When Your Indoor Air Quality Is On The Line
That lush carpet – keeping your home cosy and warm, can also be a threat to the household members. It’s an important part of the household furnishings, even playing a key role in removing allergens and pollutants from the indoor air space. However, without the carpet cleaning being done regularly, the soiling builds up in the fibres of the unit, with the fine particles being released back into the air whenever the carpet is disturbed – which can simply occur by a person walking on it. It’s basically a large air filter, which if not properly maintained exacerbates the very problem it initially solved.
Your Carpet’s Functionality
Aside from the aesthetic attributes and insulation properties that the carpet bears for the indoor space, it also sifts out the contaminants that are floating around in the air. These are trapped by the fibres of the material. The carpet also holds everything that falls onto it – from pet fur and dander for the households that have dogs or cats, pollen particles blown into the house through the open windows, dust gradually accumulating in layers on the unit – it all adds to the grime build-up.
If there is water damage, then the risks increase exponentially. This is especially because mould and mildew get the chance to grow in your carpet, and they release spores and mycotoxins into the indoor air. The spores are allergens, contributing to the respiratory issues that the household members face, and the mycotoxins can negatively affect body organs once they get into the system. Water damage can be as a result of issues like allowing spills to remain on the carpet for too long, plumbing faults that lead to floods in the household, all through to blunders made during the DIY carpet cleaning process, such as soaking it in too much water and letting it remain wet for long.
Health Issues That Come With The Soiled Carpet
Once the allergens that are in the carpet get kicked up into the air and inhaled, it can lead to different health problems – ranging from nose and throat irritation, coughs and sore throat, frequent headaches, and irritated eyes. Persons with asthma attacks can have episodes being triggered, while conditions like bronchitis are exacerbated. Whether it is nuisances like sneezing or getting a stuffy nose, or larger problems with the respiratory system that land one in hospital – you don’t want your family members or guests being exposed to such. All this is while they can be easily avoided by having a strict carpet cleaning schedule in place.
Right from the onset, prudent steps need to be taken to ensure that the household members are safe. For the new carpets being installed, there are those that come with volatile organic compounds (VOC) and similar pollutants in the material itself, padding and with the adhesive glue that is used to lay the carpets. It’s common for people to experience health effects like irritation with the respiratory system when new carpets are installed. Here, before you make your purchase, ensure that you have checked through the VOC emissions of the particular brand and type of carpet that you’re having set up, and air it out before the installation. For instance, you can unroll it outside or in a room that has proper ventilation.
Ask the installers to use low-emission adhesives when installing the carpet. There are cases where the carpet can just be tacked down without even having to use glue. It’s also recommended that you stay out of the premises during the installation and immediately after. Ensure that the room in which the new carpet has been installed is well ventilated – opening the windows, using an air conditioner or cranking
up the fan for a couple of days to get the pollutants and VOCs circulated out of the house.
As the months go by, a stringent carpet cleaning program will need to be set up. This is two-faceted: the vacuuming and the deep carpet cleaning. This is as the vacuuming alone isn’t sufficient to remove the grime that is embedded in the carpet’s fibres, but it helps in reducing the rate of build-up. For a thorough wash, turning to the professionals to conduct an in-depth cleaning is preferred compared to going the DIY route. Here are some of the reasons why:
For the carpet cleaning company, this is their bread and butter, so they invest in high-capacity machinery to get the task done. With different types of carpets to be worked on, clients in both residential and commercial niches, sessions being booked at all sorts of times of the week, a professional company needs to ensure that it has the resources needed to meet the demand. After all, each client wants quality results delivered fast, where the clean look and feel is restored to the carpet without putting it at risk of damage. For a company to thrive in this competitive industry, it needs to ensure that its personnel have the equipment needed to deliver on their mandate. As such, the companies that have been around for long, with a track record to prove it, will have high-powered machinery that they will use to deliver a thorough wash to your carpet.
Quality carpet care requires skill – the kind that you can’t get from just watching a couple of vlogs online. For the carpet cleaning crews that have made a name for themselves in the industry, it starts out with the training followed by experience garnered from handling different types of carpets, stain and dirt problems over time. Here, there is an intricate balance that needs to be achieved during the deep cleaning tasks – getting rid of the grime while using products and processes that are safe for the carpet being worked on, as well as the occupants in the premises. You don’t want a case of potent chemicals being used that will damage the carpet’s fibres in the process of removing the stains, or toxic fumes that get released during the procedure. Moreover, the professionals will be able to point out issues in your premises that are putting your carpet at risk, for you to arrange to have them resolved early on and avoid costly losses in future.
