Preserving your rug and how often you should clean/ restore

According to industry statistics, the greatest demand for new rugs and carpets comes from homeowners who are renovating and remodeling their existing homes. If you’ve had a rug or carpet for several years now, you might be wondering how often you should be cleaning your rug—and how. Taking good care of your rug will help preserve it so that you don’t have to replace it five years from now. Here are a few things to keep in mind.

What You Should Be Doing Every Week

For a typical home, you should be vacuuming your rug every week. This is important for a few reasons. Every day, dust and debris are deposited into the fibers of your rug. This includes airborne pollutants, mites, and bacteria that can potentially damage it. Dirt also enters your carpet every week—not only does it make the surface look dull, but it can break down the carpet’s fibers over time. If your rugs experience high traffic (like a rug in front of a door), you may need to vacuum twice a week.

What You Should Be Doing Every Six Months

Over a longer period of time, your rug will accumulate dirt, stains, and grime that cannot be addressed with a quick vacuuming. At least twice every year (and more if you have many pets, many kids, etc.), your carpet or rug should receive a heavy-use deep cleaning. A steam cleaner is one option since it uses water vapor to loosen up hardened dirt and clean out the microscopic bacteria particles clinging to fibers. This cleaning step is also important for keeping unpleasant odors at bay.

What You Should Be Doing Every Two Years

Every two years (or, more specifically, as often as the manufacturer suggests), you should opt for a restorative cleaning. It’s important to have an expert carpet cleaner, such as Roys Carpet Cleaning, attend to your restorative cleaning since it’s a more complex process. Carpet experts will formulate a plan based on your specific carpet type—since carpets can be crafted from a wide range of materials, there is a wide range of possible solutions. Typically, though, a pre-spray designed specifically for carpets will be used, along with a pre-conditioner that penetrates the carpet and is left to set for several minutes. The conditioner is then extracted along with the carpet’s residue using an alkaline solution along with hot water.

Is your carpet or rug overdue for restorative cleaning? Contact the carpet cleaning experts at Roy’s Carpet Cleaning for an estimate, and find out more about the specific steps they would recommend taking for your home.