Vacuuming Carpet Golden Rules
It sounds silly, but there really is a right way and plenty of wrong ways to do it.
The results of doing it wrongly means carpets that store up dirt particles and cause problems for allergy sufferers. Treading this dirt down into the base layers, will also reduce the lifetime of your beautiful carpet by about half, so here are our professional top tips for the best way to use your vacuum cleaner.
The speed is vital
Go slowly across the room from one side to the other, allowing the beaters to revolve once over each 6 inches of carpet, lifting up the dirt as they go. This will beat the dust out from deep in the tufts, instead of just picking up the bits lying on the top surface.
Never scrub backwards and forwards like using a hover mower.
This won’t pick up any more dirt and will certainly give you backache in the process!
Loop Pile by Suction, Cut End Pile by Beater
Follow this golden rule and you won’t go far wrong. Most vacuum cleaners these days have a beater bar that can be engaged or disengaged, so remember to disengage the beaters on any loop pile carpets in your home.
If not, the beater bars can catch the fibres and over time your carpet will acquire a ‘hairy’ appearance with little threads pulled up from the loops.
Move the furniture
Move chairs and sofas back or sideways to get the whole beater or suction head over the place where shoes rest when sitting. Ideally, change the layout of the room around twice a year, perhaps a summer arrangement with full access to the patio doors wide open on hot summer evenings and a winter arrangement, with upholstered chairs in front of the patio door, and facing a nice warm fake fire for winter.
This will even up the wear and easily double the lifetime of your carpet.
It’s a good way to mark the seasons changing too and encourage the family away from the TV and out into the fresh air.
Patching Worn Carpet Areas
If you have a carpet that has worn bare in certain areas, it is often possible to stitch in a replacement section as a patch. This does depend on the size of the patch, availability of a big enough remnant, and the condition of the surrounding area to disguise the patch.
We are experts in making invisible patches for cigarette burns, bad stains and other accidents, so call us in to have a look and give you a proper no obligation quotation.
Doormats and Slippers
Of course you know that an internal door mat will take most of the dirt and wear and tear, and that taking outdoor shoes off for indoor slippers will also reduce the spread of dust and dirt.
We are based in Loughborough and Leicester if you need any individual expert advice just give us a call: