Having the joys of children I have found that they are able to totally wreck a freshly cleaned car. But my biggest issue is with the nice woven fabric seats in my Honda that seem to have grime ground into the cloth.
From your collective experiences do you think it is best to have a valet once in a while or use the money to buy the equipment yourself?
If the latter what deep cleaning/steam cleaner equipment would you recommend
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interior cleaning is very easy although im a valeter.
get a garden type pressure sprayer pump on top types. then get a cheap wet and dry hoover.
finely mist the fabric with the water and cleaning solution and gently agitate with a gentle brush. then remove with wet and dry vacuum cleaner.
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I'd get it valeted, then buy some stretch covers for the kids area!
Billly
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I'd get it valeted then buy some stretch covers for the kids area!
Not recommended for front seats with side airbags.
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L\'escargot.
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Not recommended for front seats with side airbags.
The Aldi ones were.
Edited by martint123 on 07/11/2007 at 18:21
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I have an old Earlex steam cleaning and wallpaper stripping kit that has worked well to clean car upholstery and carpets (as well as house carpets and stripping wallpaper, we've had our moneys worth out of it). Worked well when a bottle of red wine broke and sent wine flying all over the bright yellow/pale grey rear seat of my Panda.
As no detergent is used, no detergent deposits are left in the material . These deposits can attract dirt after cleaning.
By the way, I'm not a valeter and bow to the opinion of the professional if my ideas are out of date.
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steam works well but ive found it sometimes leaves patches visible when it's dried.
you can hire good machines from homebase at about 25 a day or 40 for full weekend. then you can do all the cars aswell as the house carpets.
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just keep the drivers seat clean for your own conveyance and let them all suffer in their mess,it will soon learn them ;-)
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Once they have been cleaned. Lay a bath/beach towel across the rear seat, that should keep most of the mess of the part they sit on. Seems to work for me, both mine are still in child seats so less of a problem with the back rests
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im in Southend on sea. if you're near me you're welcome to come around and I'll do the seats and carpets for free.
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For a number of decades of my motoring life I first never heard of valeting and then heard horror stories about it; however a little earlier this year I had the Sonata done by our local people after nearly three years, and was rather surprised at how much improvement was obtained for about the price of two fills of petrol; so I had Toad the Supra done as well. It turned out that even though little used and garaged things had got dull in five years.
Unless one is young and energetic I now indeed believe in a valet once in a while.
(Doing my old grump, I seem to remember in my childhood I was not allowed to make a mess in the car!)
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There's a couple of horror stories doing the rounds locally of cars being valetted, and having the interior power washed.
In reply to L'escargot;
It's possible to buy seat covers suitable for in-seat side air bags. Argos do some, and I think I've seen them in Lidls.
Edited by bathtub tom on 07/11/2007 at 15:16
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A full interior valet shouldnt cost more than £25. Im a valeter and Id even pay that on my own cars.
Unless you have the skills, its a very cheap service to use compared with others.
I have customers who use me with variations in frequency and what valet they have done, depending on their budget, how clean they like their car and how much use it gets.
I find alot of people try it once, then get a likling for throwing some cash at me to make the car shiny again, and all they have to do is read the paper.
As ever though, there are good and bad valeters, just like any other trade.
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Thanks for the advice form everyone.
All very useful. Now I must decide..............
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