Carpet maintenance tips

Your carpeting could well be one of the biggest investments you ever make in your home, and although you may not think about it too much, it does make the difference between a clean looking and a shabby looking household. It can also brighten up dark rooms, as well as helping to make your living space a lot more comfortable.

Therefore it is important to choose and maintain your carpets very carefully.

When choosing your new carpets it is important to consider a couple of things..

1) Which room is the carpet for?

Simple enough to answer, but take into account the amount of traffic for that particular area, if the carpet is to be laid in your entrance hall then you could consider a hard wearing carpet such as a Berber which is a looped carpet that provides a natural look and is produced in many styles.

2) Does the carpet need underlay?

Some carpets come complete with underlay while for others this needs to be bought separately. It is imperative that the underlay is of sound quality as this will help your carpets stay supported as well as being an important factor in heat insulation and sound proofing.

Keeping your new carpets looking like new is really quite easy if you follow these simple steps.

1) Protect your carpet with a good quality doormat.

This will vastly decrease the amount of dry soil brought into your home on shoes.

2) Vacuum your carpets on a regular basis.

Concentrate this particularly on high traffic areas. Your carpet will simply wear out quicker if the dry soil is not removed and this can be very abrasive on your carpet fibres so vacuum vacuum vacuum!

3) Use the services of a professional carpet cleaner.

The time scale of this really depends on your household. If there are 2 adults and 2 children then you may want to have them cleaned every 12 months. If you are smokers then you need a good carpet cleaning every 6 months. Got pets as well? Then consider a maintenance plan whereas your professional carpet cleaner could clean for you every 6 months including high traffic areas every 3 months. This will ensure that your carpets last longer and, even more importantly, stay healthy longer. This is because your carpeting acts like a filter, removing air borne particles and dust from the air. Clear this from your carpet and your air in turn will be cleaner too.

Dave Power, DirtBusters (carpet cleaning Liverpool)