Intake Forms for Carpet Cleaning Companies: Fiber Types, Stain Assessment, and Pet Odor Treatment

By Daniel Akselrod · July 2026

A tech arrives at a residential job, hooks up the truck mount, and starts cleaning a living room carpet. Halfway through the first pass, the carpet starts browning. The homeowner panics. The tech realizes too late that the carpet is wool — not the nylon he assumed — and the high-pH pre-spray he used is causing cellulosic browning. Now he’s applying a vinegar rinse to neutralize the alkalinity, hoping the browning reverses, and the homeowner is already on the phone with their spouse talking about how the carpet cleaning company ruined their $4,000 rug.

This happens because the intake process asked for the address, the number of rooms, and a credit card number. It didn’t ask what the carpet is made of. In carpet cleaning, the fiber type dictates everything — the cleaning method, the chemistry, the water temperature, the drying time, and the risk profile of the job. A proper carpet cleaning intake form captures that information before your tech ever loads the van.

Fiber identification: the single most important field on the form

There are five carpet fibers that account for the vast majority of residential and commercial installations, and each one responds differently to cleaning chemistry and heat:

Nylon is the most common residential fiber. It’s durable, resilient, and tolerates hot water extraction at full temperature (200–230°F at the wand). It handles alkaline pre-sprays well and responds to acid rinses for pH balancing. Nylon is the forgiving fiber — most cleaning mistakes are recoverable.

Polyester (PET) is the second most common, especially in budget and mid-range installations. It resists water-based stains better than nylon but is oleophilic — it attracts and holds oil-based soils. Polyester carpets that look clean after extraction can re-soil within weeks if the oil-based residue is not addressed. Your tech needs to know this is polyester so they use a solvent-based pre-treatment on traffic lanes, not just an alkaline pre-spray.

Olefin (polypropylene) is common in commercial loop pile and Berber styles. It’s essentially plastic — it won’t absorb water-based stains at all, but like polyester, it’s a magnet for oil. Olefin also has a low melting point. Excessive heat from a wand that sits too long in one spot can melt the fiber tips, creating a permanent texture change that no amount of grooming will fix. Your tech needs to know the fiber is olefin so they adjust their wand speed and temperature.

Wool is the premium natural fiber, found in high-end residential installations and area rugs. Wool is sensitive to high pH (above 8.0 causes fiber damage and browning), high temperatures (above 150°F causes shrinkage), and aggressive agitation (causes fuzzing and pile distortion). Wool requires a dedicated cleaning protocol: low-pH solutions, reduced water temperature, gentle extraction, and longer dry times. If your intake form doesn’t capture that the carpet is wool, your tech will default to the standard nylon protocol and potentially cause thousands of dollars in damage.

Silk and viscose are rare in wall-to-wall carpet but common in area rugs. Both are extremely water-sensitive. Viscose (often marketed as “art silk” or “bamboo silk”) yellows and loses its luster when wet. These fibers should generally be dry-cleaned or low-moisture cleaned, not hot water extracted. Your intake form should flag silk and viscose as requiring on-site assessment before any cleaning begins.

Most homeowners don’t know their fiber type. That’s fine — your intake form should ask them to check the carpet label in a closet or along a wall edge. If they can’t find it, note that fiber identification will be performed on-site before cleaning begins. The point is not that the customer must know — it’s that your team must check before they start spraying.

Stain typing and pre-treatment planning

Not all stains respond to the same chemistry. Your intake form should categorize the stains the customer is concerned about so your tech can load the right spotting kit:

• Water-soluble stains — coffee, tea, juice, soda, wine. These respond to oxidizing agents and alkaline pre-sprays. Most come out with standard hot water extraction on nylon. Red dye stains (Kool-Aid, red wine, certain sports drinks) may require a reducing agent or a specialized red stain remover.
• Oil-based stains — cooking grease, cosmetics, shoe polish, tar, motor oil tracked in from the garage. These require solvent-based pre-treatment. An alkaline pre-spray alone will not break down oil — it will push the stain deeper into the fiber.
• Protein stains — blood, vomit, egg, dairy. Protein stains set permanently with heat. If your tech hits a blood stain with 230°F water before pre-treating it with an enzyme cleaner, that stain is cooked into the fiber for good. Your intake form should specifically ask about protein stains so the tech knows to pre-treat cold before extraction.
• Dye transfer — a red rug that bled onto beige carpet, furniture stain that transferred to carpet from a wet sofa leg, marker, ink. True dye stains often require bleaching agents that can damage the carpet’s own dye. Your intake should flag dye issues so the tech can set expectations before arriving.
• Rust and mineral deposits — these require acid-based treatments and should never be treated with alkaline products, which make them worse. Ask about rust stains specifically, especially in homes with well water.

Cleaning method: hot water extraction vs. encapsulation vs. bonnet

Your intake form should document the cleaning method the customer is expecting or, more commonly, allow your team to recommend the right method based on the fiber type, soil level, and the customer’s drying time constraints:

Hot water extraction (often called steam cleaning, though no actual steam is involved) is the deep-cleaning standard. A truck-mounted unit heats water to 200–230°F, injects it into the carpet under pressure, and extracts it along with the dissolved soil. This method delivers the deepest clean and is the only method recommended by most carpet manufacturers for warranty compliance. Drying time is typically 6–12 hours with good airflow.

Encapsulation uses a crystallizing polymer that is agitated into the carpet with a rotary or oscillating pad machine. The polymer surrounds soil particles, dries to a brittle crystal, and is vacuumed out on the next regular vacuuming cycle. Drying time is 20–45 minutes. Encapsulation is ideal for commercial maintenance cleaning — offices, retail, and hospitality where the carpet needs to be walkable within an hour. It does not extract soil the way HWE does, so it’s a maintenance method, not a restorative one.

Bonnet cleaning uses a rotating absorbent pad soaked in cleaning solution to scrub the carpet surface. It’s fast and dries quickly, but it only cleans the top third of the fiber pile. Soil pushed deeper by the pad wicks back to the surface within days, which is why bonnet cleaning has a reputation for rapid re-soiling. Some operators still use it for commercial accounts where speed matters more than depth.

If your customer is expecting a deep clean and you send a tech with an encapsulation machine, that’s a customer satisfaction problem that starts at intake. If the customer has a wool carpet and you send a truck mount set to full temperature, that’s a damage claim that starts at intake. The method has to match the fiber and the customer’s expectations, and both should be confirmed before the appointment.

Pet odor treatment: enzymes, oxidizers, and subfloor saturation

Pet urine is the single most common reason homeowners call a carpet cleaner, and it’s the service most likely to result in a callback if it’s not handled correctly at intake. Surface cleaning a urine stain does nothing. The urine crystals are in the carpet backing, the pad underneath, and potentially the subfloor. Your intake form should ask how many pets, what type (cat urine is chemically different from dog urine and significantly harder to treat), how long the pet has been in the home, and whether there are known stain locations or if the customer just notices an odor without visible spots.

The treatment approach depends on severity. Light contamination — a few recent accidents on a carpet with a pad in good condition — can be treated topically with an enzyme cleaner applied to the backing through the carpet face, allowed to dwell, and extracted. Moderate contamination requires pulling the carpet back to treat the pad and possibly the subfloor directly. Severe contamination — a home where a cat has been urinating in the same corner for two years — typically requires pad replacement and subfloor sealing with a shellac-based primer before the carpet goes back down.

Your intake form should set expectations: pet odor treatment is not the same service as carpet cleaning, it takes significantly longer, it costs more, and it may require a return visit if the contamination extends to the subfloor. Documenting the severity at intake prevents the “I thought you were going to fix the smell” conversation after a standard cleaning that was never going to address a pad-level contamination issue.

Protectant application and furniture responsibility

Carpet protectant (Scotchgard, Maxim Advanced, or equivalent fluorochemical or polymer-based protectors) is an upsell that your intake form should present as an option. Protectant does not make carpet stain-proof — it makes stains easier to remove by preventing the soil from bonding directly to the fiber. Most carpet manufacturers apply protectant at the mill, but it wears off with foot traffic and vacuuming within 12–18 months. Reapplication after professional cleaning restores that protection.

Furniture moving is the other logistical item your intake form should address. Some companies include light furniture moving (dining chairs, end tables) in the base price and charge extra for heavy items (sofas, beds, entertainment centers). Others require the customer to move all furniture before the tech arrives. Whatever your policy, document it at intake. A tech who arrives to a fully furnished room expecting the customer to have cleared it — or a customer who expected the tech to move everything — is a conflict that wastes everyone’s time.

Drying time expectations round out the intake. HWE on nylon in a well-ventilated room dries in 6–8 hours. The same method on a wool carpet in a basement with no airflow could take 24 hours. If the customer is hosting a dinner party that evening, your intake form should flag that so the scheduler can either move the appointment or recommend a low-moisture method. For companies that also offer general cleaning services, carpet cleaning intake captures the fiber-specific and chemistry-specific details that a standard cleaning intake does not need.

Commercial maintenance contracts

Commercial carpet cleaning is a different business than residential. The carpet is typically olefin or nylon loop pile, the soil is primarily dry particulate from foot traffic, and the cleaning schedule is maintenance-based — monthly or quarterly encapsulation with semi-annual or annual HWE. Your intake form for commercial accounts should capture the square footage, the fiber type, the traffic density (a medical office lobby versus a back hallway), the hours of access (after-hours cleaning requires a key or security code), and the contract terms (frequency, pricing per visit, and cancellation notice).

Commercial contracts are recurring revenue, and the intake form is the start of that relationship. A residential customer calls once a year. A commercial account pays every month. The intake form that captures the building details, the decision-maker’s contact information, and the maintenance schedule is worth significantly more per form than the residential version. Browse the full form catalog to see what professional intake documentation looks like.