
25 Jan Looking After Your New Carpet
If you have bought the carpet of your dreams, you need to know how to take care of it. Read on for all the top tips.
There is more to carpet care than you might think. From the initial laying to the ongoing maintenance, carpets can last for years if you treat them right. Unfortunately, too many of us buy the carpet, have it fitted, and forget about the rest.
The Dangers of a Dirty Carpet
Part of carpet ownership as a householder is to invest in a good vacuum cleaner that you use at least twice a week. If you don’t do this, germs, bacteria, mould and even carpet mites can thrive on your floors. A dirty carpet lowers the air quality in the room. Those germs and bugs will transfer to any other surface of the house if you touch your carpet without washing your hands. Not taking proper care of your carpet turns your home into a biological breeding ground that could see you sick.
How to Look After Your New Carpet?
For the first few vacuums, your carpet will shed. The materials used to make carpets do not secure every fibre to the matting. When you vacuum for the first two or three times, you remove those excess fibres. We call this shedding. If you vacuum a few times a week, this will quickly go away.
Warranties and Guarantees
If you can, buy your carpet from a firm which offers warranties and guarantees on the product. You can protect high traffic areas using rugs, but extra cover against stains can help. Be sure your carpet fitter passes the correct documents to you when they instal your new carpet. Here at Manningtree Tiles and Flooring, we even offer a free measuring service to help your new carpet fitting process to go as smoothly as possible.
Off-Gassing in your New Carpet
Any new furniture/homeware product that has been produced in a factory will off-gas for the first few days. The off-gassing scent is completely harmless, it is simply the smell of ‘elsewhere.’ The scent should be gone within four days.
Cleaning Your New Carpet with Allergies
If you are particularly concerned about allergies, you can try to find a hypo-allergenic carpet that won’t off-gas, or whose off-gassing you know is chemical-free. Allergy sufferers can speed up the release of fine fibres through shedding by vacuuming their new carpet more often than they regularly would in that first week. You might want to think about buying a hypoallergenic vacuum cleaner, too.
What Type of Vacuum Cleaner Should I Use?
If your carpet is a loop pile carpet, it is thicker than others. You can clean them with a pull-along vacuum cleaner, whereas the shorter piled carpets tend to perform better using an upright vacuum cleaner. The thicker the pile is, the harder the machine must work to run across it. Too thick, and an upright vacuum struggles to keep up.
What if I Need to Clean My Carpet?
If your new carpet suffers a spill, spot clean it immediately with a damp cloth. For ingrained stains, consider a steam cleaner or a carpet-friendly stain remover. You should clean your carpets with a carpet cleaner every few months.