I know this sounds like a lot to ask for but, would it be possible for one of you that has been doing this for a while and takes time out of your busy schedules to help with questions, to list carpet with pads and cleaners/ tile with pads and cleaners...etc???? It seems to me that alot of the same questions are asked repeatedly that have to do with what pad on what carpet and so on...... Anyway, I thought it might be a good idea for someone to post a beginners users guide.. Thanks to all who reply and help.

On just about all carpet I start with Challenger's so-called Double Pads. These are 2 pads stitched together to make a kind of double pad. They are 100% cotton. If after I begin I start to see that I am raising little "fluffies" from the carpet (usually it's a new and inexpensive synthetic fiber) I will switch to a Challenger standard "thin" pad, which is less aggressive, due to some percentage of synthetic fibers mixed in with the cotton. Many people at this point will go right to the TuWay ThinOnes, which I think are mostly sybthetic fiber, and the least aggressive of the three. All do well at removing carpet soil, but the more cotton content in the pad, the more liquified soil you can expect to remove.

For ceramic tile with recessed grout lines, a pad like those described above may clean the tile surfaces, but won't clean the grout lines. The Challenger Tile & Grout brush is good at cleaning out grout lines; then you can mop up the dirty water with cotton pads. I also carry a steam vapor machine (300 degrees Fahrenheit at 60 psi,) with a small aggressive bristle brush at the nozzle end. If you are just cleaning VCT (vinyl composition tile) I find that any old cotton or cotton/blend pad will do. You might want to scrub first with a FiberPlus pad, or with one of those synthetic pads with the raised green "astroturf-type" type of scrubbing edges, to help break up heavy soil. Then use cotton pads to collect the dirty water.