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Carpet is a comfortable, quiet flooring solution. However, its durability depends on regular vacuuming, advanced planning to head off carpet problems, and fast stain removal when spills or other accidents occur.
Here's how a well-designed carpet cleaning and maintenance routine can help keep your carpet surfaces looking fresh and clean.
Basic Care
In most commercial applications, small areas of carpet usually receive the most day-to-day traffic. The Carpet and Rug Institute (CRI) recommends building managers map out a well-designed floor care system, which includes regular vacuuming of carpeted entryways, main corridors, elevators and break rooms. This basic carpet maintenance system will easily keep the surface of most loop carpets clean and prevent tiny particles from accumulating in higher-pile plush or textured products. In either commercial or residential settings, it's vital to regularly change the vacuum cleaner's filter bag (or empty the bagless bin), which will keep overfill dust from settling back on carpet surfaces.
Preventive Maintenance
While today's carpeting products are more resilient than ever before, simple carpet cleaning and maintenance steps can add even more useful life to fiber surfaces. These include:
Using mats. CRI suggests placing a series of walk-off mats — between six and 15 feet long — at main building entrance points. These mats are a vital part of a floor care system, because they greatly reduce the level of dirt and moisture carried onto interior carpet surfaces. On the inside, smaller mats placed at key stations — such as elevators in commercial settings and garage or deck doors in homes — are a secondary defense to aid carpet maintenance.
Using scraper plates. In wetter climates, sound carpet maintenance includes outdoor mud-scraper plates for added protection.
Cutting strings. Unlike solid flooring surfaces, carpeting can occasionally show loose ends or strings. When that happens, just use a scissor to snip the threads, since vacuuming over these threads may create bigger problems.
Cleaning filters. It's wise to check if the building's HVAC system is doing a good job of removing dust and dirt from the air. If filters are clogged, microscopic debris will constantly filter down onto carpet surfaces.
Advanced Care
Regular vacuuming can go a long way toward extending carpet life, but some debris will inevitably settle into a carpet's fibers and base. To remedy that issue, consider using hot water or dry extraction floor cleaners every 12 to 18 months. These advanced floor-care tools will thoroughly remove grit and particles from carpet, leaving it looking fresh and renewed.