My grout gets really dirty and is hard to clean. Help!

People that have a cleaning service think their floor tile grout shouldn't get dirty.  Wrong!  Dirt collects in the grout lines because they are at the lowest spot on the floor.  It will be cleaned up the next time your maids clean, as long as the grout seal is still effective.  Unfortunately sealing is typically only effective for a couple of years at most.  After that the water used to clean the tile will actually push the accumulated dirt into the grout.  Over time this builds up and makes the grout look at lot darker than it was originally.

There are several methods that can clean grout.  They either cost a lot of money and involve expensive pieces of equipment like high-speed brushes or powerful steamers and a cleaning company.  Or there are specialized grout brushes that take elbow grease to remove the dirt.

There is a third way however that involves neither of the above.  Oxygen Bleach when used appropriately will clean your grout with a minimum amount of effort and almost as fast as the expensive equipment.  What is oxygen bleach and is it safe you might ask?  It's not a bleach like chlorine bleach.  It's a powdered form of oxygen contained in an inert filler material (soda ash).  When the powder comes in contact with water, pure oxygen is released.  The oxygen is the cleaner.

OXI-CLEAN, a commercial laundry additive is an example of oxygen bleach although it is relatively under powered for tile as it's only 50% sodium percarbonate (the active oxygen ingredient).  For tile you really want a 75% to 90% sodium percarbonate concentrate.

Oxygen bleach can bleach out certain materials although not nearly as bad or as many materials as chlorine bleach.  So test out carpeting areas that border the tile to make sure it won't bleach the carpet.  A damp mop soaked in the qxygen bleach solution should be laid down on a pre-cleaned tile floor.  Leave the solution on the floor for thirty minutes.  Add solution to those areas that dry out (meaning the solution has permeated the grout).  Mop the floor with clean water when finished and dry the surface with a dry mop.

You should be able to do 500 square feet of tile in an hour and a half.  Remember to use booties when you do this and take them off before stepping on anything other than tile as they will have oxygen bleach solution on them.

How to clean an LCD Screen

Here's a posting from Corey on the MaidPro Home Office Blog: http://www.maidpro.com/blog


LCD screens have gained popularity over the past few years, but when it comes to cleaning, they are nothing like the glass television screens of yore. LCD screens are much more sensitive than a traditional glass screen, so taking a windex soaked paper towel to it will lead to scratching and clouding. But LCD screens gather dust faster than regular screens, so what's a girl to do?

 Here are the steps you need to take to clean your LCD screens safely and effectively:

•  Gently wipe the screen with a dry microfiber cloth (like the ones we use at MaidPro!)

• Use a proper LCD screen cleaning solution. Most solutions on the market are simply a 50/50 solution of isopropyl alcohol and water. If you feel confident, mix it yourself. Otherwise, head to your local office supply store and pick up a spray bottle of the stuff.
  
• Apply the solution to the cloth (never apply it directly to the surface!)
  
• Gently wipe down the screen. If you rub or press the cloth, you risk damaging the screen.

The solution should do most of the work for you. If you are having trouble getting any marks out, let the screen dry and repeat the process a few more times. There are special products available for more difficult marks.

How should I go about hiring a maid service?

Upfront let me state that I am in the house cleaning business. While that doesn’t necessarily make me an expert in how to go about hiring a maid service, it does give me a perspective. One that allows me to see how people go about doing it, and in many cases observe how poorly they do it.

The first thing that people seem to do incorrectly is to budget too little time to the process. They want an answer (typically as to price) without providing much information. It’s difficult to give a customer a price without you going into some level of detail about how large your home is. How many and what types of rooms do you have (kitchens and bathrooms take far longer t clean than than living rooms for instance). And how do you live in your home can be equally important. If you have the time, invite the cleaning company to come to your home. Many items on the list can be answered by simply viewing your home.

How should you choose your vendor once you have an estimate? Here are several suggestions:

1. Save price for last. It’s always provided, but shouldn’t be your first or only means of choosing a maid service.
     
2. How long has the company been in business? Longevity is a good measure in a service oriented business. It’s very easy to start a house cleaning compay, it’s much harder to keep it going for a long time. You have to be good a hiring and training people, satisfying customer requirements for cleaning and to be realiable.
     
3. Does the company provide a sound reference base. There are two ways to look at references. One is to request names from a prospective company, although this can lead to very biased results. The second is to use ratings web-sites. Google Local and Yahoo Local provide an area for reviews. These are self submitted by folks and require a web address which is tracked by Google and Yahoo to ensure validity. The second area for gathering ratings is through sites such as Angie’s list and Yelp. If a company doesn’t have a lot of listings they either haven’t been in business long, or aren’t providing memorable service (good or bad).
    
4. Is the company bonded and insured. House cleaning involves people, and people aren’t perfect. Insurance provides a good measure of a company. If they are a poor risk and have a lot of claims, the insurance company won’t keep them for long. Also many small independents don’t have insurance, either because they can’t get it or because they don’t make it part of their cost structure. What will happen if your prize vase is accidently broken?  

Finally, get a sense for the company by listening to how they answer the phone and how quickly they get back to you if you have to leave a message. Are the people that you have spoken to listening to you, or are they telling you how they do business. House cleaning is a very personal service, and you should be comfortable with a company before you move forward with them.

Should I tip my cleaners?

Tipping is purely a personal choice. However in the U.S. we have chosen to reward good service professionals with tips. Do you tip a waiter? A taxi driver? Your hair dresser? A bell-man? If you answered yes to most of these then you probably should be tipping your maid. After all, most people get cleaning done on a regular basis and your maids will be returning. How often will you get the same waiter, taxi-driver or bell-man?


What’s a decent tip amount may be your next question? Most people seem to tip in the ten to fifteen percent range. Thus if your cleaning cost $100 you would tip $10 to $15. Other people may leave a smaller tip if they get cleaned quite often, and then provide a large tip at the holidays. Again, it’s all personal preference.

My maids seem to clean the house so quickly. How can they be doing a good job when it takes me more than twice as long as them?

Remember that your maid service has professionals that are trained to clean a home properly. Just as a carpenter would build something more than twice as fast as your husband (and do a better job), so does a maid. Here are some tricks of the trade so that they can clean your home faster and better than you:


a.) They clean ten to twenty homes per week – so get lot's of practice. They are in shape for cleaning and bending and typically don’t need rests except between houses.


b.) They fold their cleaning cloths in half and then in half again. This gives them eight clean surfaces to use for each cloth. It means they aren’t changing cloths as often.


c.) They spray their cleaning solutions onto the cloth rather than onto the surface to be cleaned. In this way there is no over spray that needs to be rewiped. Thus the number of cleaning strokes is fewer.


d.) They don't go over the same place multiple times. The maids are trained to go from top to bottom and left to right around the outside of a room. Then they will clean those items in the middle of the room – again top to bottom and left to right. If you were to mark their footprints you would see that they only step on any given spot once. Cleaning the room is much faster.


e.) A final tip. Floors are done last. Dirt from above is pushed down to the floor and then cleaned. Don't try and contain dirt high up. It's difficult to do and slows you down.

When I come home after having my home cleaned there is a fine sprinkling of dust on my darker wood furniture. Why?

This probably isn’t a problem with your maid service. The problem is with your filter on your air handler. There is at least one for every air unit in your home (1 to 3). They can either be found at the unit itself or as a large return vent on the wall or the ceiling. (Don't confuse it with your heating duct vents. The duct vents are smaller and designed to bring hot or cold air into a room. The return vents are typically two to three times the size of your duct vents.

Most filters should be replaced every one to three months, depending on make and quality. Make sure you don’t buy the cheapest filters that look like they have spun fiber glass as their filter mechanism. This type is basically worthless. Good filters have either a washable filter mechanism or a ribbed mechanism with a covering that can't be seen through. Good filters also have a rating that shows how long they are good for and how small a dust particle they stop. Point three microns is a good gauge – that’s 0.3 microns.

How do I get red wine out of a carpet?

There is a relatively simple solution that works for most carpets. If you can attack the problem while the wine spill is still fresh, spread a thick coating of common salt on the spill. Make sure it's covered completely. If the wine soaks through the salt (appearing red on the surface), put more salt on the spill. This will eliminate most of the problem.

Once the excess red wine is absorbed by the salt, or if the wine has had time to dry, try this trick. Get club soda and poor it on the spill. Blot it up with a clean cotton cloth. If you get too much club soda on the spill and can’t get it dry, use some salt. If any stain remains, use a commercial carpet spot remover to get the residue. (Typically these don't work on the initial stain, but can help with the final steps.)

Last of all admonish the spiller, as long as it's not you.

Why does mold or mildew grow in my tub/shower when I have a cleaning service?

This is a great question and has both a simple and a complex answer. Mold is a living organism and gets larger by feeding on air and water. The mold will seem to go away after your cleaner comes, only to reappear several days to a week later. This is because the mold is based not in your tub or shower, but in the wall behind.

Some cleaning chemicals (such as Tilex Mold Remover) will delay the onset of mold longer than normal bathroom chemicals because they are designed more to kill the mold than clean the surface. They seep into the cracks around the tub or shower and thus slow down the mold's reappearance. If you have mold, leaving Tilex out for your Maid Service to use is a good temporary stop-gap.

The long term solution to mold is to remove it from the source (behind the wall). This is easier said than done and requires significant construction effort to accomplish. It also requires a pest company to spray the affected wood prior to refinishing. Also all joints need to be properly sealed in order to prevent moisture from getting behind the wall again.