Drying times for carpets & soft furnishings cleaned in Autumn & Winter
S o m e t i m e s, your carpets just need cleaning:
- the builders did their best to not make a mess
- the kids tried not to spill their drinks at the party
- your guests attempted to blot that wine stain…
but it is what is, and you’re tired of looking at it.
As carpet, rug & upholstery cleaning specialists, Green Man deliver these services throughout the year. There are pros & cons to every season, but it is certainly true to say that soft furnishings will generally dry quicker after cleaning in the Summer.
Drying times in the Summer
Warm, dry air coursing through open windows accelerates evaporation and simplifies the final stage of the deep-cleaning process.
Warm air also has more capacity for water absorption than cold air, so as one “layer” of moisture evaporates from your carpet/ rug/ linen sofa, the air in your home is ready receive the next, and so on.
While summer offers the ideal conditions for drying, it also means that our eco-friendly pre-sprays & spotting solutions evaporate faster, giving them less contact time with soils and stains, meaning we need to adapt our processes (usually by applying more products).
In the Summer, on a warm dry day with a light breeze, in a property with open windows, we might expect drying times as follows:
- Carpets: less than 2 hours
- Natural fibre (cotton, linen) upholstery: around 4 hours
- Medium pile wool rug: around 4 hours
Drying times in the Autumn & Winter
In the UK, although we can’t necessarily count on the Summer being dry, it is the Autumn & Winter months where we anticipate colder, wetter weather.
Cold & wet air is the least favourable combination of conditions for effective drying. Cool temperatures suppress evaporation. Even if evaporation does occur, its efficiency is suppressed because of the reduced capacity of cold air to absorb moisture.
For these reasons, Green Man technicians modify their process to try and ensure that drying times remain acceptable. This includes:
- Ensuring pre-sprays are as warm as possible, to increase their effectiveness at lower levels of application
- Lowering the water pressure during the rinse extraction process to reduce the chance of over-wetting
- Adding “dry passes” to the extraction process, doubling the level of extraction to remove as much moisture as possible
In the Winter, on a cold wet day with a no breeze, in a property with closed windows & no central heating, we might expect drying times as follows:
- Carpets: up to 12 hours
- Natural fibre (cotton, linen) upholstery: more than 12 hours
- Medium pile wool rug: more than 12 hours
Obviously, this describes a worst case scenario!
If these conditions were unavoidable in your home (i.e. if the power failed/ central heating system broke), we would not advise getting items cleaned at that time.
What can I do to accelerate the drying process at home?
After a thorough clean of carpets, rugs & upholstery in your home, your technician will give you clear advice on how you can ensure there are no issues with drying.
These are:
- Make sure the central heating is on for around 6 hours after the clean – this does not need to be a high temperature, but what you would consider a level of comfortable ambient heat (i..e. warmer than outside!)
- Open the windows in the rooms where cleaning has taken place just a small amount. This will allow moisture to escape and not create condensation in your home.
If you have any questions relating to drying times at this time of year, please feel free to ask. Our friendly admin team and knowledgable technicians will be happy to advise.
Thanks for reading!