How Often Should You Shampoo Carpets?

Carpets in many homes and office are not merely for beautification purposes but to give comfort. During winter months carpets give warmth. Carpet can add to the R-value of your floor's insulation, which will result to lower energy bills and when properly cleaned, carpeted floors can actually help reduce allergy symptoms.

Carpet manufacturers and professional carpet cleaning companies recommend having residential carpets professionally cleaned every 12 to 18 months. There are several factors that affect the frequency of shampooing your carpet. For instance a couple with no children who do little entertaining would not need to shampoo their carpets as frequently as a family with several children who frequently entertain guests. Below are factors to consider in shampooing your carpet.

Pets – the frequency of pet’s access from the outside of your home to your carpeted rooms varies from household to household. Frequent spot cleaning and carpet shampooing is recommended for those homes where pets have unattended access to the outside via a doggy door for it brings significantly more dirt into the house and onto the carpet.

Heavy Traffic Areas - heavily trafficked areas such as the living room or entertainment room gets more foot traffic than a spare bedroom thus need to be shampooed more frequently than their less-used counterparts.

Environment - During periods of heavy rain, it is easy for family members and guests to track mud into the house and onto the carpet. Dry seasons make dust a problem that can settle into the carpets, requiring shampooing.

Knowing how to shampoo carpet properly will help you to get your carpets as clean as possible. Regularly vacuuming the carpets, at least twice a week and more often on heavily trafficked areas, will help remove a great deal of dirt and debris. Spot cleaning stains as soon as they occur will also help to extend the time between shampoos.

What is Carpet Shampoo?

Carpet shampoo refers to more than one cleaning method, carpet shampooer refers to a carpet steam cleaning machine which uses a combination of hot water and a cleaning solution to extract dirt from a carpet.

On the other hand, a commercial carpet shampoo is foam that is sprayed onto a carpet and allowed to dry before being vacuumed. These foam products contain optical brighteners that give the illusion of clean, bright carpet. The truth is that these foams are designed to attract dirt, but unfortunately they leave behind residue that will continue to attract dirt and make the carpet look worse over time.

Therefore using an actual carpet shampoo foam product is considered a poor cleaning method and so the hot water extraction method is preferable.

Cleaning Solutions –cleaners are designed specifically to fight allergens, pet odors, or to clean high traffic areas, for stubborn spots and stains, it can be a good idea to spray on a stain pre-treated before steam cleaning the carpet as usual.

Now a day’s eco-friendly cleaners are preferred by general the public from those commercial cleaners that are chemically based. Plain white vinegar can be used in place of a commercial cleaner that work just as well. The antibacterial and antimicrobial properties in vinegars kill allergens and germs in the carpet.

Another option is to run the steam cleaning machine with hot water only. It is noted that hot water alone removes large amounts of dirt, leaves the carpet looking fresher and brighter, and never leaves behind any residue.