5 minutes with Aidan Whiteley from Aidan's Excellent Carpet Cleaning

How long have you been in the carpet cleaning game?

I’ve been cleaning carpets since 2008, and we have been growing quite quickly. At the moment I've got a lot more staff than we’ve ever had.

Can you talk us through the services you provide? Is it mainly residential or commercial premises?

We do both. We do end-of-lease carpet cleans, and we also do pest control for end-of-leases because, if people have had pets, they need to have that done, so we are licensed and insured to do that. We also clean lounges and upholstery and we are starting to do a lot more rug cleaning.

We also do water-damage restoration, which can happen in winter because of frozen pipes or flex hoses breaking under sinks.

Just what’s involved in treating that sort of water damage?

We have the equipment to extract water out of the carpet, but we actually put drying equipment in too — fans and dehumidifiers. Often people think it's just drying the carpet, but the actual structure of the house can also get wet and, if you don't dry that correctly, that's when mould starts growing in a house.

But if we get in there and get it dry straight away, you reduce that risk and you also reduce the risk of having to replace the carpet or even walls.

Getting in quickly is the key. Often people wait for their insurance company but, by the time they get back to them, the carpet has been wet too long and has to be thrown out. If they call us directly, we're usually able to get it fixed and be able to get it dry and minimise any damage. 

Besides regular vacuuming, how often should people have their carpets cleaned?

Every 6–12 months would be the normal time-frame. If you have pets or little kids, then six months but, if you are a retired couple who vacuums every day, then once every couple of years would be fine.

Why should people engage a professional carpet cleaner?

The way we operate, and even the reason for the “excellent” in our business name, is that's the sort of work we do. We want to do the right thing by people and we want to get the results people need.