Month: January 2021

Which Carpet Flooring Is The Best For The Kitchen

Best Timeline On Proper Carpets Cleaning Care

Your home carpet is probably the largest décor item in your living space, as such its condition has the biggest impact on the appearance of your interior. Naturally, you would want to keep it looking pristine and free of dust, odor and other forms of allergens. In addition, your carpet is a considerable investment, so you want to make sure it lasts as long as possible.

If you want to keep your carpet looking clean and performing at its best, you need to maintain a regular cleaning schedule. Having your carpet professionally deep-cleaned is a perfect way to get rid of particles of dirt, dust, residues and allergens that accumulate on/in your carpet over time.

But how often should you clean your carpet? Well, this varies depending on a number of factors.  Some homes will need carpet cleaning every 3 to 6 months, some 6 to 12 months and yet others will only need professional deep cleaning every 12 to 18 months. So if you’re wondering how often you should have your carpets professionally cleaned, here are some factors to consider.

If you do regular vacuuming

Regular vacuuming –about once per week –will increase your carpet’s durability. Vacuuming removes particles that settle loosely on the surface of your carpet before they settle deeper and start abrading the carpet fibers. Regular vacuuming can allow you to go longer before needing professional cleaning.

However, no matter how often you vacuum, you will still need professional deep carpet cleaning sooner or later. So if it’s been long since you hired a professional to clean your carpet, now is probably the best time to do so.

If someone in your household has allergies

In many ways, your home carpet acts as a filter, so it ends up collecting allergens and dust that float around your living space. Over time, the dust and allergens built-up in your carpet fibers and will become airborne again anytime someone walks across the carpet. So if your household has someone with allergies, you will need regular professional carpet cleaning to restore a healthy living environment and minimize the reaction symptoms–every 4 to 6 months should do.

If You Allow Pets on the Carpet

If your home has pets, you already probably know that regular cleaning is a wise move. Other than bringing dirt from outside, pets can also distribute feces, vomit or urine on your carpet. Even the best-trained pets can occasionally make a mess. Sooner or later, your carpet will start showing unsightly stains and producing unbearable odors. Thankfully, frequent carpet cleaning will help neutralize the odor and get rid of the stains.

Do You Have Children?

Kids are cute, and we all love them, but to be honest, they can make quite a mess on your carpet. How often you should clean your carpet when you have kids all depends on how strict you’re when it comes to allowing them to take food and beverages on the carpet. Additionally, according to Service Master Carpet Cleaning, if you allow your kids to wear shoes or color and paint in the house, you might need to have your carpet professionally cleaned every after 6 months.

What color is your carpet?

If you have a light-colored carpet, you probably already know how notorious they’re at revealing stains and dirt. Keeping your bright-colored carpet looking clean will require more frequent cleaning than does their darker counterparts. You, however, don’t have to necessarily avoid dark light-colored carpets, after all, they’re really great at brightening up living spaces and revealing an increasing level of dirt before it really builds up.

Do you allow shoes on your carpet?

Shoes bring in dirt and small particle of grit that can cause your carpet fibers to wear much faster. The more people you have in your home, the more traffic and dirt your carpet will have to endure. So to prevent permanent wear patterns, these grit and dirt should be removed periodically –and professional washing every 6 months is recommended. 

How Often Should Your Rugs Be Cleaned?

Rugs are often one of the first things people notice in our homes and can be a significant investment. Everyone enjoys a soft plush carpet and rugs can be wonderful for a home’s aesthetic appeal. However, regular cleaning and deep cleaning is required to maintain a fresh and cleaning looking rug and to extend its lifetime.

Springtime is generally considered a great time for rug cleaning, especially if you live in a place with heavy winters where snow and dirt might get tracked in. However, the frequency and timing of your rug cleaning also depend on where you stay and your lifestyle. While an annual cleaning is definitely recommended, a professional rug cleaner could help you determine if you might need more frequent rug cleaning,

Certain factors that could determine the frequency of rug cleaning are:

Small Children

Anyone who’s ever lived with small children knows they can create quite a mess. From food crumbs to toys and playing clay, there are ample ways that they can create a mess. Also, it is important to have a clean home for the health and wellbeing for your children.

Pets

A home with pets can always do with some deep cleaning. Pets tend to shed hair as well as can have toilet-related accidents making regularly scheduled rug cleaning important.

Allergies

If any member of your family is allergy-prone you do understand the importance of a regular deep clean. A regular rug clean gets rid of dust mites, dirt and any other allergens which could adversely affect your health.

A regular carpet deep clean is not only helpful in keeping your rugs looking clean and fresh but is also important for the health and wellbeing of your family. Instead of planning to get your rugs cleaned only once a year, plan to keep your favorite investment pieces clean and new-looking for as long as possible.

The Benefits of Regular Rug Cleanings

Many people find that getting their rugs deep cleaned on a regular basis is beneficial for their home, health, and peace of mind. Even if you’re generally pretty tidy, you might be surprised at the difference a professional cleaning can make.

The main benefits are:

  • A longer-lasting rug. No matter what material they’re made of, clean, well-cared-for rugs last longer.
  • A fresher smelling home. A clean rug doesn’t smell like anything, but a dirty one can stink up the whole house over time.
  • A more beautiful rug. You’d be amazed at the difference we see in many of the rugs we clean at our Portland facility. Many people don’t even know how dirty their rug is until they see it clean!
  • A healthier environment. Allergens, microorganisms, and bacteria live in dirty rugs. A good professional cleaning can remove them, contributing to a more hygienic home.
  • Less stress. Are you the kind of person who gets stressed out when you’re stuck in a cluttered or unclean environment? Do yourself a favor and get those rugs freshened up.

How Professional Rug Cleaning Works

No two rugs are alike. A very sturdy, very dirty rug needs to be treated differently than an extremely delicate rug that’s only a little bit dirty. That’s why we carefully inspect and hand wash every rug that’s brought to our facility here in Portland. High-quality rug cleaning is a multi-step process:

Pre-Cleaning Inspection: We closely examine your rug to identify stains, odors, heavy traffic areas, and the specific dyes and fibers your rug is made of. We also see if there’s damage that needs repair or any other special issues. Then we give you an exact quote for the cleaning.

Dust Removal: Dust can really settle into a rug over time. Often you can’t even see it! We thoroughly dust your rug to remove dust, dirt, and other sediments that regular vacuuming and cleaning products can’t.

Washing: We create a customized cleaning formula for each rug, taking special precautions to protect your rug’s delicate fibers and avoid dye bleeding and dye transfer problems. We do this for two reasons:

Acustomized formula can target specific types of soiling, stains, microorganisms, and odors.

Different rug fibers (like synthetics and wool) need to be cleaned differently. We know how to get your rug clean without damaging it.

Pet Urine Removal: Pet urine accidents happen, but they don’t have to ruin your rug! For badly saturated rugs, we submerge your rug in our enzyme pond to remove stains and neutralize odors. An enzyme spot treatment may work just as well for small stains. Learn more about urine removal.

Drying: Our environmentally controlled drying room keeps your rug safe and uncontaminated as it dries naturally. Controlled drying is especially important for rugs with odor issues or fast-moving dye sets.

Post-Cleaning Inspection: We do another inspection after the cleaning process to ensure that we send you home with a beautiful, clean rug you’ll be proud to display in your home.

Now you know how the cleaning process works, and you know that most rugs should be cleaned about every 12-18 months, but it’s more complicated than that. Let’s look at what types of rugs need to be cleaned more or less often than the traditional 12-18 months.

Event Videographer In HD

Before you hire a video production team, answer these important questions

There are many questions to discuss with your team first that will help with overall expectation and experience. From high-level strategy issues like messaging and branding to more tactical details like timely logistics and important visual components.

Whether you’re trying to raise funds, attract the right customers, recruit new talent or educate consumers, here are a few things, in order of importance, you should know before you hire a video production company.

Who is your audience?

One of the first questions to discuss and decide is, who is the main audience is for your video? Answering this question first will help in the analysis of other considerations. If you’re producing a video targeting expecting mothers, that information helps to set the tone for messaging, visuals, and music selection. But a B2B audience would be totally different. If you’re producing a video targeting mechanical engineers looking for tools and gadgets, the creative direction of the video will purposely take a 180-degree turn. Know who you want to be watching your video and make that your starting point.

How do you want people to feel?

This is a biggie. When that specific audience is watching your video on your website, through an email campaign, or at an event, what do you want their action to be after the video fades to black? Whether you want someone digging into their pockets for a tissue and checkbook or feeling motivated to click the “buy now” button, that overriding feeling you want to create needs to be reflected in the messaging, the visuals, and the overall tone.

What are the key messages you want to communicate?

Behind every good video is a strategy. Showing up one day with a camera in one hand and microphone in the other probably won’t set you up to produce an amazing video. After establishing that overall goal of the video, identify the key messages you want to communicate that will help viewers inch closer to that goal. Our human brains can only process so many items of information at one time. With that in mind, hone in on those messages and make sure they’re clear, concise, and conducive to educating, inspiring, or influencing your audience.

When and what specific visuals should be captured?

Though identifying shots and visuals to capture comes a bit later in the pre-production process, it’s important to consider any specific events, scenarios, or people that would need to be scheduled during the video shoot. For instance, if your manufacturing facility is busiest right before the holidays, it may be wise to schedule the video shoot during that time to show the breadth of your work. Likewise, if you’re producing a video that has a hard deadline, make sure to plan more time than you think is needed. Remember, producing a video often comes with more planning, logistics, time budgeting, and reviewing than anticipated.

What is your budget?

Yes, producing a video can be expensive. However, not all video is created equal. The important thing to remember is time, people, and production gear tend to drive production costs. If you want to produce that underwater, high-flying, five different locations video, it can be done, just be prepared to spend more. Likewise, maybe a few, shorter, high-level videos on your landing pages are the perfect use of video for you. Lowering use of those resources helps to keep costs down.

What is your distribution strategy?

By this point, you’re probably starting to see a vision for how your video will come together. Don’t stop at the production phase, but think ahead to how you plan to distribute the video. When a video is produced specifically for an event, you have a captured and interested audience. When a video is produced specifically for social media, your goal is to capture and pique interest in your audience. Take full advantage of the video and use it for both platforms, but make sure you’re ready to think through the strategy of how they’ll be produced and edited differently. Try producing and publishing a shorter, high-energy “teaser” of the full video on social media to link to the full video on your website.

How will you know if the video is a success?

As with so many of our marketing efforts, we need ROI and analytics to help defend and enforce the tools we’re using to drive business and awareness. Get your whole team to think through what it would take to make the video a success. Maybe it’s leads generated, views on YouTube or dollars donated. Or all of the above! Not only does clarification on this help your video production team aim to meet that same goal, it also gets buy-in from your internal team when it works. Plus, it makes you look good.

Reasons to Invest in Wedding Videography

1. Relive the story

Your wedding is a once in a lifetime event.

All the time you’ve devoted to planning the look and feel of this day culminates into one glorious, but fleeting, celebration. You slip into your spectacularly classy wedding attire for roughly 12 hours and then you launch off into the adventure of marriage, giddy and excited.

Still photos, while an important element for a wedding, are only able to convey one instance of a memory at a time. A wedding video, on the other hand, brings the story of your wedding to life and allows you to relive it in sound and motion.

Choosing to hire a videographer is a way to capture all those details and timelessly preserve them in a way that a photograph alone cannot.

2. cinematography + professional editing 

Traditionally weddings were most often filmed on a camcorder with unsteady and continuous footage. Only the best of friends or most gracious of family members would be willing to sit through hours of uncut footage with you.

Times have changed.Technology has ushered in a new era of wedding films.

We are all about handcrafting cinematic wedding films. We are storytellers and we work tirelessly to capture the emotions and beautiful details of your day so that when we edit together a highlight video it is meaningful, timeless and enjoyable to watch.

The equipment we use allows us to smoothly and artfully enhance the moments we document throughout your day, providing you with beautiful footage and quality audio.

3. Sentimental Keepsake

Weddings bring together loved ones from near and far and represent the joining together of two families.

In essence your wedding film is a digital family heirloom. It preserves this special day for you to share with future generations, allowing you to remember loved ones at their best who will not be around forever.

Your film will be able to capture their voices, their laughter, tender conversations and the joy they felt on that day watching you take such a significant step in your life.

Your wedding film will be a time capsule and an important keepsake to revisit on anniversaries when you want to hear your vows again and the promises you made to each other.

4. See What You Missed

Your wedding day goes by in the blink of an eye, we love to capture the sweet and entertaining moments you may miss while you were busy getting married. A wedding film or video allows you to see all of those little things that you may have really wanted to, but didn’t get an opportunity to on the day. We’ve got it covered!

5. Share your big day

We live in an increasingly transient world with friendships spanning across the globe. A wedding highlight film is an perfect way to share your day with family and friends who may not have been able to attend.

How To Choose The Right Video Production Company

A video promoting your Maryland business is often the first chance you have to make a good impression on your target audience. It is important that when your company makes the decision to release a video commercial, product tutorial, or corporate commercial that it reflect your brand as you intend and is engaging for viewers.

Here are some of the top things you should do while choosing a video production company

View Their Portfolio

A worthwhile production company will always have previous work available for anyone interested in hiring them to view.

Many times, the video portfolio will be accessible on the production company’s official website.  By viewing previous work, you can ensure the videos they produce meet your standards.  These samples will give insight into the quality of video this company is willing to place their name on.

Is it attractive, engaging, and professional?  These are the types of questions you should ask yourself when looking at a production company’s previous work.

Testimonials from previous clients or a client list detailing other customers that they have worked with are also helpful.  Happy clients are a sign that you have found a quality video production company.

Compare Their Portfolio to Your Concept

The video production company you are interested in has an extensive portfolio and nothing but excellent testimonials.  So what?  There is more to a production company than rave  reviews and a nice portfolio.

You have a specific vision when it comes to promoting your business.  You need to make sure that the production company you hire can produce something similar to that concept you have in mind.  It does you no good if all the company can produce is 30-second commercials clips with voiceovers when what you are really looking for is a 60-second on location commercial with real actors.

If you have checked out their portfolio, you will have a good idea of whether their style is in tune with what you are looking for in your own video.  This will make the hiring decision a lot easier.

Know How Your Project Will be Managed

If you are outsourcing to a video production company in Maryland, chances are it is because you have no idea how to produce a video yourself or you are simply too busy to hire and manage an in-house videographer.  Regardless of the reason, it is crucial you hire a production company that can handle every aspect of the production process.

  • Can they brainstorm ideas with you that will match your vision for the video?
  • Do they have professional script writer on staff?
  • Do they provide actors or have a casting company they can refer you to?
  • What type of equipment do they provide?
  • What about set locations, staffing numbers, and cost?
  • Is editing included?

How is the production quality?

Above all, your candidates should at least meet a certain standard for production value. If you’re new to the field, what does this mean? Here are some tips that will help you get the best video services:

  • Compare the look/feel of the corporate videos in the company’s portfolio to what you’d see in TV/film. Does it look like a low-budget ad you’d see in late-night TV? Does it look like a statewide TV show? Does it look like something you’d see in the high-end cinema? What do you want your video to look like?
  • Does the b-roll (an industry word for supporting video that is shown when someone is talking but you’re not seeing the person actually talking) match what they’re talking about? For example, if the person is talking about a forklift, are you seeing a forklift or are you seeing a shot of people in a conference room? More experience video producers and editors use the “say it, see it” rule, meaning that the video should match what the person is talking about.
  • If there are interviews, does it sound like a professional recording, or does it sound like the microphone is 10 feet away from the person? Sometimes, an inexperienced videographer might use the mic mounted on a camera instead of getting the mic close to the interviewee’s mouth, which makes it sound similar to when someone is on speakerphone. You need professional video production, so hire the best.
  • How is the lighting? Does the video content look overly dark or overly bright? Does the lighting look flattering when it falls on someone’s face?

Questions to Ask When Hiring a Corporate Videographer

Hiring a good, quality videographer is crucial for your next marketing strategy or corporate project.  It takes skill, experience, and talent to make a good corporate videographer, not just fancy equipment.  High quality photos or well edited video clips will make your project stand out instead of just stand up.  The first thing you need to do is ask yourself what you need out of your project.  How many photos?  How long does the video need to be?  When does it need to be done by?  Once you know all the details about your project, start interviewing potential videographers.  Here are some important questions you should ask your potential candidates.

How long have you been working as a videographer?  You want to make sure that your videographer has experience in their craft.

When will the final product to be finished?  Every project needs a timetable so make sure your videographer will fit within your deadline.  Make sure to get a solid deadline date before committing to your final choice.

Have you worked for a corporate client before?  Many videographers have experience with weddings instead of corporate video production.

Can I see your portfolio?  You will be able to see examples of their work and you can weed out the ones who don’t have a portfolio.  It is common to have digital portfolios in this particular industry, so you might want to have a computer or mobile device on hand if you want to view their work right away.

What editing software/lighting/camera do you use?  Asking questions about their equipment gives you an idea about the quality of the finished product.  If you don’t know the first thing about equipment, just take notes and look it up later.  You should also judge the quality of their response, a quick answer said with confidence means they probably know their trade while a mumbled answer or “I don’t know” means they might lack experience.