Do you have carpet in your home? How often do you clean it? Carpet is a great option for high-traffic areas like living rooms and kids’ bedrooms, but many homeowners are confused about how to best clean and maintain their shag. It may come as a surprise, but a dirty carpet actually poses a health risk.
We all find the time to vacuum now and then, and some of us even dedicate a weekend or two each year to a good shampoo session. As it turns out, however, springing for a professional carpet cleaning can benefit you in a number of ways.
Professional cleaning creates a much cleaner atmosphere in your home, extends the life of your carpets, and might even save you some money in the long run. So when is the right time to have your carpet cleaned?
How and Why to Clean Your Carpet
For one thing, your carpet can attract and store a ton of allergens. It can even start to affect the health of you and your family members. Dust can accumulate, along with other allergens like pollen and cat fur.
Dust and other air pollutants can get saved up in your carpet and then released by something as simple as walking around. Everything from pet dander to cockroach allergens and lead particles can get trapped in your carpet.
Additionally, AngiesList points out that your carpet can even trap dangerous gases that adhere to the various particles of dirt and dust:
“Toxic airborne gases can adhere to these particles and also get trapped within the carpet. These…gases can be released through everyday activities such as vacuuming and walking across the carpet, which can cause them to contaminate the air in your home.”
Many carpet-owners may also have a dust mite infestation without realizing it. These microscopic critters aren’t allergens in and of themselves, but dust mites can spread and carry a number of allergens.
There are a few ways that you can get your carpet professionally cleaned, and they all have their fair share of benefits.
One of the best methods is steam cleaning. This uses super-hot, highly-pressurized water to clean and lift dirt and moisture out your carpet. This requires a drying time, but kills bacteria and mites in short order.
The original method of professional carpet cleaning is a good shampoo, which is good for very dirty carpet. After this, however, the carpet has to be thoroughly vacuumed to account for the lack of extraction that this process involves.
Dry cleaning your carpet uses a minimum of water, and dissolves soil before its drawn out with a commercial vacuum. This is a great way to clean carpets that are damaged easily, such as carpets made from natural fibers like hemp or sisal.
Finally, bonnet cleaning is a method by which a rotating buffer spreads cleaning product all over your carpet. This will do the trick, but leaves behind the deepest layers of dirt, and should be thought of as a temporary solution between deep cleans.
You should think about cleaning your carpets about once or twice a year, depending upon how much traffic the area receives.
Why You Want to Hire a Professional
Why should you hire a professional carpet cleaner?
Areas that receive heavy traffic are in special need of professional cleaning.
For one thing, all rugs and carpets are different. Professionals know how to take care of each kind. Similarly, different stains and spots require different solutions.
In the long run, getting your carpets cleaned professionally can save you serious money, too. It’ll lengthen the life of your carpets and give you more time until you have to replace them again.
When you’re going to have your carpets cleaned by the professionals, there are a few things you can do to prepare:
- A preliminary vacuum session will make things run more smoothly for the cleaners.
- Dust your baseboards to make sure they don’t dirty your carpet after it’s cleaned.
- Move fragile items from the areas getting cleaned.
- Move valuables out of the way.
- Pick up any clutter or loose things lying on the floor.
- Get rid of any furniture that might be in the area.
- Clear a parking spot so that your cleaners can run their equipment from the van to your home.
- Point out any trouble spots that might warrant special attention.
Carpeting is an important part of just about any home, and typically deserves special attention if it’s to be kept clean.
Tell us, how do you make sure your carpets and rugs stay neat?
See Also
Spring Cleaning: 5 Steps You Need to Go Paperless and Organize Your Life
Why You Need to Call 811 Before Any Home Improvement Project
LA Traffic Synchronization Reduces Daily Commutes, But Is Anyone Noticing?
Hiring a professional carpet cleaner that does its work and understand what they do is a must if you’d like to seek for the help of a pro carpet cleaner. Before starting to hire any company that you would think do the right work, you need to know their background first. Other than that, this article covers great information about the option of hiring a carpet cleaner rather than doing it all yourself.
I do vacuum my carpet but, every once in a while, i call on a professional carpet cleaner to do the job to make sure the carpet is totally clean. Vacuuming does help but professionals use methods that can ensure total removal of allergens and dust.
It’s so true that a dirty carpet can be a potential health risk, which is why professional carpet cleaning is advised, especially if you have many stains on your carpet. Great article!
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Professional carpet cleaning is a must if you have zero clue about how to do your own carpet cleaning. Most people simply use an extraction machine hired from the local shop.
Let me just say here, there’s nothing wrong with the local hire machine. What is wrong is the way that people use these machines.
Incorporate a simple procedure into your carpet cleaning efforts and you will get a much better result. Longer lasting clean, quick drying and zero re-soiling which is the result of over wetting.
The answer, is a carpet pre-spray solution.
The solution actually cleans your carpets before you extract with a machine. Simply brush agitate the pre-spray then rinse extract using a neutral PH rinse solution.
And there you have it. Professional results from a local DIY hire machine every time