There are lots of questions to ask a professional housecleaning service before allowing them to clean your home. Price is important, as is the service they offer and if they are insured. But most homeowners fail to ask professional cleaning companies a specific question that can put their family’s health, and the investment they’ve made in their home, at risk. The question is:

“Do you use the vacuum we have in our home, or do you bring your own?”

Make sure your carpets are safe for moments like this!

Most housecleaning companies, especially larger ones, prefer to bring and use their own vacuums rather than using the one provided by the homeowner. A popular website that gives instructions for setting up a professional residential cleaning business, www.myhousecleaningbiz.com, states that it is much easier and cheaper if the housecleaners use company-provided vacuums instead of the homeowner’s personal equipment. The site states:

“Vacuums can be a pain when using the customers own – mainly because they are probably the inexpensive kind and are not maintained and emptied properly. What if there are no vacuum bags? If you do decide to use your customer’s, make sure your employees have a vacuum with them because if the customer’s doesn’t work, you still need to get the vacuuming done.”

This is making major assumptions that the homeowner has a lesser grade model and won’t leave supplies if needed. These assumptions are based on convenience alone, and not the health risks that come with sharing vacuums between homes. If the housecleaning company states that they use their own vacuums when cleaning homes, it’s important to know what that means for you and your family.

I smell an intruder! I must mark this carpet and claim it immediately!

First of all, think of what a vacuum cleaner does. It removed the dust and dirt from your floor coverings, of course. But it also removes hair, pet dander, dead skin, mites, and other microscopic particles from your home. Unfortunately, if your housecleaning service does not use a HEPA-Certified bag-type vacuum, like our SEBO vacuums, and does not empty the bag between each home, these particles will easily be spread from one home to the next. This means that after just one use of the cleaning-service-owner vacuum, your carpets could be full of a stranger’s dead skin cells, pet dander from pets you do not own, and debris from places you have never been.

The professional housecleaner’s website tries to offer this advice to smooth over the safety questions of homeowners:

“One concern your home owner may have when using your own vacuum is the possibility that you’ll be transporting soil, hair and bacteria from one home to the next. A way to avoid this problem is to clean the vacuum after each use. If needed, empty or replace the bag and wipe down the outside of the vacuum. If you have a brush roller on the bottom of the vacuum, use a tool provided by the manufacturer to remove hair. Then use antiseptic wipes to sanitize the bottom of the vacuum cleaner. Then you can reassure your customers in case they have any concerns.”

Even if the housecleaning service does use hospital-grade vacuums and bags, and changes them with each home, the debris and hair that get caught up in the brush system is almost impossible to clean completely, and it is too time-consuming for a housecleaning company to go to that kind of trouble between each home. A simple swipe with an antiseptic wipe will not remove the dander and skin particles that have wedged their way into the brush fibers, ready to be flung onto the next client’s carpet once the vacuum is turned back on and the brush begins to rotate.

You trust your housekeeping service to leave your home looking and feeling clean, and it’s important that they don’t jeopardize your family’s health in the process. Make sure your home’s air quality is protected by using a hospital-grade SEBO vacuum cleaner each and every time your floor coverings are cleaned. SEBO vacuums are the only vacuums used in the White House and Buckingham Palace, known for their efficiency, safety, and durability.

The Professionals at Brody’s Dry Professional Carpet Cleaning only use SEBO vacuums in their homes, and they make sure to tell all cleaning companies they hire to keep their company vacuums in their cars when they come to clean. Don’t let the dead skin and hair of strangers and their pets invade your home—give us a ring at (816) 895-7000 or just click HERE and we’ll bring a brand-new SEBO to your door!