Your Guide To Maintaining Commercial Carpets In Between Professional Cleaning Sessions
Getting the pros to come in and give your carpet a thorough wash was the right step. They have the skills and personnel needed to tackle the diverse dirt and stain problems, without putting the carpets in your business premises at risk. After the gunk has been flushed out of the carpet, and that elegant fresh look restored – how do you keep your carpet that way? After all, you don’t want to watch the resources spent during the commercial carpet cleaning go down the drain. Here is a look at practices to put in place in your commercial premises to keep your carpet vibrant as much as possible, before the next round of professional cleaning is needed.
- Watch the entryways
A leading source of all that soiling that gets picked up by the carpet’s fibres is the dirt that gets carried into the building under people’s shoes. This is rubbed off onto the carpet, increasing the amount of dirt held by it tremendously – and there is plenty of space to accommodate it all. Those air spaces lock in or dirt as the weeks and months go by, transforming an otherwise elegant carpet into a dull and forlorn semblance of its former self.
One key measure you can put in place is having mats at the entrance of the premises. Preferably, having mats positioned on both the outside and inside of the door will go a long way in reducing the levels of dirt that are tracked into the premises – and this has the welcome benefit of reducing the amount of resources that will need to go into the next round of commercial carpet cleaning. Note that the mats themselves will need to be thoroughly washed. You can also set up a walk-off mat, given that the larger surface area available to wipe off the dirt under people’s shoes will contribute to protecting the carpet. These installations also serve to add to the aesthetics of the space, since they come in different assortments of colours and patterns, allowing you to have the set up that meets your particular decor and functionality needs.
- The all-important vacuuming
From schools to malls and office spaces, the kinds of traffic that are witnessed here translates to lots of dust and debris in the carpet – and a vacuuming program is needed to reduce the rate at which they accumulate. The particles that are within the fibres of the material contribute to the wearing down of the carpet. This is because they are grinded against the fibres – with this being higher in areas where there are more people walking about. You can easily note the difference between those frequently walked-on sections of the carpet and the rest of the areas in the premises.
When vacuuming, it is recommended to use units with a HEPA filter. These have a high effectiveness of removing the particulate matter without recirculating it back into the indoor air space. The type and capacity of the vacuum used will depend on the size of the area that needs to be worked on.
- Spot cleaning
Those occasional spills don’t have to wait till the next commercial carpet cleaning session. In fact, failing to treat them early puts the carpet itself at risk since the stains will be set deeper into the material. This causes different problems. For starters, those stains become difficult to remove, and can even risk becoming permanent patches on the carpet – which is definitely not what you had in mind when you got that particular carpet for the commercial space. The stains clash with the rest of the decor and become a nuisance that makes customers coming in to question the business’s commitment to professionalism. Ignoring stains also brings about the risk of mould growth. The increased moisture content as the spills soak into the carpet, coupled with the presence of dirt and spores, makes this a fertile ground for the fungi to develop. Increased fungi concentrations make the carpet a health hazard for those on the premises, as more spores and mycotoxins will be released into the indoor air space.
When dealing with spills, blot the affected section – not rubbing as this will simply cause the spill to get deeper into the material. The carpet cleaning products selected should be compatible with the material in question. This is to avoid cases of formulations being used that are too harsh such that they corrode the carpet fibres, shortening its life span. Is the carpet in your commercial space riddled with stains? These can be worked on as part of the commercial carpet cleaning process. Here, the pros have access to a wide range of powerful formulations, and have the skill needed to use the right approach when tackling the different kinds of stains.
- Air filter maintenance
When did you last have the air filters in your business premises cleaned or changed? Their role of filtering out particular matter is important in improving the quality of the indoor air, and also keeping the dust from getting to the carpet. Note that the dirtier the air filters are, the less effective they will be in their performance, and this will result in more dirt particles getting to the indoor air space – and they will eventually settle on the carpet.
Get The Pros to Work On Your Carpet
Maintaining a consistent schedule of professional carpet cleaning is vital to protect your workplace. It’s not a ‘one-time’ event, especially since the nature of the business premises means that the carpet will continue building up dirt and grime. Setting up the routine schedule comes with several benefits, including:
- Saves your time
When running a business, time is a precious resource. Carpet cleaning is an intensive chore, and you don’t want your employees being pulled away from their work desks to deal with the pre-treatment, vacuuming, moving around furniture or other aspects of the cleaning. The professionals coming over handle every aspect of the task. Moreover, you want to minimise the disruption to your operations. When the carpet takes too long to dry, it will hamper the normal activities of customers and employees moving around. As such, the carpet cleaning and drying measures used should be cognizant of this fact, getting the unit worked on and moisture extracted to speed up the dying. There are even cases where you will want the carpet cleaned right in the middle of a busy day, in which case alternative methods can be used, to enable the dirt and grime to be removed and have the carpet ready to walk on immediately. There are also those business owners that would desire to schedule the carpet cleaning session outside official working hours, and this can be arranged, depending on the contractor that you’re dealing with.
- Keep that professional appearance
Aesthetics matter a lot for businesses. Customers will have a difficult time trusting the business if they find that the products and services are being offered in a soiled environment. A dirty or stained carpet will portray the business in a negative light, making it appear that the business owners are careless. “If they don’t prioritise maintaining a clean workplace, what does that say about the rest of the products and services?” On the other hand, with freshly cleaned carpets, it creates an inviting ambiance, and enables the customers to be comfortable.
For the employees on the other hand, the state of the workplace directly impacts their productivity. Given that the business premises is technically their second home – as they spend most of the hours of their days in it, it should be well maintained. Dull spaces, odours in the carpet, stains that constantly remind them that the carpets, upholstery and other items have not been tended to – this makes them think that the management does not prioritise their working environment. However, maintaining clean and vibrant carpets and interiors brightens up the space, making it more conducive for them to focus on their activities.
- Get rid of allergens and pollutants
Beyond optics, a soiled carpet comes with its health risks. The allergens, mould, dust mites, and other substances burrowing deeper into the carpet can trigger reactions from those in the facility. All it takes is the carpet being ‘disturbed’ by foot traffic, kicking up the particles into the airspace. Customers and employees are both at risk, especially given the higher traffic levels in the facility that see more soiling being tracked into the premises.
- Save money in the long term
When left unchecked, the dirt build up in the carpet will accelerate the deterioration. Those gritty particles being pushed deep in the carpet as people walk on it wear down the fibres. You don’t want to be forced to replace the carpet due to premature wear. Commercial carpet enables you to ward off these effects, prolonging the life of your carpet and enabling you to also avoid costly repairs. Additional stain protection treatments are also be applied on your unit. With the right measures being taken during the process, issues like mould growth will not occur. In addition, the regular cleaning helps in improving the indoor air quality of the building, lightening the load on the HVAC system of the building – meaning more savings in your energy bills. Moreover, the professionals already have the industrial-grade machinery needed to deliver a thorough cleaning for your carpet. Hiring them for the task is more feasible compared to having to purchase and maintain the equipment yourself, which would have led to increasing your operation costs.
The Price Factor In Selecting A Carpet Cleaner
Nowadays, every penny counts. You won’t be faulted for wanting to be frugal even when it comes to the carpet cleaning. With skyrocketing prices in nearly every aspect of our lives, it will be prudent to find areas in which you can make savings – but “cheapest” isn’t always ideal. In fact, it turns out that the most economical mode of taking care of your carpet is hiring the right carpet cleaner in order to save on associated costs that would have been incurred by repeating the process, or making repairs to a damaged carpet.
One of the main reasons for going the DIY route – or even hiring a rookie firm- when caring for the carpet is to cut back on costs. While it may feel like you’re saving money at the onset, it can actually end up costing you more in the process.
For starters, some of the methods used by the cheap carpet cleaning services can cause the carpet to get resoiled faster, damage its fibres, and reduce the lifespan of the investment. This can be due to different reasons. In order to massively reduce the cost of their services, the contractor may be relying on low-skilled personnel for the task, low-capacity machinery, or may even be taking shortcuts geared to speed up the process, to the detriment of the carpet in question. For instance, you can’t just flood the carpet with detergents and cleaning solutions then scrub away. First, the soapy water getting to the backing will be difficult to remove, especially if the contractor doesn’t have powerful extraction machinery. This causes a sticky residue to be left behind – one of the most common causes of rapid resoiling. You’re then forced to schedule another round of carpet cleaning much earlier than had been anticipated, which calls for more money.
There are also those contractors who are able to offer below-average market prices for their carpet cleaning services by not taking up insurance. This actually puts you at risk of incurring costly liabilities, should an accident occur while the cleaning is being done.
So, while costs are a key factor when choosing a local carpet cleaning company to hire, they are not the only factor that you should consider. Additional aspects like history of the company – how long it has been in operation, the reviews and testimonials posted online by other clients who have hired their services, all through to the kind of cleaning processes they use will need to be considered.
Your Guide To Maintaining Commercial Carpets In Between Professional Cleaning Sessions
