Last updated: September 2026
Cleaning day, from the knock to the last pass
Six things happen at your door, in this order: a walkthrough, an agreed total, a dry pass, the clean, a groom, and a look at every room with you before anyone leaves. Nothing on the floor gets wet until the loose grit has come out of it dry.
- The technician walks the rooms with you before he carries anything in, and tells you straight what will lift and what will not.
- The technician moves the chairs, end tables and ottomans and cleans under them. Beds, dressers and entertainment centers stay put.
- The dry pass comes before any moisture, because wetting loose grit drives it down.
- Back in use about an hour later, pets back on the floor once it is dry, and the invoice matches the quote.
Ten minutes of prep is plenty
Pick the small things off the floor: shoes, toys, the laundry basket, phone chargers, the dog bowl by the back door. Clear a path from the door to the first room, because the machine has to travel it.
No need to vacuum ahead of us, because our own dry pass comes first and it pulls harder than a household vacuum. What helps is telling us about the floor: the spot the cat found in June, the lane the kids come down from the garage, the bedroom nobody has touched since 2009.
Call 423-284-0493 and the office puts all of it on the job before the technician turns onto your street, along with anything awkward about the drive, the gate or the parking. The person who turns up is one of our own trained employees, and he arrives already knowing what you told us.
The walkthrough, then the work
It is the same routine every time, on every job.
The walk
You and the technician go room to room. He measures what is being cleaned against the 450 square feet the three-room price covers, looks at the lanes in daylight, reads the care tag on any rug or sofa on the list, and asks what has been treated before. You hear the honest version of what will lift.
The total, on paper
Rooms, hallways, stairs, rugs, upholstery and any add-on go on paper with a figure beside each and a total at the bottom. You agree to that total before equipment comes inside, and nothing is added later without you seeing it.
Dry first, then clean
A dry pass lifts the loose grit out of the pile. Then the pre-spray goes down, the low-moisture clean follows, and the pile is groomed while still damp so it dries standing up. A rug or a sofa on the same ticket gets the method its cleaning code calls for, W through X, and is cleaned where it sits.
The last walk
Back through every room with you, small furniture returned to the floor it came off, and the invoice itemized in front of you. Same total you agreed to at the start.
What gets moved and what stays
The technician moves the smaller pieces himself and cleans the floor underneath them. Dining chairs, end tables, ottomans, light coffee tables, floor lamps, a laundry hamper: all of it comes up, the floor under it gets done, and it goes back where it was.
The heavy pieces stay where they are and we clean around them. That is a firm rule. Dragging a loaded piece is how a leg breaks and a carpet gets marked, and the floor under a dresser is not the floor anybody walks on.
If you want the floor under a bed or a dresser done, move the piece before we arrive and the technician treats it like any other area. Asked on the day, the answer is a polite no, for your furniture's sake and our backs.
Why the vacuum comes before the water
The dry pass looks like stalling. It is the opposite. Tracked-in dirt carries grit in every size from fine dust to coarse sand, and most of it sits loose in the top of the pile.
So the dirt walked into a living room does two jobs. It stains, which everybody expects, and it abrades, which almost nobody does, so a hallway lane goes dark and then goes thin. Wet that grit before lifting it and you make a slurry that carries the sharp part down to the backing, where a vacuum will never reach it. Lift it dry and the low-moisture clean gets to work on the soil that is actually bonded to the fiber, so it comes out. More on the soil in our dirt and grit guide.
The hour after we leave
Carpet is walkable about an hour after we go. Socks beat bare feet for that hour, and shoes are worse than either, since the point of the last pass was getting grit out.
Air moving over the floor finishes the job. Ceiling fans on, and the air handler set to run rather than cycle. A closed-up room with still air is the slowest to finish, and moving air is what closes the gap.
Furniture goes back once the floor is dry. Very little water goes down and no detergent film is left in the pile, so the gap before those lanes darken again runs about three times longer.
Where the pets go while we work
Put the dog in a back bedroom, a crate or the yard while we work. It is not what we spray, which is eco-friendly and gentle enough that a toddler or a dog can be back on that floor the moment it dries. It is that the front door stands open and the crew is in and out. Cats need more of that thought than dogs do.
Everybody is back on the floor as soon as it is dry. If a pet is the reason you booked, the pet treatment goes into every room the accident reached, works on the source of the smell, and carries a 100% guarantee of its own.
What the paperwork shows
It is itemized room by room, so you can see what each part of the job came to.
| Line on the invoice | Starting at |
|---|---|
| Three rooms, up to 450 sq ft total | from $109 |
| Each additional room | typically $40–$50 |
| Large room, den or bonus room | typically $50–$100 |
| Hallway | typically $20–$30 |
| Stairs, per flight | typically $40–$50 |
| Pet treatment, per room | typically $30–$40 |
| Protectant or sanitizer, per room | typically $20–$30 |
| Area rug, any fiber, cleaned in the home | from $1 / sq ft |
| Sofa | from $140 |
Job minimums sit under all of it: every visit starts at $99, around $149 once a pet treatment is on the ticket, around $119 with protectant or sanitizer, and a rug typically runs $1 to $2 a square foot. Rugs are cleaned on your own floor and never leave the house, polypropylene or silk Oriental alike.
If the total ever fails to match the quote, that is our mistake and it is fixed before you pay. If the floor still looks wrong a day later, call 423-284-0493. We come back and put it right.
Questions people ask on the day
What does the technician do in the first ten minutes?
He walks the rooms with you before he carries anything in. That is where the floor gets measured against the 450 square feet the $109 starting price covers, where you point at the spots that bother you, and where he tells you straight whether a worn lane will come all the way back or only part of the way. Everything after that walk is already agreed.
When in the visit does the exact figure get handed to me?
Before a single machine comes through the door. Rooms, hallways, stairs, rugs and any add-on are listed and totaled on paper at your door, and you say yes to that total before work starts. Three rooms up to 450 square feet start at $109, extra rooms typically run $40 to $50, hallways around $20 to $30, and a flight of stairs about $40 to $50. Every visit starts at $99.
Which pieces of furniture get moved, and which stay where they are?
The technician moves the smaller pieces himself and cleans the floor under them: dining and occasional chairs, end tables, ottomans, light coffee tables, floor lamps, magazine racks. Beds, dressers, china cabinets, loaded bookcases, entertainment centers and pianos stay where they are and we clean around them. Nothing heavy gets dragged across a floor in your house, and nothing gets emptied and rebuilt.
Why does the vacuuming pass come before any moisture?
Because loose soil comes out easiest while it is still dry. The grit in tracked-in dirt turns to slurry the moment it is wet and rides down toward the backing, where it keeps cutting the fiber. Lifting it first means the pre-spray and the low-moisture clean are working on what is actually bonded to the carpet rather than the top layer. So the dry pass is first, every time.
What should we do with the dog while the work is going on?
A back bedroom, a crate or the yard is easiest, mostly because doors stand open and the crew is in and out for a while. The solutions are eco-friendly and non-toxic, and they are safe around kids and pets once they are down. Cats are the ones to think about first, since an open front door and a startled cat is the only real risk of the visit.
What happens in the last few minutes before you leave?
You and the technician walk the rooms again. The pile gets groomed, the small furniture goes back on the floor it came off, and anything that did not lift all the way gets said out loud rather than left for you to find on Saturday. Then the invoice is itemized in front of you, and the figure on it matches the quote you agreed to at the start.
A room dried and I am not happy with it. Then what?
Call 423-284-0493 and we come back out. That is what Love the clean or it's free means, and it is the whole promise in one sentence. Pet treatments carry their own 100% pet odor removal guarantee on top of it. Neither one has a form to fill in or a window to beat.
Afterwards, there is the care between cleanings guide and how often carpet needs cleaning here.
Back on your floor before lunch is over.
Low-moisture deep clean, dry in about an hour · Love the clean or it's free.