Tips for Keeping Your Carpet Clean in the Summer

Summer brings more foot traffic; people are getting out more due to the nice weather. This means more customers at your businesses and friends to your home! Where people gather, wear and tear on your carpet and even permanent discoloring from spills can become an issue. Here are the best practices to prevent and remove tough carpet stains, protecting your investment.

How Often Should You Be Vacuuming? Doesn’t Too Much Vacuuming Damage Your Carpet?

When it comes to wear and tear of your carpet, dirt will do more damage to carpet fibers than vacuuming regularly. Overworking your carpet by vacuuming is definitely possible, specifically when you’re doing it wrong.
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The floor settings on your machine are important – most vacuums have a bare floor setting versus carpet, and many distinguish between low, medium and high carpet. These definitely matter as vacuum height settings can affect how well it cleans or the wears on your carpet. Too high and the vacuum can’t pick up the dirt, but too low and you could hurt your carpet. Additionally, it could damage your roller brush or drive belt if you frequently use the wrong setting. If your vacuum doesn’t have automatic height adjustment, and you’re not sure how high or low the setting should be, turn it on the highest setting and then gradually lower it until you can feel the vacuum tugging the carpet.

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To protect your carpet, we recommend vacuuming your residential entranceways and busy areas a minimum of twice a week and the rest of the carpeting at least once a week. For businesses it obviously varies on what type of carpet you have, the traffic patterns of each area and how many people visit your facility. Did you know that up to 24 pounds of dirt can be tracked in by 1,000 people coming through an entrance in just a 20-day work period? That’s a lot of dirt! The longer between vacuums the more soils will build upon themselves whereas consistent vacuuming gets rid of soil collections that will eventually damage your carpet. Your business’s frequency of vacuuming should be determined by your foot traffic.

24 pounds of dirt can be tracked in by 1,000 people coming through an entrance in just a 20-day work period.

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How Often Should You Be Vacuuming? Doesn’t Too Much Vacuuming Damage Your Carpet?

The most important thing to remember is to clean spills and address soils immediately. Never rub a stain as this just pushes the substance further into the carpet. To lift the stain, dab/blot it with a towel in order to absorb it.

​Juice & Wine:
A cold glass of juice or sangria is a great way to cool down on a hot day, but definitely the type of beverages that you don’t want to see spill on your carpet. If this happens, blot the stain with a towel as soon as possible and use a spotting agent specifically designed to remove wine and juice stains. We recommend Rescue 911 Spot, Stain & Odor Remover or Juice Out Dye Remover. 

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Iced Coffee:
Who doesn’t love to run to the coffee shop on a warm morning and grab an iced coffee to start the day? For coffee spills (cold or hot, black or milky) we recommend again to blot the stain with a towel right away and using Rescue 911 or Tann-X Coffee & Tannin Stain Remover.

Gum:
Children are great but sometimes fail to keep their gum in their mouth, and well let’s face it some adults do too! Should gum get stuck on/in your carpet, we recommend using a T-Bone Spatula with Deep Freeze Gum Remover that instantly freezes and embrittles chewing gum and wax from carpet and hardwood flooring making it easier to remove. Check out the video below to see Deep Freeze in action!

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Food: Ketchup/Mustard & Greasy Goodies:
Burgers and fries, anyone? What about triple brownie fudge ice cream? There’s an array of summer foods that consist of grease and oil or even dyes. To remove food stains, blot the area and use a spotter designed for grease and dyes such as Rescue 911 or Plus II Enzyme Odor & Spot Dissolver.
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Grass:
Grass stains are bound to happen! There’s a pigment in grass that gives it a green color called chlorophyll. Grass stains soak into carpet fibers and stick around until you clean them. Address them as soon as possible. Again, blot the area and use a spotting agent that can handle tough-to-remove pigments such as Rescue 911.

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Mud:
f you start to notice a large, frequently walked on area looking dirtier than the rest of your carpet, we recommend using a pre-spray such as Freeway Concentrated Traffic Lane Cleaner and extracting with Lift Off Extraction Cleaner. If that’s not possible, you can also try to thoroughly vacuum the area and spot clean left over stains. If the mud is still wet, absorb the dirt and moisture by blotting the area with towel and applying a spotting agent like Rescue 911. Agitate the stain until it is fully removed. To prevent this from happening again, consider implementing a matting program to catch dirt and mud at the door.

Organic:
Organic stains such as blood, vomit and urine can be more prevalent in the summer because of increased numbers in foodborne illness cases, pet visits and trip and fall accidents. Always wear gloves when dealing with such stains, and if you’re a business make sure your Bloodborne Pathogen Kit does not need restocking. For organic stains we recommend using an enzyme spotter such as Rescue 911.

Paint:
Some facilities re-paint interiors during the summer months resulting in drips and spills on carpet. Obviously the best way to prevent this is by covering up the carpet, but should an accident occur then we recommend using Unbelievable!® Goo D-solv-r™ for wet oil-based paint. Rescue 911 again also works in this situation.

Tar, Grease, Oil:
Orange cone season (aka construction season) and hot parking lots can result in tar, grease and oil being tracked into your building. Unbelievable!® Citrus Gel Grease, Adhesive & Tar Remover was made for this job!

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​Did we address all the stains you deal with in the summer months? Drop us a comment, email us or give us a call at 1.800.589.ALCO to address a specific carpet stain question. We’d love to help!