If people in your home suffer allergies, asthma or other respiratory problems, it is important to keep your home surfaces clean. As part of this care, you need your carpet and rugs cleaned by professionals. Your carpets hold dangerous particles that can affect breathing, namely allergens, mold and pollutants. These particles linger in your rugs, curtains, upholstered furniture and on other fibers, too.
DIY vs. Having Your Carpet and Rugs Cleaned by Professionals
You can certainly rent a machine for this job, yourself. But these low quality units do not really get your carpet and rugs cleaned of contaminants. They only clean the surface of your fabrics and floor coverings. The rental uses hot water, but the water does not sanitize and leaves germs in place. A rental’s vacuum suctions much of the water, but also leaves enough of this to cause bigger problems, such as mold growth.
Professional carpet and upholstery cleaners follow federal health guidelines by sanitizing your floors and fibers using liquid steam. This steam is 240 degrees Fahrenheit. Using steam and more powerful suction than any rental unit provides, the pros remove and render allergens, viruses and mold powerless, at the same time.
This means that the do-it-yourself equipment almost causes more problems than good. These mask the lack of sanitizing with a surface clean. Your carpet and rugs look a little better from above. But down below and deep in the fibers, pollutants and irritants build up, making your loved ones’ allergies and asthma worse.
Four Ways Keeping Floor Coverings Clean Improves Home Health
Below, we explore the top four ways keeping your carpet and rugs cleaned improves your family’s health.
1. Routine Cleaning and Professional Cleaning Together Reduce Allergens
You cannot just run a vacuum over your floors and expect to call your carpet and rugs cleaned. True maintenance of your floors for optimum health means combining good routine vacuuming practices with cleaning by the pros.Because your carpet and rugs absorb allergens from the air in your home, you need to pull these out of the fibers regularly. At least several times per week, use a quality HEPA filtered vacuum. Run the vacuum cleaner over each part of your floors twice to first loosen debris from the fibers and then suction it out. In the process, you will pick up much of the pollen, pet dander, dust mites and irritants from your floors.
Have your carpet and rugs cleaned by the pros once every three to six months to back up your home efforts. Also have them clean upholstery, curtains and other fabrics at least once per year.
2. Good Carpet Cleaning Practices Reduce Dirt
Allergens and irritants are not the only problems requiring carpet and rugs cleaned regularly. Dirt is a big issue, too. When people wear shoes into your house, the dirt on those shoes carries breathing contaminants with it. The dirt also makes your floor fibers look dingy. By vacuuming several times per week or even daily according to your home traffic, you can keep dirt levels at a minimum.Also place mats at your entrances for visitors to wipe their feet. When possible, maintain a “no shoes” policy in your household for the sake of people with respiratory problems. Maintain the quarterly to biannual professional carpet cleaning routine, to supplement these efforts. It is always important to draw the deep contaminants like dirt from your carpet.
3. Reduce Mold with Professional Carpet Cleaning Services
Mold is a major problem for people with breathing problems. You should never allow your floor coverings to remain wet for longer than 24 hours. This allow mold and mildew to grow in the carpet base and underneath it. In return your allergies, asthma and mold-related problems increase.Always blot spills immediately without spreading the liquid. Avoid using rental carpet cleaners that do not remove all liquid. Call your pro carpet cleaners for help getting your carpet and rugs cleaned, specifically deep-clean. Their machines draw out unseen mold.
4. Reduce VOCs through Pro Cleaning
Volatile organic compounds (VOCs) are the chemicals in your home, brought in by cleaning products, heavy plastics and paints. These chemicals get trapped in your carpet fibers. By maintaining your carpet through routine professional cleaning, you can live in your home without worrying about these unseen irritants.
Progreen Carpet Cleaning provides professional carpet and upholstery cleaning services to keep your whole household breathing more easily. Call us for a quote today at 919-332-3039.