Your carpet is one of the most important features of your home. It may not be as eye-catching as a feature or furniture, but it can make a large difference to your home looking clean and fresh.

A simple but highly effective tip to maintaining your carpet is to use doormats at entrances to your home. It is also a good idea to have a mat at any transition from a hard surface onto carpet, as it greatly reduces the amount of soil transferred onto your carpet.

The most important piece of advice in carpet care is however, vacuuming. Vacuuming should be carried out regularly and thoroughly, particularly on areas where the carpet receives heavy traffic. Wear of carpeting is increased by the amount of soil that is trampled into it; oily soil being the worst offender.

Frequent vacuuming prevents the soil build up and thus giving you clean results each time. The longer you leave the vacuuming, the less clean you will be able to get your carpet. Slow and firm strokes with the vacuum will achieve more than hurrying, and should aim to complete four passes of the backward and forward motion over the same area for a thorough clean.

If the carpet has not been cleaned thoroughly in some time, it is likely that your home portable vacuum cleaner will not be up to the job. Please see our Carpet Cleaning Service for further details. It is recommended to maintain a long life for your carpet that it should receive a deep clean every 12 - 18 months.

To avoid dents and depressions from heavy furniture or large objects the best piece of advice is to move their position slightly from time to time. This not only helps avoid dents, but also reduces wear through regular traffic areas.

In the instance where your carpet has already been grooved, brush the dented carpet or try to loosen it with a grooming tool. Then using a steam iron and holding it about 2/3 inches above the carpet, steam the area and tuft up the dent with your fingers. If the carpet contains any kind of acrylic, you can set a hair dryer to warm instead as steam could melt the fibres.

Traffic Areas
Traffic areas are those places where people are regularly walking or working. On many occasions, even after cleaning, traffic areas still look darker compared to less used areas. This is known as "traffic lane gray". Traffic Lane Gray is different from regular soiling because the darkness is not caused by soiling or dirt, but by scratched carpet fibers that no longer reflect as much light as the rest of the carpet. There is not much that a carpet care expert can do with traffic lane gray. The only way to treat this condition is to prevent it. To prevent it you must limit wear on your carpet, which can be acheived by moving furniture and helping to avoid regular traffic areas.

General Wear and Tear
Taking care and maintaining your carpet will extend its life and preserve its appearance for many years. Clean carpets contribute to a healthy indoor environment and if maintained properly, will look better and last longer! All carpets will eventually show signs of wear. This can create the illusion of soiling which often causes frustration and misunderstanding between homeowners and carpet care experts. Remember, when a 5 year old carpet is cleaned, the result is a clean 5 year old carpet!

Help prolong the life of your carpet
The most important piece of advice in carpet care is vacuuming. Vacuuming should be carried out regularly and thoroughly, particularly on areas where the carpet receives heavy traffic. Wear of carpeting is increased by the amount of soil that is trampled into it; oily soil being the worst offender. Frequent vacuuming prevents the soil build up and thus giving you clean results each time.

The longer you leave the vacuuming, the less clean you will be able to get your carpet. Slow and firm strokes with the vacuum will achieve more than hurrying, and should aim to complete four passes of the backward and forward motion over the same area for a thorough clean.

A good vacuum cleaner that features high-efficiency filtration (HEPA) will also help in acheiving a thorough clean. A vacuum with hepa filtration retains 99.97% of anything 0.3 microns or bigger and stops it from being circulated back into the air you breathe. Correct brush height is also necessary to spread the fibers and remove embedded soils.

Rented equipment and personally owned machines are acceptable for use in rinsing spots and spills but should never be thought of as a replacement for regular professional cleaning.