Tip of the Week: Know Your Cleaning Products
Rejus is primarily a company that provides cleaning (among many other services) to commercial and industrial clients. However, in order to support the wider community, we’re going to use the knowledge collected over decades of experience to provide weekly advice for either cleaning or building maintenance.
Read on!
3rd December 2021: Cleaning #2
Proper carpet cleaning not only gives your carpets a longer life but keeps your home fresh, sanitary, and saves you money in the long run. As we’ve learned over the past couple of decades cleaning office carpets, the process is not always as straight forward as we often think. Knowing to give your carpets a good vacuum is just the starting point.
These are just simple every day tips that you might already doing, but if there’s at least one thing that you haven’t thought of, we’re happy to have helped.
1. Vacuum Often
This will depend on the amount of carpeting you’re dealing with but setting a regular schedule for carpet cleaning is a straightforward first step. Dirt, oil, and various debris crowd your carpet fairly quickly and get stuck. The more there is, the more gets trapped, and the quicker your carpet deteriorates.
E.g. Once a week for the most commonly trodden areas of the house. High traffic areas of the house, such as the entrance hallway of a busy home, might need vacuuming twice a week. This is something only you can answer, and once you have that answer, stick to it!
2. Vacuum at the right speed
Although it can be tempting to rush through it and get it over with as quickly as possible, you really need to be taking it slow to pick up as much dirt as possible. Two careful passes over a surface has more of an impact that quickly doing several passes of the vacuum. This is because the higher exposure gives greater opportunity for dirt to be sucked into the mechanism. Go too quickly and it may not take effect at all. It’s a quality over quantity approach.
3. If Possible, Adjust Your Vacuum Height
Having the right height effects, the both the leverage you have on the vacuum, and can often affect the performance of vacuum itself. This works as both a matter of comfort and a necessity for a longer life for the machine itself. When the vacuum is too low it can damage the drive belt and even the roller brush.
Setting the equipment to the right height is a matter of trial and error. One simple trick is to raise the vacuum to its highest setting, switch it on, and lower it to the point where you feel the most pull.
4. Keep dirt on the outside
When you walk across a dirty carpet you’re assisting to grind the dirt itself into the carpet, causing wear and tear, and increasing the chance that dirt or moisture gets stuck. When dirt and moisture get stuck, this can often lead to harmful bacteria and damp building. This is both unhygienic and leaves the carpet more vulnerable to being damaged.
Door mat’s both outside and inside of the main entrance to your house can go a long way. Course textured mats on the outside to scrub off dirt combined with water absorbent mats on the inside is a highly recommended combination.
5. Keep stains off the carpet
Don’t leave liquid stains for later! Getting it done now will save you a lot of hassle later. In fact, this can apply to a lot of cleaning. Using a basic carpet cleaner and cloth should work with most stains, although deeper stains might require pre-treatment. This works to disturb the stain from beneath, making it easier for the cleaner and cloth combo to pick it up.
Liquid Stains such as tea, coffee, and wine should be removed when wet.
Solid Stains such as chocolate and mud will need to be left to dry before they can be scrubbed off properly.
6. Keep harmful chemicals off the carpet
Cheaper is not always better. Sometimes it really is a case of you get what you pay for. Bargain carpet cleaners and multi-use sprays often take shortcuts when it comes to their formula. Always read the label and search anything you’re not sure about. There are no stupid questions!
Often it’s a case of some chemicals or cleaning methods just don’t suit your type of carpet. E.g. We avoid using too much moisture on thin carpet tiles you usually find in offices.
To find out about the more complex approach to commercial carpet cleaning, you can visit our page here.