Four-Step Carpet Cleaning Schedule
There are different methods and schools of thought when it comes to cleaning and taking care of your carpet at home. Some swear by their favorite brand of commercial carpet shampoo. Some will exclusively use only toxic-free and organic products. There are debates about dry cleaning vs. wet cleaning and there are particulars from the right ph level of cleaners and water temperature to the use of cleaning powder.
Still, there are basic cleaning tenets that most cleaning professionals and manufacturers agree upon. These include the four-step cleaning schedule recommended by carpet experts.
Daily cleaning. Daily vacuuming is known to make carpet look like new for a longer period of time. Vacuuming separates and collects dust, dander, and soil from the carpet, keeping the fibers from getting dingy-looking. All allergens and foreign particles are also collected through vacuuming, making your home free of germs and illness-causing bacteria.
Everyday vacuuming is important because the goal is to remove soils as quickly as they get into your carpet. The longer soil stays in your carpet, the more potential damage it can cause to your carpet.
Once-a-month routine maintenance. This step involves vacuuming and spot cleaning. Although these two methods should be employed everyday, i.e. spot cleaning should be done the moment the spill happens, once a month you should do a more thorough version of your everyday practices. Routine maintenance requires you to focus on cleaning high traffic areas, treating old stains, and re-conditioning the carpet.
Every six months interim maintenance. The focus of this step is extracting the deep-seated soil that has settled into the deeper layers of the carpet, especially the high-traffic areas. The use of methods such as pre-spraying, shampooing, bonnet cleaning, and extraction cleaning allows the carpet to get deeply scrubbed until it looks new again.
Bonnet cleaning is best for removing surface soils quickly, as the area can then be used again in a short time due to fast drying. However, the use of an extraction machine after vacuuming is more preferred for this step. The hot water extraction machine can treat larger soiled spots, traffic areas, and deeply embedded soils more effectively, although a longer drying time is needed.
Yearly restorative maintenance. This step involves methods similar to interim maintenance but this time not only the problem spots are considered, but the entire carpet area. For this task, you will need to employ the hot water extraction method using a cleaner specially formulated for extraction plus a soil retardant.
Application of this annual schedule as a guide for your carpet cleaning can help you maintain your carpet properly, ensuring it is kept clean and in great shape for years to come.