What Happens If You Don’t Clean Your Carpets?
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Nothing feels as good under your bare feet as plush, cozy carpeting. But what if you never get around to cleaning your carpets? Just how nasty will they get—and, more importantly, can they become a health hazard?
According to the experts, it's not so much that the carpets themselves will make you sick, it's what carpets can collect that may aggravate underlying health issues, such as allergies and asthma. "Carpeting traps pollen, pet allergens, dust mites, mold spores, and cleaning allergens," says Corrina Bowser, MD, an allergist with Bryn Mawr Medical Specialists Allergy and Immunology. "Whatever is in the air will eventually land on your carpets."
Below, experts from doctors to cleaning professionals share how to clean your carpets to make them last longer, look better, and keep you from getting an allergy attack.
First, Are Carpets Bad For Your Health?
Not necessarily, says Bowser. There are actually some benefits to carpeting, because the fibers can trap some types of allergens from the air, making them less available. "For example, pet allergens are very lightweight, so if you have hardwood floors, every time you walk across them, these allergens are re-suspended and inhaled," says Bowser. "If you use a vacuum with a HEPA filter, you can remove these types of allergens from carpeting."
OK, But What Happens If You Don’t Clean Your Carpets?
There's potentially a whole lot of other stuff in your carpet, too, besides pollen, mold and allergens. "Dust, which collects and remains in carpets, is made up of all types of particles that were airborne, even if briefly, before they settled out," says Brian T. Buckley, PhD, executive director of Environmental and Occupational Health Sciences Institute at Rutgers Global Health Institute. "Air particulate [smoke], soil particles, paint flakes from your wall and even the skin you shed can all become part of the dust that your carpet stores."
Cleaning can remove much of this dirt, and it also helps carpets last longer. "When carpets are new, there are multiple fibers twisted together," says Tyler Brown, president of J & R’s Carpet Cleaning. "Over time, especially in areas where your foot pivots, these fibers separate, giving the area a dirty and worn look. The more you maintain cleaning, the less likely that this will happen."
Keep in mind that many carpet companies have warranties that are honored only if the carpets are cleaned with a hot water extraction method once a year, says Brown. Read the stipulations and understand the specifications required to make sure your warranty stands—then adhere to them.
Fine. So, How Often Should You Clean Your Carpets?
That depends on many factors, including how busy your household is and whether or not you have kids or pets. At minimum, most experts recommend a professional cleaning at least once a year. But if you've got pets tracking in dirt or kids spilling cereal on the floor, you may need to do it more frequently. "With pets or kids, you may want to clean carpets every six months," says Brown.
Can You Clean Your Carpets Yourself?
Yes and no. First of all, despite what you've seen on sitcoms, you should never rub a carpet stain with a wet cloth—you'll untwist the carpet's fibers, damaging it.
You can use a home carpet cleaning machine to tackle a spill or stain. Just follow Brown's pro tip: Put the cleaning solution (the stuff that's meant to be added to the tank) in a spray bottle instead. Then, spritz the spill with the cleaner, use the carpet cleaning machine's cleaning nozzle to wet the area with plain water, and, finally, extract the soap and water from the area using the machine, and repeating until you don't see any suds. "If you use shampoo in the carpet cleaner itself, you’re basically shampooing the carpet, then drying the shampoo into it. This can result in brown stains and re-soiling issues because the carpet remains sticky from the soap residue," says Brown.
An FYI on those rental carpet cleaners: They typically contain residue left in them from other cleanings, so they should be avoided, says Brown. They're also not as powerful as commercial units used by the pros, so you won't be able to extract as much dirt, soap and water as a professional machine can.
How to Keep Your Carpets Clean
Here's a cheat sheet of tips from our experts:
Vacuum regularly, especially high-traffic areas. This prevents grit and other materials from becoming ground in, damaging and un-twisting the carpet fibers.
Use a HEPA vacuum. "If you do not efficiently trap the particles when you vacuum them, they will only become airborne again and restart the process of particulate deposition," says Buckley.
Get carpets cleaned regularly. Every six months to a year is ideal, depending on how active your household is and whether or not you have little ones or pets.
Keep humidity levels low. Some research has shown that carpets may contribute to conditions that are hospitable to microbial growth and dust mites, mainly because of increased moisture levels. For this reason, try to maintain indoor relative humidity below 40 percent (get an inexpensive humidity monitor to check it) to keep down dust mites, says Bowser.
Hire a commercial carpet cleaning firm for deep cleaning. "The difference between a commercial truck-mounted carpet cleaning unit and a personal carpet cleaner is pressure and suction," says Brown. While a commercial vehicle can adjust pressure from 100 PSI to 1200 PSI, most home carpet cleaners are less than 200 PSI, which doesn't provide the same cleaning power and ability to extract water and cleaning solutions.
Consider a no-shoes rule. This prevents many substances, such as heavy metals tracked in from contaminated soils, from being carried indoors on your shoes, says Buckley. It's a common sense solution, but a good one—after all, it's easier to prevent stains than to remove them.
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