That badly abused Berber in the rental house should look like new, and the urine-soaked (cat? dog? who's to say?) furniture should look and smell great once you've worked your magic on them. Not! This is a cleaning wand, not a magic wand. What are you to do about these pipe dreams of our clients?

One scenario for a positive moment of truth may be when you get the call from the consumer regarding the infamous unknown spot. Fix this for them and you become a hero, but remember, if you agree to attempt the correction, inform the customer that there are no guarantees on satisfactory removal of the spot.

Advances in technology in the past five or six years have broadened the choice of systems and equipment available for maintaining commercial carpets. The basics of the cleaning, however, remain constant: effective dry soil removal and use of TACT, or Temperature, Agitation, Chemicals and Time.

One of the most common requests a carpet cleaner gets is to deodorize the carpet or furniture that is being cleaned. Quite often, this is an easy request to fill, since cleaning is the first step in odor control or deodorization. A basic rule of odor control is that the source of the odor must be removed or contained.

As you load your battlewagon and gird your loins for the daily (or nightly) battle with soil, the first item you would load would probably be your primary cleaning system, be it wet, dry or in-between, and attachments like wands and brushes.

Based upon my observations over the years, it seems obvious that a good supplier will make the climb up the ladder of success much faster and easier.

It is quite accepted in the carpet-cleaning world that regular dry soil removal is one of the keys to extended carpet and successful carpet cleaning.

You've done everything right: bought the very best equipment, taken the necessary IICRC classes, and selected the proper chemicals for the various jobs you perform.

Today's hot-water extraction cleaner has a wide range of wands and extraction tools to choose from when performing the cleaning process.

A very common topic of discussion in classes and on Internet bulletin boards is how to grow one's business and, inevitably, what programs work the best.