Cleaning floor mats

This is a short write up on how I do floor mats with my carpet extractor.

Here are the tools.



That is my extractor, scrub brush and degreaser mixed 5:1. The phone isn't needed and can slow you down.

Here is the floor mat. This is out of the 2000 Acura 3.2 TL. As you can see it is dirty (not extremely and has a few stains on it).



First I spray the cleaner on the right side of the mat.



Next I scrub it with the scrub brush. As I did this I found a spot or two I wanted cleaner so I sprayed those spots and scrubbed again.



This can be done with the carpet in the car as well and on cloth seats. Without an extractor you could use a clean cloth to rub them down at this point to pull dirt from the carpet. I have a carpet extractor so that is the option I go with. With car mats you have another step you can take as well. You can hang them up and spray them with a hose and let them drip dry. We did that step in our shop. It would get more dirt out. We would also scrub them again after rinsing and then rinse one more time. Then we would extract.





Two completed mats.



James

 

If I remember correctly that one cost us about $2000. I wanted one with a large tank and I also wanted one that was local so I could get it serviced. That was pointless because we ended up fixing things ourselves. You can get some for $600. There are other units that would be a few hundred. The pro level ones seem t start at about $600.

Mine heats the water in the tank so you have to wait for it to heat. There are a bunch that have an inline heater. They heat the water just before it goes into the hose. That would have been great in our shop. When we were busy we would have to refill the tank and wait for it to heat up. So you had to plan ahead.

You can get extractors for the home that are just over $100 that are not heated. Some use those with some good results. Myself I really like the heated water. It seems to make a big difference.

James

 

Most people will toss in rubber mats in right before the winter. In the spring, summer and fall they will run with the carpet mats. The rubber ones are not as sexy. And with some rubber mats you will still get dirt, snow and salt on your carpet and other mat if you still have it under your rubber mat so there will still be some clean up to do. But you are right, rubber mats are so much easier to clean.

James

 

Most of the people that buy the $600 one are doing it as a business. Most of the ones buying them for themselves will go with the ones that are closer to $100 without the heat. Mats are the easy part. They can be hosed down and hung up to dry. That isn't a great idea for seats or the carpet (unless you remove it from the car first which I have done). So they have more uses then just the floor mats.

James

 

I was talking about the extractor. But for mats you can get quality fitted mats that cost over $100. They provide more protection then the one size fits all mats.

James

 

A second carpet for a car would cost about as much as good extractor brand new. And it would take up more space and have only one use. The extractor is the better deal.

James

 

Replacing would be more. If your replacing the carpet and the floor mats. And then if you own more then one car the cost can go up. Then if you own the car for long enough are you going to replace again? There are products out there that will clean stains. And if your willing to replace you can just haul out the carpet, vacuum. At this point you can use a cleaner and a scrub brush to clean the carpet. Then you find a good spot to hang the carpet (this will help the water and dirt to run off) and then hit it with the hose. If there are still dirty spots you can use a cleaner again and re scrub. Rinse again and then let dry. After it is dry you can re install it in the car. This also allows you to do a really good cleaning of the car, clean up any rust that might be under the carpet and it will save you money. Cost is about $8 for some cleaner and a lot of elbow grease.

James