KEEPING CARPETS CLEAN AT YOUR HOME
I’m sure many of us will agree that fitting carpets in our homes can be quite expensive after all costs have been added up for underlay, carpets and fitting. Fitting quality carpets at your home will help to ensure that they will last for longer, however we still need to our part to help to protect our investment, an investment we hope that will last for years. Keeping your carpets clean is an on going process, therefore you need to be aware of a few basic principles that will help to save your carpets and extend their life spam. To keep your carpets in a good condition simply follow the rules below:
- Vacuum regularly
Probably the easiest and simplest bit of advise that you should definitely remember. The keyword here is regularly. Most dirt that is in your carpet is dry soil. Depending on the traffic at your home, number of kids and pets, you should vacuum your carpets at least twice a week.
- Invest in a good vacuum
Just like we invest in a good carpet to make sure it lasts longer, we also should consider investing into a quality vacuum that will do exactly what it’s design to do. The choice for vacuums nowadays can be overwhelming with so many different models and makes. We don’t recommend using cordless vacuums, which are usually known for their low battery life and little suction. Instead we urge you to get a vacuum that has turbo brush attachment, which is extremely good at picking up loose soil and dust. In additional to this, go for ones that have HEPA filters, as those help to trap the allergens in the filter so they don’t get blown out of the vacuum exhaust throughout the cleaning. A vacuum that we particularly like to use ourselves is a Shark vacuum as it meets all the criteria above and many others.
- Look after your vacuum
Depending how much use your vacuum gets, you should consider cleaning out the filters, brushes and pipes every 3-6 months. You can clean the filters by using air compressor or simply wash them out and make sure they’re absolutely dry before putting them back. When they get too worn away simply replace them. It’s easy to find replacements by contacting your local retailer or searching through the websites like eBay or Amazon.
- Take your shoes off at home
Make sure you, your family and anybody visiting your home is aware of this simple, yet effective rule – ‘Take your shoes off in the hall’ as soon as they enter the house. This way, you will avoid the outside dirt and moisture from entering your home. Encourage the family to wear slippers around the house rather than shoes. Have a shoe cupboard beside the door in the hall to avoid shoes lying around.
- Place doormats, rugs and runners
By placing doormats at the front and back entrance of your house, you will further reduce the amount of dirt and moisture entering your home. Wash them regularly or replace when they get too worn. To protect the high traffic areas, put runners and rugs across the carpet. Also, you may want to place rugs where stains are most likely to occur like underneath the living room table or in front of the fireplace where there can be a lot of soot.
- Deal with the stains quickly
When you notice there has been a spillage or a stain, make sure you try to deal with it as soon as you can so that the stain doesn’t set permanently. Make sure to use the right cleaning agent for the type of stain you are dealing with. There are plenty of Internet guides that will help you choose the right cleaning method to remove a certain stain. Nevertheless, be careful of some supermarket products, as those are often ineffective against more difficult stains and can do more damage than good. Read the labels and make sure they are ok to use on wool or other natural fibres, as using the wrong chemistry on those can cause bleach marks etc. Also, do not be too aggressive whilst carrying out stain removal as it is quite easy to damage the carpet. If your products or cleaning method fails to deliver the cleaning results you desire, do not hesitate to contact your local carpet cleaning specialist.
- Keep the floors in your kitchen clean
There are certain areas in your house you will notice that attract dirt quicker than the others, one of which is an entrance to your kitchen. Kitchen floors tend to get covered in grease, dirt and other spillages, which later get transferred onto the carpet, as we walk out of the kitchen. The sticky residue left behind those then tends to attract the dirt much quicker than it usually would on a carpet. Keep the floors in your kitchen clean to prevent this!
- Avoid carpet powders
Carpet cleaning powders have been on the market for some time now and just like other general cleaning solutions, can be easily bought from a local supermarket. The idea of those is to shake, sprinkle and vac of the carpet. Needless to say, those do not provide any substantial cleaning results. Carpet powders usually just tend to have a nice smell, which tricks the user into thinking that if it smells nice, therefore it mustn’t cleaned the carpet. In reality, the smell goes away after few hours and your still left with dirty carpet, which now holds a sticky reside from the powdered product, that hasn’t been fully removed and promotes rapid resoling of your carpet.
- Be careful using DIY carpet cleaning machines
Although renting a DIY machine and cleaning the whole house yourself sounds like a good idea, you may want to read our previous blog post about the realities of renting those that most people don’t think about. In short, they’re underpowered, which means they don’t pull enough moisture out of the carpet. This often results in over wetting of the carpet and nasty smells, which are later hard to get rid of. How do we know this? Because over the years, this is the kind of feedback our customers provided us with about those machines and this is why, now, they rather hire a professional carpet cleaner, which takes us to the next point.
- Choose a professional carpet cleaning company to look after your carpets
You are best protecting your investment by hiring out a professional who cleans the carpets every day as their main job. Professional carpet cleaner will have wealth of knowledge and experience required to do the work to a high standard. In addition to this, they will be able to carry out the work with high power equipment, much more effective than equipment that can be purchased in a DIY store or supermarket. Search for a local carpet cleaning business in your area online or ask friends and family for personal recommendations. You should always choose a reputable company backed with excellent reviews from previous customers. Our company, Carpet Pro Belfast is a respected, reliable and creditable carpet cleaning company in Belfast. With over 400 five star reviews over Google, Facebook and other social media sites, we are known to be as a leading carpet cleaning business, that always puts their customers first.
