Avoiding Premature Wear

Carpets are a significant investment, for you or your landlord. A well-maintained carpet functions as a filter, insulation, and provides comfort to weary feet. However, they also provide aesthetic comfort to the household and visitors. In fact, a dingy carpet can bring down the entire atmosphere of a home or business.

You might not even notice it consciously, but stains and discolorations in a frequently traversed carpet will affect the disposition of everyone traversing it, and it might be happening a lot quicker than you realize. Premature wear and aging affect many household carpets. Granted, one of the most common reasons for this is the scarcity of round tuits – as in, “I’ll clean up that stain when I get a round tuit”. Nevertheless, an honest look at how you maintain your carpet might point to a few things you can modify to keep your carpet fresh and clean.

Check Your Vacuum Height

Most vacuums today have a variable height setting. If your vacuum height is set too low, it will tug and tear at your carpet pile, causing premature wear. If the height is too high, your vacuum won’t remove as many particles, resulting in more dirt left behind to accumulate and fester. As a rule, the longer the fibers of your carpet, the higher you want to set your vacuum.

Some current vacuum models have a feature that adjusts the height automatically, sensing the style and length of your carpet pile. That’s a huge advantage if you have several styles of carpet or flooring though your home. If your height adjustment is manual, begin by setting your vacuum height to its highest setting, then lower it one setting at a time until you feel a little resistance as it starts to pull at the fibers. That’s the setting you want – don’t lower it one or two more settings for good measure. Finally, make a note of that setting for that style of carpet. If you have other styles in your home, do the same procedure for each style.

Tending to Carpet Spills Improperly

We’ve all done it – there’s a spill, we grab a rag or paper towel, and try to scrub it out of the carpet. It simply doesn’t work that way. When you scrub a spill, it pushes the spill deeper into the carpet. Not only that, but the scrubbing action combined with the type of liquid could make your carpet fibers begin to fray. This will make your carpet look disheveled much earlier than you expect.

You might have noted in our intermittent series (The Bane of Stains) that we consistently recommend using a set of paper towels or white cloth towel to dab, blot or press against the spill. This draws the excess liquid out of the spill and into the towel. Along with that, after applying a cleaning solution, continue dabbing to blotting – do not scrub. For some reason, our first instinct is to scrub. Sometimes it takes a lot of mental effort stop from taking that action. However, dabbing or blotting instead will reduce the possibility of a stain setting, and maintain the look of your carpet.

Carpet Cleaning Frequency

Quite frankly, if your carpet is starting to look dirty, you’ve already waited too long – what you’re seeing is what’s accumulated on the surface. It’s already sitting on a cushion of dirt and grime, packed in even deeper every time it’s stepped on, abrasively grinding into your carpet fibers and causing premature wear. By that point, it’s so well set that even a daily routine of rigorous vacuuming won’t touch it.

That’s why keeping a regular schedule of professional carpet cleaning is so important. Before your carpet even begins to look dirty, Preferred Carpet Care will remove any particles residing deep in the carpet. In most cases, scheduling a professional carpet cleaning twice a year is all it takes to keep dirt, dust and grime from accumulating.

Our training, experience and high-end equipment is the best choice for removing dirt from your carpet without compromising its look and feel. In fact, we can often restore the look and feel of your carpet you didn’t even know was missing. If you’d like to find out if your carpet needs cleaning or would like to make sure it doesn’t wear prematurely, give us a call or schedule an appointment online. We’re waiting to hear from you!