Carpet cleaning in Kilkenny

A Kilkenny visit is planned in advance

We're based in Dublin, and Kilkenny is a trip down the M9, so we don't do short-notice visits here and we don't have a local depot. What we do is plan trips to Kilkenny and Carlow ahead of time and fit several jobs into each one. That keeps the price fair and the day organised.

Photograph each room, the stairs and any problem spots, and send them with your Eircode. Back comes a fixed price, normally within the day, along with the dates we expect to be in Kilkenny. Pick one, and that's when we come. The more flexible you can be, the sooner that's likely to be.

Wool carpets in older Kilkenny houses

Kilkenny has a lot of older houses, from city-centre terraces to Georgian and Victorian homes on the roads leading out of town, and many of them have wool or wool-rich carpets. Wool is a good carpet. It hides soil, springs back and lasts for decades. But it reacts to water and chemistry in ways synthetic carpet doesn't, and it's easy to damage with a rental machine.

Here's how we handle it:

• Test first. A hidden spot shows whether the dye is stable and how the fibre responds.
• Wool-safe chemistry. The pre-treatment and rinse are chosen for wool, not for nylon.
• Low moisture. Quick passes with the wand, and extra extraction strokes to pull the water back out.
• Fast drying. Air movers on straight away, so the carpet dries evenly rather than slowly from the top.

That last point matters most in an old house. Older carpets often have a jute backing, and jute that stays wet for too long can release a brown tint that wicks up into the pile. Keeping the moisture low and the drying quick is how you avoid it. Our page on wool carpet cleaning goes into more detail.

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Stair runners held with rods are cleaned in place, tread by tread, with the hand tool kept to the fabric so the painted or varnished edges stay dry. Wool takes longer to dry than synthetic carpet, so plan on most of the afternoon with the heating on.

Honest limits with an old carpet

A carpet that has been down for thirty years can still clean up beautifully, but some things are beyond any cleaner:

• Moth damage. Bare patches under furniture or along skirting boards where moth larvae have eaten the pile won't grow back. Cleaning does remove the soil and debris they like, which helps.
• Sun fading. In a bright front room, the colour near the window may have faded for good.
• Worn nosings. The front edge of each stair tread wears thin first. It will look cleaner, but the pile that's gone is gone.

We'll point these out from the photos, so you can decide whether a clean is worth it before we travel.

B&Bs and guesthouses

Kilkenny has plenty of B&Bs and guesthouses, and their carpets work harder than any family home's. Corridors and stairs take every guest's suitcase and every pair of shoes, and bedrooms see a different set of feet every night.

We clean premises like these in a way that lets you keep trading:

1. Public areas first, usually early in the day or in the quietest week you have.
2. Bedrooms as they come free, a floor or a few rooms at a time.
3. Air movers in each room, so it's ready for the next guest the same evening where possible.

Guest rooms have their own pattern of marks: tea and coffee spilled near the tray, make-up and fake tan by the mirror, and a dark track where suitcases are wheeled from the door to the wardrobe. Most of that lifts well with the right pre-treatment. Tell us about any recurring problem when you send photos, and we'll say honestly what to expect.

The quiet months are the best time. For larger premises, small hotels and pubs, see commercial carpet cleaning across Leinster.

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City terraces and the estates

Not every Kilkenny job is wool and period features. The terraces in the city centre have the usual narrow hall and steep stairs, and the estates around the edges of the city are mostly family homes with synthetic carpet on the stairs, landing and bedrooms. Those clean up well and usually dry within a few hours. Rugs can be added to any visit after a colour test; see rug cleaning.

Each visit is fully insured. Ciprian, who set up Spotless and still does the carpet work himself, finished his Prochem carpet-cleaning training in 2018.

Thomastown, Callan, Castlecomer and the county

We cover Kilkenny city and the county: Thomastown, Callan, Castlecomer, Bennettsbridge, Gowran, Freshford and the countryside between them. On the way down, see carpet cleaning in Carlow. If a house needs emptying first, our Kilkenny house clearance page explains how, and we also power wash patios and driveways in Kilkenny. Other Leinster towns are covered from our main page for carpet cleaning beyond Dublin.