Vacuum frequently for long-term beauty
The most important step in caring for your carpet is vacuuming it thoroughly and frequently, particularly in high-traffic areas. Walking on soiled carpet allows the soil particles to work their way below the surface of the pile where they are far more difficult to remove and can damage the carpet fibers. Frequent vacuuming removes these particles from the surface before problems occur. For rooms with light traffic, vacuum the carpet traffic lanes twice weekly and the entire area once weekly. In areas with heavy traffic, vacuum the carpet traffic lanes daily and the entire area twice weekly. Up to three passes of the machine will suffice for light soiling, but five to seven passes are necessary for heavily soiled areas. Change the vacuuming direction occasionally to help stand the pile upright and reduce matting.
Stains and soil
The majority of stain complaints are actually soil related. For example, many sugar-based spills, such as soft drinks and coffee, leave a sugar residue after removal. This sticky residue readily attracts soil from ordinary shoe traffic, and the resulting discolored area appears to be a stain.
The same thing happens when spills are cleaned with a detergent solution and the area is not sufficiently rinsed with plain water, leaving a sticky detergent residue. It is important to rinse thoroughly with water and blot dry after removing any spill.
Carpet acts as a trap for allergens
Carpet is capable of holding significant quantities of soil, dust, etc., without appearing very dirty. It has been demonstrated that carpet is quite efficient at keeping allergen and other small particles such as pollen out of the air. In fact, data from a Swedish government study indicates that when use of carpet declined, the number of people reporting allergy problems increased.
Regular vacuuming with a vacuum using a high-efficiency filter and periodic cleaning using the hot-water extraction cleaning (“steam cleaning”) removes the majority of allergen from carpet as well as significantly reducing mite populations.
Research has clearly shown that there is no correlation between allergen contained in carpet and allergen in the air in the carpeted room.
