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MAINTAINING
YOUR CARPET.
Maintaining the cleanliness
of your carpeting is perhaps the greatest challenge. Most of us have seen
the great results after cleaning, but are all too often saddened when
we see that nice crisp look go downhill. So, what's the secret.
Well, unfortunately there is no magic involved in taking care of carpets,
the quality of the carpeting, installation, underlay, and traffic conditions
all come into play with how good the carpet is going to look over time.
There are many things
though that you can easily do to assure that you are doing your best when
it comes to keeping your carpets in the best shape possible.
HERE ARE SOME GUIDELINES.
Probably the singular, most effective way for you to begin to take
care of your carpets is by following a very stringent vacuuming schedule.
Vacuuming removes the dry soils from carpet that over time dull and scratch
the thermoplastic synthetic fibres. When you vacuum, make sure you don't
just do the visible soil: there is a lot of soiling that is there and
some that you cannot even see. On average, it takes about fifteen feet
of walking into a home from outside to totally remove the dirt from one's
shoes, therefore make sure you attend to those areas more carefully.
Also when you vacuum, don't be married to particular directions
of strokes. Use a variance in the way you do it, that way you will not
encourage any certain lay that the pile will have. For example, try vacuuming
north to south, then east to west, west to east, south to north etc. Do
all of this in one session. And when I say be regular in vacuuming, ideally
you should be vacuuming at least once weekly or more thoroughly, and daily
or every other day will not hurt. Do it as much as your home needs with
respect to the traffic you get. Consider using a pile rake too, as these
will separate the yarns, prevent matting and crushing to a degree, and
just make the carpet look a little better. They're very easy to use and
worth the inexpensive investment.
Also, keep areas adjacent to your carpets clean. If you
have a carpet off the kitchen floor, or near a stone entry way, make sure
you keep those areas really clean. If your kitchen floor has an oily film
on it from cooking, then you can be sure that the oily film will be on
your carpet too....if not by foot traffic then just by airflow when the
oil was airborne.
Keep your shoes off when you walk on your carpet. If you
have a Tarmac driveway at your home, you are walking oil onto your carpet
each time you walk from one to the other. Oily films attract dirt and
your carpet will look soiled really quick. Plus you will be avoiding sand
and grit from getting into the carpet, which will only lessen its life.
Carpet is a textile and is subject to wear and poor appearance, even though
it is designed as a floor covering.
Remove spots as soon as you notice them. The longer they
remain on the carpet, the more difficult they may be to remove. |
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