As a consumer, what you choose to buy may have more impacts for you and for your home than you think.
For example, choosing to install carpet on the flooring of one’s home needs careful consideration of several factors, including where to buy the carpet from, whether to do a self-cleaning of the carpet or choose to have it cleaned and maintained professionally, how long before cleaning it, and how long before replacing it.
Decisions surrounding these questions will have varying consequences. Let’s discuss them below.
Buying Carpets: Cheaper Ones Don’t Necessarily Come Out Cheap
Many carpet manufacturers compete for your attention in the market. As a customer, what factors do you consider when buying a carpet? Design, durability and price may easily top your list. Certainly, you are free to choose a suitable design, but why is it important to carefully weigh in on durability and pricing?
It’s because these are the two factors that normally pull at each other on almost any purchasing decision people make.
In terms of carpets, do you choose to buy a cheap one that would last you one to two years with daily foot traffic, or durable, albeit, more expensive ones that would last 10 to 15 years with proper care?
There can be differences in opinion here, but many people find it more cost-efficient to vote for durability.
Durable carpets not only save you money in the long term, it also saves you from the hassle of having to replace the carpet often.
Maintaining Carpets: DIY or Professional Carpet Cleaning?
Congratulations! You now have a beautiful carpet to serve as the centerpiece of your home. There’s no denying carpet instantly liven up interiors and offer comfort for your family. But just when you think that by purchasing the carpet your work is done, think again. Quite the contrary, the real work of keeping your carpet in top shape so that it continues to beautify your home for years to come had just begun.
What’s a better way to care for your carpet? Is it by doing it yourself or by engaging a professional carpet cleaning company to do it for you?
It would be practical to do a bit of both. It doesn’t hurt for you to clean the carpet immediately after a cup of chocolate or a glass of red wine spilled on it, especiallyif you want to control the stain. But relying solely on DIY cleaning might not offer you the in-depth cleaning that only professional carpet cleaning companies have been trained to do.
How Long Before Cleaning Your Carpet?
Answering the question “How long should I wait before cleaning my carpet?” isn’t as easy as it seems. A roll of carpet or a set of carpet tiles can be cleaned at different time intervals, largely depending on three things:
- Carpet fibre.
- Type of stain or dirt.
- What you want to achieve.
Let’s Discuss Them One By One.
Carpet fibre is a factor for considering the interval for your carpet cleaning because there are certain fibres that quite hide the stain, soil, and dirt while there are other carpet fibres that tend to make stains and dirt more visible.
Wool is a natural carpet fibre. It is warm, luxurious and comfortable and is often the most expensive type of fibre. Wool is relatively easier to clean and maintain because of its naturally dense fibre that makes it opaque – meaning it has that quality that makes soil, dirt, and stain harder to see.
In general, carpets that have dense fibres are relatively easier to maintain. To know if your carpet is dense, fold the carpet and see if you are not able to see the backing. This tells you your carpet has so much fibre in it that dirt, stain, and soil may be harder to see.
Acrylic fibre has the look and feel of wool but is an artificial, man-made wool. Because of this, it has similar qualities of wool as far as making stain, dirt, and soil harder to see. This makes acrylic a practical option because it works like wool but at a fraction of the cost.
Another common carpet fibre is nylon, which is the strongest of all carpet fibres, which means it can withstand abrasion and can retain its colour even after applying carpet cleaning chemicals. Nylon is also easy to clean, in fact, it can resist stains, dirt, and grime.
Type of Stain or Dirt is another factor to consider on the interval for your carpet cleaning schedule. The reason is obvious. If there are stains or dirt that easily show, or that must be cleaned immediately especially for the purpose of sanitation, then by all means, clean your carpet right away. If the stain is also visible at a high foot traffic area like the lobby of the hotel, then you can consider cleaning it immediately. Remember, your carpet can create positive or negative impressions about your business or your home.
What Do You Want To Achieve by cleaning your carpet also matters when you consider how long before you clean your carpet. Do you want a regular but light cleaning just to regularly maintain your carpet so it looks, smells, and feels clean and fresh every day, or do you want a deep thorough clean that will reinvigorate the life of your carpet? Do you have a guest whom you want to impress? Then you can opt for a fast carpet cleaning service that will get your carpet tidied up in just 2 to 3 hours. What you want to achieve will determine how long before you should book an appointment with your carpet cleaners again.
How Long Before Replacing Your Carpet?
One of the more common questions adding to the carpet maintenance conundrum is how long before you replace your carpet.
There are no hard and fast rule, and the decision could be based on your budget, on how your carpet impacts your business, on the comfort level of everyone in the family. Suffice it to say, a high-quality carpet can last between 10 to 15 years with regular upkeep and considering regular foot traffic.
It’s different when your carpet is on the concourse of an airport where hundreds of travelers step on it, walk on it, pull their heavy luggage on it every day; or if your carpet is in the lobby of the office where ladies wearing high heels could scratch or tear it.
It would be smart to check your supplier for the warranty of your carpet. Some may offer replacement warranty over a certain period from the date of purchase especially if it is established that the damage to the carpet is due to manufacturing problems.
What’s important to remember is that regular carpet cleaning and maintenance help your carpet in top shape so you won’t have to replace it prematurely.
A high-quality carpet is an investment that could pay back huge dividends in terms of comfort and achieving that over-all look and style for your home or office. Professional carpet cleaning helps you take good care of that investment for years to come.