Taking the pain out of maintaining your carpet
The first step to continuing carpet maintenance is, of course, thorough vacuuming. Regular vacuuming with a professional grade machine efficiently removes surface contaminants and also extracts deep down dirt. A clean surface is necessary to maintain the look of your facility. Deep down cleaning is necessary to remove the abrasive dirt and prevent excess wear of the carpet.
The frequency of vacuuming depends on your general environment and the amount of traffic any one area receives. If your floor is in a high-traffic area, especially one with a large amount of air-born dirt (ex: ground level offices directly inside an industrial or warehousing area) you will need thorough vacuuming at least once a day. Make sure your vacuum is equipped with a functioning beater bar or roller.
If your office is in a more protected environment – for example a second floor office in a climate-controlled building – you may want to vacuum everyday for cosmetic purposes. Again, this will depend to a large extent on the number of people in the space and what materials they may be carrying or moving.
In either environment, one of the most effective ways to protect your carpets is the use of mats. You can stop lots of “the big stuff” from getting past the front door with mats specifically designed to scrape off larger dirt and debris, stones, mud, snow & ice, and salt. Beside to choose a mat that allows for water to drain easily.
Once inside, mats with a lower pile surface material will catch most of the remaining particles and save your valuable carpeting. Use as large a mat as appropriate for the most protection.
Spots and spills
Any soil or stain will become more and more permanent the longer it remains. Your carpet will last a lot longer if it is spot cleaned as often as it is vacuumed. There are a multitude of spot & stain removal tips and techniques available. We won’t get into them in this article but you will have no trouble finding one or more that work for you. And, we will urge you to put them to use. The everyday look and feel of your carpet will benefit, as will the amount of effort it takes for a full hot water extraction cleaning.
Professional Carpet Cleaning
We start off with the word professional because we truly believe that this is the most efficient way to go for most businesses.
“Trained carpet cleaning experts use a professional hot water extraction cleaning machine to inject water and a cleaning solution into the carpet and remove dirt. The machine then extracts the solution and the hot water back out of the carpet so that it can dry quickly.”
Professionals have all the tools and experience needed for excellent results. These include:
- hot water extraction machines
- the experience needed to operate them (this includes everything from how quickly to run the machine to the amount of cleaning solution to use
- access to cleaning mixtures that clean well without harming carpet fabrics
- knowledge of how to extract the most water so dry time (and the potential for odors) is reduced
- how to manage conditions in the room(s) being treated to promote fast drying. This includes having multiple floor fans
If this is your first time hiring a carpet cleaning service, take these steps to ease your mind:
- contact more than one service; interview each one, ask all the questions you want, ask for them to visit your site, get a firm estimate and referrals. The more guesswork you can take away, the likelier the success of your project.
When to have your carpets cleaned?
Once a year is a general time period for the average business. You may require a full cleaning more or less often, depending on conditions and use.
When to opt for replacement rather than cleaning
Carpets should last approximately 15 years. After that time you may notice worn spots, permanent discoloration, loose fibers and seams rolling up. One other sign is that the dents made by furniture do not spring back. This usually indicates problems with both the carpet and the underlayment.
We hope this article has cleared up some of the questions you may have on carpet cleaning. If the Team here at NLC Solutions can be of further assistance, please give us a call at (908) 753-3900.
We will answer your questions and provide an estimate.
NLC Solutions —
hard floor and carpet care and cleaning near you:
We serve: Middlesex, Somerset, and Union counties.
Featured Locations -