Carpet Cleaning Questions

6/10/2022 (Permalink)

Dirty carpets can be cleaned by experts.

At SERVPRO we are often asked questions about carpet cleaning. These questions include things such as, how often I need to clean my carpets, will cleaning my carpets make them get dirty faster, and how long will my carpets take to dry. In the next few posts, we will tackle these questions and give you the much-needed answers.

Will cleaning my carpets make the get dirty faster?

There are some companies that do not thoroughly rinse carpets well enough. When this happens the soap residue that is left behind will attract dirt and make the carpets look dirty faster. At SERVPRO of Cedar City/Fillmore, we utilize a truck-mounted carpet cleaning unit that heats water up to 230°. When hot water is used in a sufficient quantity to rinse the soap out of a carpet there is very little residue is left behind. If there is not a lot of soap residue left behind the carpet will not look dirty faster.

When should I clean my carpets?

My answer to this is “It depends”. There are several different factors that come into play when the discussion of when a carpet should be cleaned comes up. First, how much traffic is your carpet seeing? If you have seven kids that live in your house and they keep their shoes on your carpet are seeing a lot of traffic and probably need more frequent cleaning if you only have two adults living in your home you won’t need it done as often. What type of area environmental conditions are close to your house? Do you have a gravel driveway, dirt driveway, cement driveway, or asphalt? Some of these will cause you to track more dirt into your house. There are many more factors that come into play but as you can see it is hard to say exactly how often a carpet should be cleaned.

In general, I recommend that as soon as it starts to look like it is getting dirty that you clean it. If that time comes in three months that is when you should clean it. Even if your carpet looks clean after a year I recommend not going longer than a year between cleanings.

Over time there are dirt and dust particles that settle into your carpet that your vacuum can not remove. These particles get ground into your carpet and create wear patterns commonly called traffic areas. Regular cleaning can prolong the life of your carpet.