The thought persists that you should wait as long as possible before cleaning new carpet. Why? It’s said that the carpet will never be the same again, that it will get dirty faster and lose its stain resiliency. This is actually false, and doing so could actually ruin your carpet.
Believe it or not, your carpet is full of very fine, sand-like soil that is really just pulverized dirt and debris that gets tracked in from outside. This soil builds up pretty rapidly, so it doesn’t take long before it’s present even in new carpet.
The problem is, it’s very gritty and abrasive, and as you walk on your carpet (even without shoes), it grinds away at the fibers, creating a traffic lane. If you don’t believe me, find a heavily trafficked carpeted area in your home. Get down on your hands and knees, spread the fibers far apart, and look deep into the carpet, down to the backing. As you examine it, you’ll see little particles of sand-like dirt.
A good vacuum will remove a lot of this gritty soil, but it won’t remove all of it. That’s why carpet–even new carpet–should be professionally cleaned on a regular basis. Professional-grade equipment and techniques can remove much of this soil, saving your carpet from a lot of grinding wear-and-tear.
Now, it is true your carpet can lose some stain resiliency after a professional cleaning, but that’s easily fixed with a reapplication of Scotchgard. However, a common complaint involves re-soiling, not stain resiliency. In other words, many folks have noticed their carpet seems to get dirty after it’s been cleaned. If that happens–and it does happen–it means the cleaning technician did something wrong.
He either used too much pre-treatment or didn’t rinse it all from the carpet. It dries as a sticky, soapy residue that grabs onto dirt, forming dingy looking traffic lanes. This should not be considered a normal problem. A good, reputable cleaner will make sure this never happens. Unfortunately, the bad eggs in this industry have done this far too many times, ultimately scaring the general public away from having new carpets cleaned. Thus, the myth persists that you should hold off as long as possible before having your carpet cleaned.
Finally, you should be aware that the two major manufacturers–Shaw and Mohawk–actually require you to have your carpet professionally cleaned at least once a year in order to maintain the warranty. Obviously, they know best about their own product, so it would be wise to follow their advice. Failure to clean your new carpeting can not only void the warranty, but you could end up with severe worn-out traffic lanes that are not fixable.
If you have carpet cleaning needs, whether your carpet is new or old, please call me today and set up an appointment. I’ll make sure you’ll completely avoid the most common problems people face when having their carpet cleaned, and you can rest assured you won’t fall victim to worn-out traffic lanes.