Carpet Cleaning - Care and Maintenance

Despite all the flooring options today, carpet is still one of the top choices, for many reasons, including comfort, safety, design, and even noise reduction. Proper carpet maintenance is relatively easy and helps to ensure the carpet lasts and looks as good as the day it was installed.

Cleaning Carpet:

To keep carpet fibers from matting, it is important to regularly vacuum. This also helps to remove dust and debris, and other material that will eventually cause the colour to fade.

Use a vacuum with good suction at least once a week, and if possible choose one with a beater bar. This helps to loosen debris and dust to make it easier for the suction to remove it from the carpet.

When something is spilled on the carpet it is important to remove it immediately. Depending on the spill, different solutions may be necessary to spot clean. Depending on the type of carpet and the spill itself, there are several options for different circumstances, including ammonia, vinegar, detergent, solvents and sometimes just absorbent cloths.

To pre-treat a spill, remove any excess, either with the edge of a spoon (guide towards the middle of spill), and/or blot the spill with paper towel or absorbent cloth (but do not rub!), and use the cleaning solution and apply with a damp cloth.

Use a dry absorbent cloth to blot and absorb the pre-treated stain area (and hopefully the stain as well).

Maintaining Carpet

Proper carpet maintenance is as simple as regular vacuuming and removing any spills as quickly as possible to avoid permanent stains.

Approximately once a year (or at the most –eighteen months), it is important to hire a professional carpet cleaner. This will not only ensure that your carpet is thoroughly cleaned, but it also helps to extend the life of your carpet. Professional cleaning also helps to revitalize the colours in your carpet, further remove any marks left by spills, and remove any odours that may be lingering from pets.

Carpet Maintenance Dos

Vacuum the carpeting once a week, and more if it is in a highly used area of the home.

Clean up any spills immediately and treat to avoid permanent stains. In order to avoid stains altogether, consider keeping carpeted areas drink and food free zones, especially when young children are in the home.

Use mats and rugs in entranceways to minimize dirt and shoe stains. Block any pets from the room that have free-reign inside and outside the home to avoid muddy paw-prints across the carpet.

Move furniture around periodically to avoid permanent matting on the carpet where the legs have been sitting, and consider using carpet protectors under the legs of your furniture.

To keep the colour from fading, close curtains during the day when the sun is bright and coming through windows.

Carpet Maintenance Donts

Proper carpet maintenance also involves knowing what not to do.

Don’t let spills sit as they can quickly turn into stains. Be sure to use products recommended for your carpet; don’t just grab whatever is under the kitchen sink.

Don’t allow the use of substances (on your carpet) that can be permanently damaging to the carpet, such as grease, nail polish, glue, tar and wax.

Don’t allow family members and visitors to wear shoes on your carpeting. You never know what they may have walked on.

Carpet maintenance will help keep a carpet looking beautiful, odour-free, instead of matted and stained. It’s worth leaning about the types of carpeting before installation to ensure it is suitable for your lifestyle. 

Please remember the above is just a guide and you should seek professional advice.