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Carpet Carpet Care Grit is the enemy Failure to remove grit is the leading cause of premature carpet failure. Fine particles of grit cut carpet fibers each time the carpet is stepped on. Mats should be used at all entry points to trap grit upon entry and reduce the amount that reaches the carpet. Importance of Vacuuming The most important factor for owner maintenance is vacuuming on a regular basis. I recommend using a vacuum with an effective HEPA filtration system capable of trapping particles of 1 micron in size or smaller. The vacuum should have a revolving brush or beater bar to agitate the carpet fibers to loosen these contaminates and sufficient suction to capture them. Machines in this class usually sell for more than $250 but you may be able to find one for less if you shop carefully. Once you own one of these vacuums, you must use it properly to realize the benefit it provides. Don't vacuum if you only have few minutes to get it done. Most people look for apparent soil on the surface and think that if the visible soil is removed, they are operating the vacuum properly. Visible soil is not the only reason you're vacuuming. You're attempting to capture invisible contaminants to prevent dispersing them back into the air as well as removing grit that has settled into the carpet. Pass the vacuum over the fibers slowly enough for the machine to pick up the contaminants. Most upright machines in this category have a removable cleaning wand with several attachments. This same vacuum can be used to effectively vacuum upholstered fabrics and draperies. Even though there is less agitation when using an attachment, the vacuum will remove significant amounts of invisible contaminants. Frequency of vacuuming will depend on your lifestyle. Spills must be removed immediately Spots should be removed from carpet as soon as they are visible. Failure to do so may result in permanent stains. See the section on Spot Removal for instructions. Professional Cleaning Carpets should be professionally cleaned on a regular basis to remove the contaminants that vacuuming cannot remove. Although the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency recommends cleaning carpets every 6 months, frequency of cleaning will depend on a number of factors such as how many people live in the home, how many pets live in the home, how much traffic the home gets, eating habits (are food and beverages allowed throughout the house) and weather conditions. A professional cleaner can evaluate your carpet and life style and recommend a cleaning interval to suit your needs. See the section on Carpet Cleaning Methods for details about the different methods available. back to top Carpet Cleaning Methods You can choose from two primary methods of cleaning carpets: dry cleaning or wet cleaning. Dry Cleaning First, I'll explain dry cleaning. Many people believe that dry cleaning your carpet is like dry cleaning your clothing. This is not true. All carpet cleaning methods use water in one from or another. Dry cleaning systems just use less. There are the three methods that are frequently referred to as dry cleaning carpet. Dry Foam Method When a carpet cleaner uses the dry foam method, a shampoo is applied to your carpet and agitated to solubolize soil which is suspended in the shampoo. It is allowed to dry and then vacuumed from the carpet. The problem is that the shampoo never dries completely. This method can leave a residue in your carpet, which is one reason dry foam is not very popular. This method is sometimes combined with hot water extraction to remove the shampoo and soil. When used in this way, the system can provide acceptable results. Bonnet Method The bonnet method can be used with different types of cleaners. Cleaner is applied to the carpet and then extracted with bonnets or towels. Using a machine, the bonnet or towel is agitated to absorb the soil that has been released from the carpet fibers by the cleaner. The bonnets or towels are changed frequently as they become saturated. Due to the mechanical action of the bonnets or towels on the carpet fibers, this system tends to wipe the fibers thoroughly. These systems are low moisture systems and carpets typically dry in 1 to 2 hours. There are many cleaners available for use with this system and some of them leave soil attracting residue behind that will result in rapid resoiling of the carpet. Therefore, care must be exercised is selecting a cleaner which will not leave a residue. This is the system I use along with a residue free cleaning solution. This method removes that last difficult to remove soil that adheres to the fiber because it actually wipes the carpet fibers clean. Dry Compound Method The dry-compound method spreads an absorbent mixture that looks like laundry detergent powder on the carpet. (If you hold a quantity of the material in your hand and squeeze it, you can tell that the powder contains moisture.) Then, a specialized machine is used to brush the mixture into the carpet. Soil is released by the small amount of liquid in each granule and adheres to the granule as the moisture evaporates. When the mixture has dried, a vacuum cleaner is used to remove the dry material from the carpeting. Because of the low moisture content, this method is not very effective when attempting to clean heavily soiled carpet. The granular residue cannot be completely removed by one vacuum pass and remains in the carpet for a long time. Carpets are dry almost instantly using this system. Wet Cleaning The second carpet cleaning method is called wet cleaning. This is a fancy way of saying that a hot water cleaning solution under high pressure is forced into the carpet and then sucked out of the carpet. This method is also referred to as steam cleaning even though steam is not used. Proper use of this method requires pretreatment of carpet with a cleaner, agitation of the cleaner on the carpet, and then using the hot water extraction equipment to rinse the cleaner from the carpet. The extraction equipment may be portable or truck mounted. Some "bait and switch" cleaners use nothing but water to clean. If hot water won't remove the soil, they try to sell you the "deep scrub" method for more money. That's right, they want more money if they're gonna' use soap. Sometimes, the "deep scrub" method costs more than twice as much as their "regular" method. Still other cleaners add cleaners and other chemicals to the water in the hot water extraction equipment and only make one pass over the carpet. Cleaner residue is left in the carpet and will reattract soil rapidly. It's like putting clothes in a washer and taking them out before the rinse cycle and saying they're clean! Carpets cleaned using hot water extraction typically dry in 6 to 12 hours if cleaned properly. However, drying time can exceed 12 hours if enough vacuum passes are not made. The most important factor in achieving satisfactory results with this system is the skill of the technician doing the cleaning. back to top Spot Removal What is the difference between a Spot and a Stain? Spots are removable and stains are permanent. What are spots? A soluble residue left on fibers causes spots. They are soluble in either water or solvent. Is the fabric colorfast? Most carpets are colorfast in either water or solvent. However, it is necessary to know whether carpet or upholstered fabric is colorfast in the presence of the spot cleaner you intend to use. If you attempt to remove a spot with water from a non-colorfast fabric, you will remove color. Therefore, you should test any cleaning product you intend to use on carpet or upholstery in an inconspicuous area. If any color transfers to the cloth or towel you applied it with, the material is not colorfast. Observe the test area after it has dried completely. Look for color loss and bleeding of one color into another. If none of these conditions are observed, it is probably safe to use the spot cleaning product. Which spotting product should I use? There are many spot cleaning products on the market. How do you choose? My personal observation is that many of them leave soil attracting residue unless the treated area is rinsed well after spot removal. Some contain so much optical brightner that it appears the treated area has been mildly bleached. My personal recommendation for removing water soluble spots is Club Soda. The carbonation in the Club Soda releases the spot for absorption into a terry cloth or paper towel and leaves no residue. Its cost effective and it works. However, once the fizz is gone, it is no longer effective. How should I remove spots? This procedure applies to any spill no matter whether it is water or solvent soluble. Start by removing any bulk material with a spatula or spoon. With a white terry cloth or paper towel, blot as much of the excess from the carpet or fabric as possible. After testing for colorfastness, proceed as follows unless the fabric is not colorfast in water. If this is the case, proceed to Solvent soluble spots. Water soluble spots If you don't know what caused the spot, start here. Food, beverage, urine, and similar spots that are water soluble should be dampened thoroughly with Club Soda. Using white terry cloth or paper towel, blot the area until no more liquid transfers to the towel. If the spot is still visible, apply more Club Soda and blot again. This technique can be repeated until no more of the material transfers to the absorbent towel. This technique can be used on dried spots as well. Just allow a minute or two after wetting the affected area with Club Soda for the spot to be dissolved before blotting. If these techniques do not remove the spot, it may be solvent soluble. Follow the directions below for Solvent soluble spots. As a last step, place multiple layers of towels over the spot and place a heavy object on top of it overnight to absorb any liquid that remains. Solvent soluble spots For spots such as shoe polish, ink, grease, oil, tar, etc. a solvent may be required to remove the spot. There are a number of solvents commercially available for consumer use, but the one most readily available is Ronson cigarette lighter fluid (not to be confused with butane gas). It contains naphtha and is completely evaporative. NEVER APPLY SOLVENT DIRECTLY TO CARPET OR UPHOLSTERED FABRIC AND ALWAYS USE IN A WELL-VENTILATED AREA AWAY FROM ANY SOURCE THAT COULD IGNITE THE SOLVENT! Apply a small amount of solvent to an absorbent towel and gently wipe the spot from the outer margin toward the center of the spot. Do not scrub as you may abrade the fibers causing permanent damage. Apply solvent to another clean area on the absorbent towel and continue wiping. Continue this process until the spot is no longer visible or there is no transfer of the spot to the absorbent towel. Any solvent residue on the fiber will evaporate rapidly. If the spot remains after using either of these procedures it is probably permanent. However, there are a number of specialty spotting products available to professional carpet cleaners which may be capable of removing the spot. Call me for advice at 919-369-5560. back to top Selecting Carpet All too often, sales people are not knowledgeable about maintenance of the products they sell and sometimes make purchase recommendations that don't take lifestyles into consideration. I urge you to shop carefully for a knowledgeable sales person when making a carpet purchase. The information I've provided here is pretty basic but you can use it to form an opinion as to what might work best for you and what you might want to avoid. Wool Wool, while not the first material used for carpeting, is known for it's durability. It is the most resilient (ability to spring back after being crushed) fiber being used to manufacture carpets today and has some natural ability to repel water. It is available in many styles including berber. Carpet made from wool is relatively easy to maintain but is not typically as stain resistant as most of the synthetic carpets treated with protectors. It is very expensive to purchase but has wear characteristics far superior to carpets made from synthetic fibers. I've never met a person who owned wool carpet that was dissatisfied with it. Synthetics Nylon was the first synthetic fiber to be used in wall to wall carpet. It's resilience is second only to wool. Nylon carpets are acid dyed (in most cases) which means that the colored dye particles bond to the fiber surface thorough chemical reaction. If bleach is applied to fibers dyed in this manner, the dye particles release and the fiber base color (usually yellow) appears. Because Nylon is not died at high temperatures, color loss can often be corrected by spot dying. Carpets made from Nylon hold up in high traffic areas much better than other synthetics and with the best of today's protectors applied, provide excellent resistance to permanent staining. Polyester has gained popularity during the last 10 years due to its price advantage over nylon. Polyester fibers are not as resilient as nylon which means they are more prone to crushing or matting in high traffic areas. However, in carpets with higher pile density, this may not be an issue. Polyester carpets are dyed at much higher temperatures than nylon making the dye more stable and less likely to fade when exposed to direct sunlight. Polyester has a much lower water absorption rate than nylon and has more natural resistance to water based spills. However, oil based spills are much harder to remove from Polyester. One condition that plagues Polyester is an unexplained phenomenon known in the industry as "pooling". The condition usually appears in high traffic areas after a year or more of wear. It appears as an irregular line or pattern where the fibers on one side of the line lay in one direction and fibers on the other side lay in the opposite direction. It may appear to the eye as dark and light areas. Some consumers mistake the dark areas as soiled areas. Manufacturers don't know what causes it to occur and they explicitly exclude it from their warranties as a defect. Olefin, also known as polypropylene, is the latest of the man made fibers used to manufacture carpets. It is the least resilient of the synthetic fibers and must be constructed using high density to avoid crushing and matting. It is heavily used in offices directly over concrete with no pad. The fibers are so short and tightly woven that it wears well in high traffic areas. However, you will most often see it in homes as "berber" carpet. Olefin is solution dyed which means the dye is mixed with liquid olefin before the fiber is formed. This means the color is in the fiber, not on the fiber. Therefore, you can pour bleach on it and the bleach will not remove the color. Thus it gained a reputation as being "bullet proof" among sales people. While it may be "bullet proof" to bleach, it is not "bullet proof" to wear. It is the softest of the synthetic materials and scratches easily. Couple the tendency to scratch easily with very low resilience and you have a fiber that does not hold up well in high traffic areas. It is not unusual to see "berber" style carpet made from olefin fail in high traffic areas within a year or two, especially on steps. Armed with this information, you should be able to look at your need and make a determination as to which fiber will work best for you. For instance, you wouldn't want to select berber for a high traffic area such as a hallway or on steps, while it may hold up very well in a bonus room. Nylon would hold up much better in a hallway or on steps but you may not want to spend the extra money to cover a large bonus room. One other consideration is the density of the carpet. A carpet with more fibers per square inch and shorter pile will generally not show wear as soon as a carpet with less fibers per square inch but longer pile. This general rule applies to all fiber types. back to top 919-369-5560 |
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