Carpet maintenance requires some dedication to the process. Who doesn’t want their carpets to be sparkling clean, soft, smelling fresh, and shining stain-free? To maintain a carpet clean and prolong its life span, it’s important to take proper care of those floor coverings. Often people make mistakes when cleaning their carpets due to a lack of knowledge of the specifics for treating each fabric and type of carpet. 

The truth is, it’s a very specific job, and you need to be well-prepared for how to treat each type of carpet if you want to avoid damaging, losing colour, fading patterns or else. Here is what are the most common mistakes people make when cleaning carpets.

Bad practises when clean your carpets

1. Not taking measures fast enough

First of all, incidents happen with our carpets all the time. Whether you have kids or pets or you are having a bad day, often this can result in food or drinks spilt on the carpet.  Whenever this happens, your reaction needs to be really fast! If you want to make sure the stain will go away, then don’t leave it to soak deep into the fabric! Instead, act fast and take care of it. Remove the food, blot and then treat the area with the right products. 

And if it’s about drinks, if you wait for the spill to dry, then the liquid will soak deeply and be absorbed into the carpet padding. The unfortunate results are unpleasant odours or even potential mould growth. 

2. Scrubbing a carpet stain and spreading it

If you are mad about what happened with your carpet, please don’t take it out on it! It’s not the carpet’s fault it got stained, so there is no need to scrub the stain vigorously! This particularly can damage the carpet fibres, and not only will it not remove the stains from the carpet, but it will actually push them deeper into it. 

Scrubbing can also untwist the fibres and cause them to fray. This is definitely a no-go! We recommend blotting the spot and proceeding with caution because careful treatment of the area will give a lot more successful results. 

3. Using the wrong cleaning products

Another common mistake that people make when treating their carpets is using the wrong detergents. It’s tricky when it comes to cleaning products because only experts and people that tried many of the products available know how each works. 

First of all, you need to think about what fibres your carpet is made of and search for a proper product. Then, you’ll need to also check if these products are suitable for darker or lighter colours because this, too, can lead to damage – fading colours or changing them. 

This would be permanent damage, and there will be no coming back from it, so make sure you read all instructions of the product you are about to use. Also, another tip – use some of the cleaning product on a corner of the carpet or below it and see how the material will react to it. This way, you can prevent spreading the product to a more visible place on the carpet. 

4. Using too much of a cleaning product

Speaking of the cleaning products used for carpets, another mistake people make is using too much of them or not enough. While the last can be dealt with, the first one – not so much. The truth is many of those products have chemicals in them, and using a lot of the product can lead to damaging the surface or a buildup of dirt-attracting residue. Overdoing something is as scary as not doing enough. Be careful not to put too much of chemicals or a product on the carpet and damage it permanently. 

5. Not having your carpets professionally cleaned

And last but not least, many people neglect the importance of professional carpet cleaning service or hiring a end of tenancy cleaning company. The truth is if you want to prolong the life span of your carpet, maintain it in good condition all year round, and have a stain-free carpet, then professional carpet cleaning companies are the way to go! You might think renting professional equipment can do the trick, but that’s just another rookie mistake. 

Each carpet requires a different approach to cleaning – hot steam cleaning, dry cleaning, shampooing, or else. The intensity of vacuuming can also lead to damaging if the fabrics of your carpet are too gentle. As you can see for yourself, there are too many specifics that affect the end result. And while renting professional equipment has good intentions and can work out for you, you still need to be careful not to choose the wrong machines. 

And back to professional carpet cleaning – the perks of it are way too much! Experts in carpet cleaning know how exactly to treat each type of carpet – depending on colours, patterns, fabrics, size, etc. They use the right cleaning method suitable for your carpet and rely on eco-friendly and pet (and kids) friendly products that won’t do any damage to your floor covering. Trust the process and make sure you have your carpets cleaned by professionals at least once a year.