spotless.ie
Carpet cleaning in Dublin, done properly
Clean carpet changes how a room feels: the colour comes back, the grey path from the door to the sofa fades, and the house smells fresher. Whether a carpet is genuinely clean or has just been wetted comes down to the method, the preparation and the care taken on the day.
Spotless cleans carpets in family homes, rentals and businesses across Dublin by hot-water extraction. This is what you can expect from us:
- A clear price before we come. Worked out from photos of the rooms, the stairs and any marks you're worried about.
- Pre-treatment matched to your carpet. Spots and traffic lanes get a product chosen for the fibre and the type of soiling.
- A real rinse, not a surface shampoo. Hot water flushes through the pile and is pulled straight back out with the dirt in it.
- Help with drying. Air movers on site, and plain advice on airing the room afterwards.
- Straight answers. If a mark won't shift, you hear it from us before we start, not after.
How we clean: hot-water extraction
We use hot-water extraction on every carpet, because it reaches down through the pile instead of skimming the top. Each job runs in the same order:
- Inspect. We look at the fibre, the wear and the marks, and clean a small test patch wherever the carpet is delicate or unfamiliar.
- Pre-treat. Traffic lanes and spots are sprayed with a solution suited to the fibre and left for a few minutes to loosen the soil.
- Rinse and extract. The portable machine pushes hot water and cleaning solution into the carpet, and its vacuum lifts it out again in the same stroke, along with everything it has loosened.
- Dry. Air movers go on, and we tell you how long to stay off the carpet.
- Check it together. You walk the rooms with us before we pack up.
The work is carried out by Ciprian, who set up Spotless, together with his small crew. Ciprian took the Prochem carpet-cleaning course in 2018 (certificate no. 2018/020), so the person on your floor is fully trained in carpet cleaning; the training certificate is here. We're fully insured on every job, wear shoe covers indoors, and route hoses so they don't scuff paintwork. For a fuller explanation of the method, read our carpet cleaning guide.
Know your carpet: wool, polypropylene, nylon and blends
The fibre decides how a carpet is cleaned, how stains behave and how long it takes to dry:
| Fibre | What it's like | How we treat it |
|---|---|---|
| Wool | Warm, springy and good at hiding dirt, but it holds water and reacts badly to harsh, high-pH products | Wool-safe solution, less moisture, slower passes and longer drying |
| Wool blends (such as 80/20 wool and nylon) | A very common choice in Irish homes, hard-wearing with the feel of wool | Treated as wool, to be safe |
| Polypropylene | Popular in rentals, loop piles and budget ranges; resists many water-based spills but attracts oily soil and flattens in walkways | Stronger pre-treatment on greasy lanes; flattened pile is pointed out beforehand |
| Nylon | Tough and bouncy, found in better synthetic carpets; takes colour readily, so dyes in drinks can grab it | Responds very well to extraction; coloured stains are tested first |
Not sure what's on your floor? Send a close-up photo of the pile and the backing. Wool gets the gentler approach on our wool carpet cleaning page, and our guide to caring for a wool carpet covers the months between cleans.
Stairs, landings, halls and rugs
Stairs and landings
The stairs are walked on more than any other carpet in the house and cleaned less than any of them. The front edge of each step, the nosing, takes the most wear and darkens first, and a full-size floor tool can't sit flat on it. We clean each step by hand with a small tool, treads and risers, starting at the top landing and working down so nothing clean gets walked on. The stair carpet cleaning page covers runners, rods and communal stairwells, and there are tips for the months between cleans in our stair carpet care guide.
Halls
Wet shoes, buggy wheels and grit from the footpath make the hall the hardest-working floor in most houses, so it gets the longest pre-treatment.
Rugs
Loose rugs need more caution than fitted carpet. Some dyes bleed, some backings shrink, and fringes need a gentle hand. We check colour-fastness before we start and adjust the clean to suit, and anything silk or viscose is assessed before we touch it. See rug cleaning and our rug care guide.
Stains, pets and children
Plenty of enquiries start with one mark: red wine after a party, a muddy track from the back door, a puppy still learning. Here's the honest picture.
What usually comes out
Mud and garden soil once they've dried, tea and coffee that haven't been there long, fizzy drinks, most food spills, fresh pet accidents, and the grey traffic lanes that build up over a year or two.
What may only lighten
Red wine, curry and turmeric, coffee left for weeks, old urine that has soaked into the underlay, rust, ink and make-up. These often improve a great deal but can leave a shadow. A few marks are permanent: bleach spots, burns, colour stripped by cleaning products, and stains that have been set by heat or the wrong treatment. Our carpet stain removal page goes deeper, and the guide to red wine and coffee stains explains what to do in the first few minutes.
Why we use a test patch
Before treating a stain we can't be sure of, we try the product on a small area first: a hidden corner to check the colour holds, and the edge of the stain itself to see how it responds. It takes a couple of minutes and shows you the likely result before the whole room is done. Some marks also wick back up from the backing as the carpet dries, so we look at the worst areas again before we leave.
Pets and children
Homes with dogs, cats and small children get the most from regular cleaning. We vacuum out loose hair before any water goes down, treat muddy paw tracks and accidents, and rinse thoroughly so very little solution stays in the pile. Keep pets and crawling children off the carpet until it's dry, and lift toys off the floor before we arrive. For old accidents and lingering smells, the pet carpet cleaning page and our article on pet accidents on carpet explain what cleaning can and can't fix.
Got a stain you're not sure about? Send a photo of the stain and the room on WhatsApp. We'll tell you honestly what to expect and give you a price, usually the same day.
Drying, airing and furniture
A carpet cleaned by hot-water extraction is damp when we leave, not soaked. Drying normally takes a few hours; a thick wool carpet on a cold, wet day takes longer than a thin synthetic one in a warm room with a window open. To help it along:
- leave the air movers running for as long as we suggest
- open a window or two, or put the heating on low in winter
- walk on it in clean socks rather than outdoor shoes for the first few hours
- wait until it's fully dry before putting rugs back down or running the hoover over it
Our article on carpet drying times has more detail.
Moving furniture
Please clear the small things before we arrive. We move light furniture and put it back, and work around anything too heavy or fragile to shift safely:
| Item | What usually happens |
|---|---|
| Dining chairs, coffee tables, side tables, small units | Moved and put back; slip foil or plastic under the legs if they go back before the carpet is dry |
| Sofas and armchairs | Moved where they come out easily, otherwise cleaned around and under the edges |
| Beds, wardrobes, full bookcases, pianos, display cabinets | Cleaned around, not moved |
| TVs, computers, lamps and ornaments | Please unplug and move these yourself beforehand |
Rentals, end of tenancy and moving house
Empty rooms are the easiest to clean, so the end of a tenancy is a natural time to do the carpets. Tenants book before the check-out inspection, landlords and letting agents between lets, and sellers before the estate agent's photographer arrives. Check what your lease says about carpets, and book a day or two before the inspection so there's time for them to dry.
If there's still furniture in the house, we can take that away first. Spotless also does property clearance and house clearance, so the clear-out and the carpet cleaning can be arranged as one job. See our guides to end-of-tenancy carpet cleaning and getting a rental ready between tenants, and if you're the one moving in, read about cleaning carpets before you move in.
Prices, preparation and where we work
How pricing works
Your quote is built room by room: the bedrooms and living areas, the hall, stairs and landing, plus any rug, sofa or mattress you want added. Size, soiling, stubborn stains and access all affect it, which is why a photo of each room gets you the most accurate figure. The price is fixed before we book, and nothing is added on the day.
If you'd like an idea of typical prices first, our sister site carpetcleaningservice.ie is dedicated to carpet cleaning and publishes a full price list.
Before we arrive
- lift toys, shoes, bags and anything else stored on the floor
- move ornaments and breakables off low tables and window sills
- let us know about parking, so the van can stop near the door
- make sure we can use a tap and a power socket
- shut pets in another room, or plan for them to be out, until the carpets are dry
How often?
Once a year suits most homes. A busy hall, the stairs and the living room in a house with pets or young children may need doing twice a year, while spare bedrooms can go longer. Our article on how often carpets should be cleaned has more.
Where we clean carpets
We're based in Dublin and clean carpets across Dublin and all of Leinster. Many areas have their own page with local detail:
- Southside: Rathmines, Ranelagh, Terenure, Dundrum, Stepaside, Leopardstown
- Dublin 4 and the coast: Sandymount, Blackrock, Dún Laoghaire
- City and northside: the city centre, Drumcondra, Clontarf, Swords
- West Dublin: Lucan, Castleknock, Tallaght
- Further out: County Kildare, Athy, Carlow, Bray, and the rest of the province on our Leinster carpet cleaning page
Sofas and mattresses can go on the same visit: see upholstery cleaning and mattress cleaning. For offices, shops, pubs and hotels, see commercial carpet cleaning.
