Maintaining The Carpet After A Professional Carpet Cleaning
Loving that fresh, new look of the carpet? After a thorough deep cleaning, with the soiling that had accumulated for months or years being removed from the carpet, it brings a whole new look and feel to the space. The quality of the indoor airspace is also improved, with the allergens and pollutants that are in the carpet having been removed. How do you keep the carpet clean? Here are tips on what you should consider:
- Keep off till it dries
Let’s start with the day of the carpet cleaning itself. After it has been washed, you need to allow it sufficient time to dry. This is to avoid a case where more soiling is tracked onto the carpet. In its wet condition, it will readily grip the dirt and grime, clawing back your efforts. You can speed up the drying by ensuring that the room has been well ventilated, or also use tools like ceiling fans. One of the benefits of hiring professional carpet cleaning services is that the contractors use high-powered drying systems as part of the process. These extract the bulk of the moisture from the wet carpets, such that it remains just slightly damp. This allows the carpet to dry in a few hours – and you can resume using the carpet within the same day it has been cleaned. Whichever the case, ensure that traffic is kept off the area until that carpet has fully dried.
- Hold off restoring the furniture too
Furniture doesn’t bode well for the wet carpet too. Repositioning it before the carpet dries puts the latter at risk of damage. Firstly, the furniture covering the carpet will cause it to take longer to dry – bringing about risks of mould growth. Secondly, soiling that is on the furniture can also get transferred onto the carpet, causing a similar issue to foot traffic on the wet carpet. Depending on the furniture material, there can also be issues of colour transference, where dyes of the carpet get wicked up onto the furniture, or vice versa which ruins the look of the carpet. Just as is the case for foot traffic, wait until the carpet has dried before restoring the furniture back into position.
- Deal with spills promptly
In a perfect world, there would never be stains and spills on the carpet. You can go out of your way to be extra careful to avoid these incidents from occurring, but there’s always the chance of an accident occurring. It can be something as simple as a coffee mug or tea cup getting knocked over from the breakfast table during that morning rush to head to work, some nail polish dripping on the carpet as a household member makes preparations to leave the home, kids spilling their milk or yoghurt, or even pets making urine stains due to physiological issues like urinary tract problems, or behavioural issues such as pets marking their territory or experiencing stress due to being left alone in the house.
While accidental spills can occur at any time, focus shifts to how they are addressed. These need to be cleaned immediately. Allowing them to remain attended to for long gives the spill time to seep deeper into the carpet, and the stain to set more permanently on the material. Start by blotting up the excess liquid, then use the carpet cleaning agent to clear the remaining residue. Note that the cleaner used here should be suitable for the particular type of carpet. You don’t want to work with harsh agents that will cause the carpet material to get corroded in the process of cleaning it. Also, when tending to the stain, only blot – not rub the spot, since rubbing it causes the stain to spread further and deeper into the carpet material.
- Vacuum frequently
Dirt and grime remain a threat to the carpet’s structural integrity. Sure, the deep cleaning carried out will have got rid of them, but this does not mean more will not accumulate. After all, soiling is a part of day-to-day life. As more people walk around the carpet, bringing in dirt from the outdoors, to the airborne dust particles that gradually settle on the surface – these all contribute to the dirt build up. The particulate matter is abrasive. It gets grinded against the fibres of the carpet under foot traffic, slowly weakening it down. The greater the concentration, the more the amount of dirt that gets forced deeper into the carpet.
You don’t want to wait until the carpet begins looking dull, or household occupants begin having allergic reactions due to the particular matter being kicked up into the airspace, for you to note that there is increased dirt concentration. Vacuuming on a set routine – such as weekly or every other day, will keep the dirt accumulation low. It is recommended that you work with a vacuum that has a HEPA filter, due to the efficiency of these units in preventing dust particles from being recirculated back into the indoor air space.
- The “No shoes” rule
Given that dirt tracked into the residence from the outdoors under people’s shoes is a leading source of the soiling that eventually winds up on the carpet, you can outlaw shoes from being worn in the house. The soles of the shoes also come carrying a wide range of pathogens and contaminants, and keeping these off your carpet is in the best interest of the health of the household occupants. Have a clear distinction between shoes that can be worn outside, and those allowed in the space, and these should not have their purposes being interchanged. Better still, have exclusive indoor sandals or flipflops that family members and guests can switch to when they are getting into the house. Positioning these at the entrance of the premises, as well as having a shoe rack in place, will encourage them to make the switch.
- But avoid going barefoot too
Walking barefoot on the carpet is ill-advised. Sure, the lush carpet pile is soft underfoot, but there will be sweat and natural oils being transferred from the skin to the carpet. This greasy residue is a dirt magnet, trapping hosts and other particulate matter. Instead of household members being barefoot, walking around in socks or slippers is preferred.
- Invest in door mats
The mat is an unsung hero of indoor flooring. From hard surface floors to carpets, these are all protected by having door mats in place. The main role of the mat here is wiping off the dirt that is on the soles of people’s shoes. Definitely, having a stylish mat set up will add to the décor of the space.
- Pet control
For households with pets, chances of soiling are higher, as well as the risk of issues like pet urine stains. The fur and dander that the furry members of the family leave behind contribute greatly to the gunk that is in the carpet. If your pet sheds a lot, you will need to vacuum more frequently.
As a side note – not related to cleaning but still a part of carpet care – keep an eye on the claws of your pet. The sharp claws can easily rip the carpet material, or snag the threads. Trim and file the claws of the pet regularly to protect the carpet. When it comes to urine accidents, in addition to cleaning away the stain, the underlying cause needs to be addressed. This can range from getting house training for the new pups, all through to scheduling a visit to the vet to check for health problems.
- Rotate the furniture
Those frequently walked on sections of the carpet develop traffic lanes. They feature higher levels of dirt accumulation, and the carpet fibres get crushed under the foot traffic. These sections in turn have a faded appearance compared to the rest of the carpet. Rotating the furniture helps in evening out the wear, bringing a uniform appearance to the installation.
- Get your carpet treated
After the carpet cleaning, a protective treatment can be applied on the installation. This protectant increases the stain resistance and wards off dirt, preventing substances that wind up on the carpet from penetrating deep into the fibres. It serves multiple purposes, from buying you time to effectively deal with stains before they get deep into the carpet, keep particulate matter on the surface for the vacuum to easily pick them up, and also reduce the amount of time and resources that will be required during subsequent carpet cleaning sessions.
Signs That The Carpet Cleaning Is Due
Eventually, the carpet will need another round of deep cleaning. How soon or far off this will be will depend on how well the intermediate care was carried out. Here are signs that time to bring back the pros to work on your carpet has arrived:
- Widespread staining
While one or two stains won’t have much impact on the décor, a carpet that is covered in unsightly spots all over cannot be ignored. Whether it’s some milk that has been spilled over, the kids wiped melted chocolate on sections of the carpet, there was a party in the house and some beer wound up on the carpet, or incidents of beverage spills that have resulted in messes being made, it gets to a point where residual stains need to be addressed to restore normalcy in the premises. Sure, attending to the spills early reduces the chances of stains forming. However, over time, there will be patches that will have defied conventional DIY carpet cleaning methods, and you will need expert help to get rid of them. Professional contractors have access to a wide range of carpet cleaning formulations – even those that are not permitted to be sold over-the-counter due to their potency and risk when handling them. This, coupled with their experience in determining the right and safe mode to get rid of the stains without harming the carpet, allows them to effectively deal with the stains and bring back the charm to your carpet.
- Pests are streaming in
Insects being drawn to the carpet by food crumbs, spiders coming over to hunt them down, all through to larger pests like mice trying to pry off the food matter from the carpet’s fibres – these are a sign of deteriorating standards in the indoor space. You don’t want to find roaches scurrying around your carpet or watching lines of ants marching around carrying bits of food or sugar pellets that had wound up on the carpet. The deep cleaning will get rid of the organic matter that is attracting the pets, and with methods like hot water extraction, those pests hiding out within the carpet fibres – together with the eggs that they may have left strewn all over, are also destroyed.
If there are unpleasant smells emanating from the carpet – which are gradually increasing in intensity, this points to a build-up of more organic waste within the material, dander, food crumbs, the body waste of the insects that come to feed on them, sweat and body oils transferred onto the carpet from people’s feet, all through to cases of pet urine. For the odours to be effectively dealt with, the source itself needs to be removed. An in-depth carpet cleaning will take care of this. Other smells include strong odours from herbs and spices which were permeating across the indoor space and got readily absorbed by the carpet, that ‘wet dog smell’, sock odours, smoke for incidents where there was a fire in the premises, or there is a household member smoking cigarettes. Odour neutralisers that are used as part of the carpet cleaning restore the fresh and pleasant scent to the indoor space.
Remember that just because the dirt isn’t visible on the carpet doesn’t mean that it’s not there. The numerous air spaces in the material allow the carpet to lock in more soiling particles. If you have stayed for months without a deep clean, there are increased cases of allergies in the household, the carpet is beginning to get discoloured or looks worn out – these are all pointers of a thorough carpet cleaning being required.
