Carpets need cleaning on a regular basis to keep them free of dirt and debris, to enhance their appearance and to make them last a long time. Knowing how to clean your carpets correctly is important, however, because they can easily become damaged if you don’t use the right techniques or processes. At our professional carpet cleaning company in London, we’re always happy to advise our customers on how they can keep their carpets clean, and how to look after them properly and carefully. In particular, here are some tips that we recommend not to do when cleaning your carpet.
1. Leaving spills until later
If something gets spilled on a carpet, such as food or drink, and you’re busy or tired, it could well cross your mind to leave it until later. But this is one of the worst things that you can do.
When spillages occur, time is of the essence, and you really do need to sort them out straight away before they have a chance to set into the carpet. Once this happens, they will be much more difficult to remove.
Even if you don’t have time right now to sort out any carpet stains, get in touch with our carpet cleaning North London business, and we’ll be happy to quickly step in and help.
2. Scrubbing at stains
One of the worst things that you can do when tackling carpet stains is to scrub them. This can not only be damaging for the fibres in a carpet, causing them to become worn, but the scrubbing action could spread the stain out wider and deeper into the carpet, making things ten times worse than before.
The best thing you can do is gently blot the stain with a clean absorbent cloth, working inwards in circular motions to draw out as much of the liquid from the carpet as possible. If in doubt, give our helpful carpet cleaning Wembley team a call.
3. Soaking the carpet
When trying to clean a carpet, you could be tempted to think that the more water you use on the carpet, the better the results. This is incorrect. In fact, too much water applied to a carpet can be damaging to it, as it can lead to fabric discoloration and could cause mould and mildew to grow at the bottom of the carpet.
You actually don’t need to use that much water when cleaning a carpet, for example, at our carpet cleaning company in London we use steam cleaning machines which barely use any water when deep cleaning carpets, yet the results are amazing, and a carpet won’t take long to dry!
4. Not vacuuming first
Whenever you decide to clean a carpet, one thing you should always remember to do is to vacuum it first. This will pick up the loose dry dirt particles, such as dust, grit, soil and sand, preventing it from sinking deeper into the carpet, or turning it into wet muck that will be harder to remove if you apply a cleaning solution to the carpet later on.
5. Using products that aren’t right for your carpets
It’s a good idea to exercise caution when using shop-bought carpet cleaning or stain removal products, because the results can be variable and may not give you the clean, fresh appearance in your carpets that you were hoping for.
Moreover, it’s really important to check the label on the bottle to make sure that it’s compatible with the fabrics in your own particular type of carpet. Otherwise, you could end up making your carpet discoloured. Also, make sure that the cleaning product you use is targeted towards the specific type of problems you need to deal with in your carpet.
6. Not doing a patch test first
Another carpet cleaning sin is not doing a patch test on your carpet first before applying a cleaning product to it. A patch test will check to see how the carpet will react to the solution you are using. Just in case there’s any problems, always carry out the patch test on a hidden, inconspicuous part of the carpet, such as under furniture.
7. Not reading product instructions properly
Preparation is key when it comes to cleaning your carpets, so before you go near your carpets with any type of cleaning solution, make sure that you read the instructions on the label, and stick to the right dosage and dilution amounts as advised by the manufacturer.
You could be forgiven for thinking that the more solution you apply to the carpet, the easier it will be to tackle the dirt or stains present. However, this won’t be the case at all. In fact, if you apply more cleaning solution to the carpet than is recommended, you could find it more difficult to remove all of the residues from the carpet. This could result in new dirt quickly sticking to the residues, meaning you’ll soon need to clean the carpet again. Therefore, always have in mind that less is more when it comes to using cleaning products on your carpet.
8. Renting a machine
You might be tempted to hire a machine to clean your carpet, but this DIY method isn’t something that we would recommend. It’s not the most efficient way to clean your carpet, and you’ll never get the same quality results compared to using professionals, such as our carpet cleaning Wembley services.
Cleaning a carpet properly is a job that takes skill and expertise, so it stands to reason that you’re never going to get the same superior outcomes compared to using professionals – and bear in mind that you might not be covered for any accidental damage if you clean a carpet yourself!
9. Not hiring a professional
There’s no doubt that looking after your carpets and maintaining them with regular cleaning can help them to last for years, but even if you carry out regular cleaning yourself, this doesn’t mean that you won’t need assistance from professionals for your carpets every now and then.
It’s generally recommended to hire the services of a professional, such as our carpet cleaning North London company, at least once per year, so that your carpets can receive a full, expert deep clean, deodorisation, sanitisation and professional stain removal service. What’s more, our professionals know exactly what to do when cleaning your carpets, and what not to do! Get in touch with Carpet Bright UK today.
