What’s Hiding In Dirty Carpets That Don’t Get Cleaned?

The carpeting in your office or home can suffer a lot of wear and tear. Foot traffic, dirt ground into the carpet fibers, spills, and stains can all cause noticeable problems. Though really, these are just the obvious things that are easy to see.

In truth, there are a lot of other things hiding deep down in your carpets. Especially, if you’re a little lax about routinely cleaning them, or giving them the occasional deep clean that they need to stay clean, healthy, and fresh!

If you’ve been thinking about improving your carpet cleaning routine in your home or office, but you aren’t sure just how serious you need to be, you should consider some of the following problems hiding in your dirty carpet

Sand & Grit Wears Down Carpet Fibers

If you take a close look at your carpet with a magnifying glass, you’d likely find a plethora of sand and grit hiding in the pile of your carpet fibers. It isn’t always visible. Yet this grit and sand are inevitably grinding your carpet every time you walk or sit on your carpet.

If your carpet isn’t thoroughly deep cleaned, or your daily cleaning is done with an insufficient, weak vacuum cleaner, then this grit will continue to build up. Given enough time, it will shorten the lifespan of your carpets, needing early replacement.

Bacteria, Germs & Microbes Make A Home In Your Carpet

Accidental spills and stains can add moisture and organic matter to your carpet that bacteria, germs, and even mold can exploit to thrive. In some cases, the carpet can even start to trap damaging air pollutants like pollen, fungi, chemicals, bacteria, and other unpleasant residues.

Of course, once the carpet gets loaded with these microbial materials, a low-quality vacuum cleaner can pick these germs up and spread them through the air. This is why a lot of professional cleaning services use HEPA filters to trap particulate matter. Not only does this pull the germs and dust out of your carpet, but it traps it to prevent it from spreading through the air.

Carpet Hides Indoor Allergens

It’s very easy for a home or office carpet to become increasingly infested with dust mites, dust mite droppings, and other particulate matter that can trigger asthma attacks. Sometimes these trapped allergy-inflaming proteins can also trigger eczema and rhinitis attacks. This can be especially concerning in homes and office settings where someone has a chronic respiratory condition.

Road Salt Hiding in Carpets

A lot of northern states use road salt and chemical compounds like magnesium chloride or calcium chloride to deal with sidewalk ice. The problem is, that family members, office employees, and guests track these things into your home or office space. Once they are tracked beyond your entryway floormats, these road salt chemicals can wreak havoc on your carpets.

Not only can they damage the carpet fibers just like sand and grit, but they can also start to affect the color and texture of your carpeting. If they aren’t removed in a reasonable timeframe, you will likely notice a graying or white discoloration in your high-traffic areas. Given enough time, this can become a permanent change. Not to mention the very real threat of these road salt chemicals continuing to spread from high traffic areas to the rest of your home or office.

The Norovirus Can Permeate Carpeting

The Norovirus (Norwalk Virus) is an aggressive type of virus that attacks the digestive system. It causes symptoms that are very similar to food poisoning and the stomach flu. Unfortunately, the norovirus can survive on your carpet for up to 4 to 6 weeks. It can even become airborne when people walk across it, or your low-quality vacuum cleaner sprays it out into the air.

If someone with the Norovirus can’t make it to the bathroom, and they make a mess on your carpets, it can prove to be a serious risk to the digestive health of all your family members or employees. Compounding this problem is the fact that most retail-grade cleaners simply don’t have the disinfecting potency to kill all traces of Norovirus in carpet fibers!

How Often Do Your Carpets Need To Be Cleaned?

Just how often your carpets need to be vacuumed will depend on the amount of foot traffic your home or office sees in a given week. Once a week is wise to help pull up a modest amount of grime, sand, dust, and allergens.

Just make sure you are using a high-quality vacuum with a HEPA filter. Low-quality, old-fashioned vacuum cleaners that use a porous bag liner tend to just spray dust, allergens, and microbes into the air. Not only do they fail to do a good job of cleaning your carpets, but they can cause more harm than good to the respiratory health of everyone who shares your indoor space!

How Often Do Your Carpets Need To Be Deep Cleaned?

Building Services Inc. recommends having your carpets professionally deep cleaned at least every 6 months. Though high traffic offices, schools, and places of public accommodation with high foot traffic, might want to step that schedule up to have their carpets professionally deep cleaned every three months.

This sort of seasonal cleaning will help pull up any lingering residue from things like road salt and other chloride-based ice chemicals. It will also pull sand, grit, and dangerous microbes out of the carpet fibers to extend the overall life of your carpet’s pile.

Why You Should Choose To Have Your Carpets Professionally Cleaned

When you turn the care of your carpets over to a professional cleaning company like Building Services Inc. you can rest assured that highly trained professionals are using commercial-grade equipment to meticulously clean your carpets.

This starts with our commercial-grade vacuum cleaners that have HEPA filtration systems built in. This traps dust, grit, allergens, and microbes without spreading them into the air. We also have highly effective stain removing, disinfecting, and deodorizers that will restore the look and health of even the most tarnished carpeting.