Carpet Care & Maintenance

There are three basic rules to follow to care for your carpet flooring. They can help you get the most out of your carpet flooring for years to come.

These three rules are regular cleaning, vacuuming and dealing with spills immediately. Read along and catch other carpet care tips that you should follow to make sure that your carpet flooring will last a lifetime.
 

Carpet cleaners

Using detergents and strong soaps not specifically manufactured for carpet cleaning is a bad idea. These materials might clean your carpet effectively, but they can cause problems such as re-soiling, color bleeding and backing damage.

One thing that you have to remember when cleaning your carpet is to always make sure that you are using cleaning products specifically made to clean carpet flooring. If you have carpet flooring made from a specific flooring material, then you have to be sure that the flooring carpet cleaner also specifies that it can be used for that flooring material.

Here are some examples of cleaning products you can use:

Aerosol Foam Shampoo can be useful if you want to do light cleaning on your carpet flooring. To use, spray it directly to the carpet and spread it over the carpet flooring using a sponge or brush. After the carpet has been dried, you can now vacuum the carpet flooring.

Absorbent powder is another option that you can use. This material can come in different substances like detergents and solvents. To use this material, you have to vacuum the carpet first and then sprinkle the powder deliberately on the carpet. You need to brush it into the carpet and then re-vacuum it again. The carpet is never left wet in any process so that makes it ready to use.
 

Use mats and rugs

In entry points to your house or room with carpet, it is extremely beneficial if you have a rug or mat at these entry points to make sure that dirt and debris is not carried into your room and stopped at the entry way. Doing this will greatly reduce the presence of soiling. The mats and rugs that you place at your entry posts should also be cleaned as regularly.
 

Loss of fiber

Newly installed carpet flooring can lose fibers in the first week of installation. The effect which can be identified as tufting or shedding is caused when the carpet yarn is spun in the manufacturing process. You should not be alarmed, as it is very common and is considered a natural phenomenon in newly-installed carpet. You don’t have to do anything, just vacuum the yarn that is shed.
 

Shading

Shading, also known as pile reversal or water marking, happens when areas of a carpet become discolored. However, there is really no color discoloration, it is just an optical illusion caused by the lay pile direction and the way light hits a certain area of carpet flooring. You have to keep in mind that it is not a carpet defect but rather it is caused by traffic patterns or uneven levels of the flooring.
 

Color change, Draught marking and sprouting

Carpet usually undergoes color changes as time goes by, if this happens to you, it is advisable that you seek the services of a professional carpet company rather than do it yourself. Color change is brought about by dye fading or soiling in most cases. Draught marking is also known as fogging or soil filtration. This occurs in the edges of carpet, under the doors and in air ducts where the carpet will exhibit increased soiling in these areas. Lastly, sprouting happens when tufts appear above the surface of the carpet, all you have to do if you are faced with this is to get a pair of scissors and cut the fibers sticking out to even out your flooring.
 

Spot removal

General tips for spot removal include soaking up the liquids in clean tissue or paper towels, scooping up or scraping liquids, identifying the spots before proceeding to treating it, working at the edge of the spots and making your way inwards, always remember to blot the stain and not rub it in, apply small quantities of stain removal in a clean cloth and never in the stain directly, if you are using solvents you have to make sure that the room has proper ventilation and always dry the spot with a hair dryer after.
 

Vacuuming

This is probably the most important maintenance that you can do to make sure that your carpet is regularly maintained. You have to vacuum at least once or twice a week especially in high traffic areas so that the soil and debris will not be permanently deposited in the carpet flooring. An efficient vacuum cleaner is something which has a rotating bar and a powerful head. At the same time, you have to keep in mind not to use a vacuum which has a self-adjusting head because it might go too deep in the pile, also you don’t have to use a super stiff brush. Remember to properly change the vacuum bags to avoid overflowing.
 

Using protective treatments

Most manufactured carpet also comes with protective treatments to prevent the soiling and stains from spills. In the long run, these treatments will wear off and will not be as effective as it was firstly installed. What you can do is to re-apply such treatments to improve your carpet’s stain resistance properties. When it comes to spills and stains, you need to remove them as soon as possible because letting them dry on your carpet will make it harder to remove.
 

Other carpet do’s

You have to remember that heavy furniture can greatly affect the quality of carpet flooring, so you have to move the furniture around regularly. Not only will this give a new look to any room, but it can also prevent the carpet from pile crushing.