get positive reviews from their customers.

To start your search for a company with a spotless reputation, until Dec. 5, Star Tribune readers can get free access to Checkbook's ratings of local carpet cleaning services via Checkbook.org/StarTribune/carpet-cleaners.

The company you hire will impact how well the job gets done, whether difficult stains are removed, how good your carpets and rugs look afterward, and how long they stay that way.

Before hiring a cleaner, ask about the methods it uses. For carpet, you're usually best off hiring a company that offers hot-water extraction with truck-mounted equipment. Rugs should be cleaned outside of your home. Most companies advertise that they "hand wash" rugs, but that's just a generic term. Look for one that hand washes using an "immersion" method.

Be sure to compare prices. If you can provide accurate measurements and descriptions, most carpet and rug cleaners will quote prices over the phone or via email. Checkbook's ratings of local cleaners include pricing details, collected by Checkbook's undercover shoppers, who found some carpet and rug cleaners charge a lot more than their competitors for the same work. For a sample 460-square-foot area, prices for hot-water-extraction cleaning of medium-color domestic pile ranged from $.35 or less per square foot to more than $.55. For in-plant cleaning of an 8x10-foot all-wool hand-knotted Oriental rug, including pick-up and delivery, prices among area companies ranged from less than $150 to more than $400.

Paying less doesn't mean you'll get shoddy work. Checkbook found that some of the companies that received the highest ratings from their customers for the quality of their work also charge lower-than-average fees.

Ask for a written guarantee that the company will at least redo the job if you find it unsatisfactory. Most carpet and rug cleaning outfits provide guarantees, but what they promise varies. Give companies credit if they talk candidly about their limitations before they begin work. Some types of stains are extremely difficult or even impossible to remove once they have set, and companies may not know whether they can remove them until they try.

Before work starts, be sure to point out stains and tell workers what caused them. For carpet cleanings, remove or raise hanging objects that might be bumped by cleaning personnel, who generally walk backwards as they work. Remove prized valuables; cleaning personnel will generally move such items for you, but not necessarily with the care you desire. To avoid surprises, get in writing the total cost of the job before service begins.

Don't pay until you check the work. If you are not satisfied with the finished job, explain that you will not pay until the work is done properly. If you later discover spots or other problems, contact the company immediately. The longer you wait, the more likely they will suspect that the spot is new.