The Great Carpet Cleaning Fiasco of 2008
March 5, 2008 by Daniel
As our reward for renewing our lease with the apartment complex where we live, the management company decided to bestow upon us a free carpet cleaning. My first thought was, “how nice of them.” Then I started to think about all the furniture that had to be moved, random loose items picked up, the dusting, the vacuuming and then what to do with the cat while they cleaned our carpet.
The day drew closer and with each passing day and each chore put off for the next day, I started to wonder if perhaps this carpet cleaning “gift” wasn’t such a good idea. The last couple of days before the cleaning were going to be a real pain and I really only had myself to blame. Still, with all the stains on the carpet from dying our hair, from spilling drinks or food or just foot traffic in general, surely it would be worth it in the end. What could possibly go wrong?
March 1st comes and the cleaners are supposed to be knocking on our door somewhere between noon and 2pm. We spend the previous night moving the coffee table, end tables, boxes of loose items and the bench from the dining room into our bedroom. The morning of the 1st we move all our loose items and light dining room furniture into the kitchen along with the dining room table and our lounging chair from the living room. All other items are placed in the bedroom and by noon I’m tired, sweating and cranky. As I prepare the vacuum for one last run across the carpet, I hear a knock on the door. Great. They’re early.
The cleaner goes outside to search for a spigot he can hook up to. He returns to report that both of the spigots within the hoses reach of our apartment are broken. He will either have to call a maintenance worker to fix them or if I have a washing machine in the apartment, he can get started right away. What do you know, I do have a washing machine in the apartment and I let him know. His face lights up a bit and he goes out to get the hose.
He returns a short time later, reaches behind the washing machine, turns the valve on the spigot to off so he can unhook the machine. He proceeds to turn the head on the hose to loosen it off the spigot when all of a sudden, the head snaps due to the pressure of the water that now begins pouring out of the spigot. He slams the hose back on the spigot and tries turning the valve the other way just in case he had it wrong. Nope, that just makes it come out faster. So with the valve not functioning properly and the head on the hose busted, the curses and screams start. He asks me to call the office which I do with no answer. Apparently they all each lunch between noon and 1pm and leave no one behind to answer phones. SO, he asks me to hold the hose in place while he runs out to find a maintenance worker.
I never had any idea how hard and fast the water comes out of these spigots. It’s much harder than what you can get out of your sink or shower. It was a bit of a struggle keeping the hose in place so that at least a majority of the water went into the hose. Still, by the time he returned with help, I was soaked. The maintenance worker shut off water to the building and they both stood in amazement looking at this thing and wondering how it possibly didn’t function as it was supposed to. Meanwhile I’m walking around the apartment soaking wet, the carpet in the hall and about 6 inches into the bedroom is soaked and the washer/dryer closet is flooded as much as the drain in the middle of the closet will allow.
So it turns out the worker doesn’t have the part to replace the valve so that will have to wait until Monday. In the meantime he screws on some sort of lock or whatever so that when he turns the water back on, it won’t come out of that faucet. The carpet cleaner proceeds to rip up the carpet and tear out the soaked padding. He comes in with a wet-vac and sucks up as much of the water as he can. He then leaves saying that as soon as that valve is replaced, he’ll come back to put in new padding, clean up the w/d room and clean our carpets. Well, that’s not exactly how it turned out.
Monday morning we put the cat in the bedroom and shut the door. We come home and find out the carpet has been cleaned (the outside spigots must have been fixed) and the washing machine is still broken. We call the office and find out they had to go out and get the parts late in the day and didn’t get back in time to replace them. Well, at least now the carpet is clean, the padding is replaced and the w/d room is clean.
Tuesday we get home and we find that the washing machine has a new valve, new head on the hose and is working properly. All is finally well. What should have taken 1-2 hours has taken the better part of three days. What craziness.
