Allergies are very common in the UK, and it’s estimated that as many as 44% of adults and half of all children experience at least one allergy condition. Living with allergies can certainly be hard, and finding ways to reduce the number of allergens in the home will be important for any sufferer. If you’ve got an allergy, carpet cleaning might be something of a concern, leaving you wondering whether it could set off your allergies. Here’s everything you need to know about this pertinent topic.
1. The link between carpet cleaning and allergies
Carpet cleaning has been linked to triggering allergy symptoms in some people because certain cleaning chemicals used on carpets can contain toxic or harmful substances that can affect your health.
Even if you don’t have direct contact with the chemicals during the actual cleaning process, if they aren’t fully removed from the carpet at the end of cleaning, you could come into contact with residues left in fibres afterwards.
Allergies such as contact dermatitis, asthma or allergic rhinitis can all be triggered by allergens from cleaning chemicals and detergents used on carpets, causing symptoms such as itchy skin, a runny nose, watery eyes, a sore throat, breathing problems and even an asthma attack.
However, not getting your carpets cleaned because you’re worried about coming into contact with potential allergens is not a good strategy, and could actually end up making your symptoms worse!
2. Carpets and allergens
Living with unclean carpets is a real no-no if you suffer from allergy-related conditions, because the dense, thick weave of a carpet provides the ideal place for allergens to gather. Dust mites, pet dander and pollen are just some of the culprits that can proliferate in your carpets, whilst putting your health at risk.
Worse still, these allergy-triggering organisms aren’t visible, so even if a carpet looks clean, it could still have allergens present in it.
Allergens in carpets also have a tendency for not just staying in the carpet. As a carpet is walked on, allergens can get kicked into the air or transferred into other rooms that might not even have carpets, spreading them around your home.
Therefore, getting your carpets regularly cleaned is really important to reduce your exposure to the number of allergens and irritants that can build up in a carpet over time.
3. Non-allergenic carpet cleaning
So you can benefit from clean carpets without any allergens, finding a carpet cleaning company that uses non-allergenic cleaning solutions and allergy-safe methods is key. When you’re deciding which pro carpet cleaning London company to choose, ask about their cleaning methods and whether they cater for people with allergies.
A lot of companies acknowledge that many people suffer from allergies and don’t want their carpets cleaned using substances that could trigger an allergic reaction, so finding allergy carpet cleaning London specialists, like Carpet Bright UK, shouldn’t be too difficult.
It’s often the inferior cleaning companies that charge dirt cheap prices for their work that might still use old-fashioned methods of cleaning that involve the use of allergy-triggering chemicals and toxic detergents.
4. Benefits of steam cleaning
It just so happens that one of the most effective methods for deep cleaning carpets these days also happens to be non-allergic, so it’s good news for you and your carpets, and bad news for any allergens living in your carpets.
Welcome to steam cleaning! This method is completely chemical-free, so no toxic, allergenic substances are used during the cleaning process. It involves applying heated steam to a carpet at a high pressure, which is powerful and effective enough to dislodge the ingrained dirt and debris from a carpet, in a totally safe and dependable way.
Better still, the heat from the cleaning process kills allergens in carpets as well as other unhealthy organisms such as bacteria and germs.
Even people who suffer from very severe allergies won’t be at risk from steam cleaning because it’s a natural, safe, eco-friendly, non-allergic way to refresh and deep clean your carpets. This is our preferred method for cleaning carpets at Carpet Bright UK.
5. Exposure to mould and mildew
Any cleaning method that involves applying water to a carpet can put it at increased risk of mould and mildew growing, which can trigger allergy symptoms – so does this mean that steam cleaning, which uses hot water, could potentially aggravate allergies by encouraging these harmful spores to develop?
The good news is that the latest models of steam cleaning machines that we use at our pro carpet cleaning London business don’t use a lot of water when steam cleaning your carpets. Furthermore, the high-pressure vacuum function of the machine sucks out the moisture from the carpet, so it’s almost touch dry by the end of cleaning. This means that harmful mould and mildew are less likely to be a problem in your carpets after we’ve cleaned them, as they won’t be left damp for long enough for this to grow.
6. A word on vacuuming
When it comes to preventing exposure to carpet-dwelling allergens, it’s worth considering what sort of vacuum cleaner you might use at home. Buying a machine that is HEPA rated means that it will pick up more allergens living in a carpet compared to vacuum machines that don’t have a high-filtration capacity.
Getting your carpets professionally cleaned at least once or twice per year by allergy carpet cleaning experts like Carpet Bright UK not ensures that the deep cleaning methods used will destroy the allergens in your carpets, but our professionals use industrial vacuum cleaners that are much more powerful than the average vacuum machine. This ensures that even greater amounts of allergens can be taken out of your carpets through our professional cleaning.
7. Allergy-friendly carpets
By managing your allergy, carpet cleaning London professionals like us can help to reduce the number of harmful allergens in your carpets and floating around your home. But, you can also lower the amount of allergens that find their way into your carpets by opting for low-pile carpets instead of high-pile ones, as they trap fewer allergens. It’s also thought that synthetic fibre carpets like nylon are less inviting to allergens than natural material carpets such as wool.
Speak to the team at Carpet Bright UK for allergy-friendly carpet cleaning solutions you can trust.
