How Often
Should You Vacuum?
Frequent vacuuming can help keep your home dust free and carpets in good
condition. Vacuuming also keeps soil from getting embedded into your carpet fiber where it
is more difficult to remove and can even cause damage. Manufacturers suggest that dirt
left in carpet can cause it to look faded and dull. For rooms with heavy traffic, vacuum traffic
lanes twice a week and the rest of the area weekly. Areas with heavier traffic may
even need to be vacuumed every day. Key
Ingredient to Good Vacuuming... the Vacuum!
Whatever you do, don't use a poor quality vacuum on any carpet! Investing in
a good vacuum not only prolongs the life of your carpet, but also keeps your rooms cleaner
and makes vacuuming less tedious. Vacuums with a rotating brush or combination beater /
brush bar, that agitates the carpet pile and mechanically loosens soil, are ideal. For
wool or wool-blend carpeting, bristles may wear down the carpet fibers. For these carpets,
a vacuum-only model is recommended. For loosening dirt, some experts recommend a pilator,
or rake, to prepare the carpet for vacuuming and enhance its surface by keeping the yarns
lofted. Also use a vacuum that keeps dirt off of floors, such as one with a
Hepa-filtration system. There's no sense in using an older style vacuum that pulls dirt
away from your floors only to send it back into the air again.
Use Quality Bags
To trap smaller particles, like mold, mildew and other allergenic particles, you may want
to pay a little more for a micro filtration bag, sometimes called Micro-Lined or Micro-Clean
bags. Good quality bags keep dirt off of floors and furniture.
How Much Should You Vacuum?
Light soiling only requires two to three passes, depending on the quality of your vacuum.
Heavily soiled areas may require five to seven passes. It is also recommended that heavy
vacuuming should be done more slowly to work particles away from the carpet. The more
diligent you are about vacuuming, the longer you can stretch the interval between
professional cleanings.
Professional Cleaning
Consider that cooking vapors, air pollution, light grease and other dirt can build up on
your carpets. Vacuums simply can't remove all the dirt. For these occasions, use a
professional carpet cleaner to keep your carpets clean. Two types of systems are used by
professional carpet cleaners: Deep Cleaning, which uses a hot water or steam
extraction method, and Light Surface Cleaning, which uses either a semi-moist
powder, worked into the carpet, then extracted, or a carbonated or foam cleaning method.
While Light Surface Cleaning is adequate for normal professional cleaning, they leave
build up in the carpet and a Deep Cleaning should be used after every three Light Surface
Cleanings or so. |