10 Facts About Dirty Carpets (You Probably Didn’t Know)

Hey there!  As you know carpets in the home or office can come under a lot of wear and tear (especially if you have kids). They can be spoiled with traffic lanes, stains, discoloring and ultimately this damage may lead to the need to replace them. Did you know that carpets that don’t receive regular professional carpet cleaning can ultimately end up in a bad state and also void the manufacturer warranty? With regular cleaning, carpets can retain that new look, feel and smell of a new carpet for longer.

Keeping your carpets clean is important for many reasons. The look, the smell, and your health are all reasons for keeping them clean.

Here are 10 facts about dirty carpets that you might not have been aware of.

1. Carpets attract greasy residue and dirt

Every day oily residue from the rooms in your home and your family pets (if you have them) is carried in from outside and dries onto your carpet. This residue attracts and “locks-in” dirt to your carpet fibers. Given time, this dirt can actually change the color of your carpet and can be compounded. If left this can lead to unsightly traffic lanes and can become permanent.

2. Sandy soil is tearing your carpet apart

If you have ever got down close with your carpet and parted the pile you might have been shocked to find a sand pit of soil in your carpet that cannot be reached by home vacuum cleaners. This dirt isn’t usually visible but is grinding your carpet and upholstery away every time you walk or sit on your carpets.

3. Your carpets could be harboring many germs and making you ill

Your carpet does a valuable job by acting as a filter, trapping damaging air pollutants like pollen, fungi, chemicals, bacteria, cigarette smoke, tars, and residues. Sounds terrible right? The trouble is once the carpet gets “full” it no longer traps or holds these air pollutants. These trapped pollutants can only be removed with regular professional carpet cleaning. It makes sense to clean them right?

4. Bad news for asthma, allergy, eczema and rhinitis sufferers

Carpets can become infested with dust mites whose droppings can trigger asthma attacks and can trap allergy-inflaming proteins which are known to trigger asthma, eczema and rhinitis attacks. Quite often people are searching for a solution to their conditions and the problem may well be right under your feet. For those who have environmental allergies, this can be a serious health issue. In fact, dirty carpets can lead to serious health problems in otherwise healthy people.

5. Carpets can get heavy with dirt

Did you know that your carpets can hold as much as four times their weight in dirt, and possibly even more? Carpets are a catch-all for dirt, with dust mites, pet hair, pet urine, dead skin cells, dust, insect feces, insect husks, bacteria, mold, volatile organic compounds, and many other types of allergens clinging to the fibers.

It is important that you clean your carpets regularly. While it is important to vacuum at least once or twice each week, this is just not enough. You also need to have your carpets professionally cleaned, to make sure that all of these allergens are removed from the carpet fibers.

6. Forget the 5-second rule

You may not think that your carpets are dirty, but people openly admit to spilling food on the carpet and eating it. If your carpets are dirty, just think about what you are actually putting into your stomach. Forget that five-second rule. Bacteria can live for up to four weeks in carpeting, and if there is any in yours, which there likely is, that bacteria is going to get on your food.

7. Remove your shoes before you walk in your carpets

Most people admit to walking on their carpets while wearing their outdoor shoes. This not only tracks dirt into the house, it also grinds it into the carpets, and vacuuming alone isn’t going to get rid of this. It’s also common for people to move furniture around to cover stains in their carpets rather than clean the stains. Spills should be cleaned immediately, to prevent stains from forming. If there are stains, stop moving your furniture around and call A OK Chem-Dry to get rid of them.

8. The Norovirus

Also known as the Norwalk virus, Norovirus causes symptoms similar to food poisoning or even the stomach flu. It can survive in your carpet for four to six weeks, and it becomes airborne as people walk or roll across it.

9. More bugs than your toilet seat

Carpeting can be a great flooring option at home. It adds warmth, comfort and feels good on bare feet. But because of all the traffic it encounters, it tends to get pretty dirty over time. It’s a germ hotspot and can be 4,000 times dirtier than your toilet seat and they can also have many different organisms living in them.

10. Regular cleaning

Let’s face it, we all wash on a regular basis. We all wash our clothes regularly too. Perhaps you wear a top once and then wash it? is it because it looks dirty? Or is it because it’s harboring germs? Most of us overlook the amount of dirt and germs that exist in a carpet because it’s way down the list of jobs. If you want to remove dangerous bacteria and other pollutants from your carpet, you essentially have two choices: DIY Carpet cleaning and Professional Carpet Cleaning. Professional carpet cleaning can successfully remove about 98 percent of dirt and pollutants from your carpets. However, if you only do it once every six months, a lot of bacteria could flourish on your carpets in between cleaning.

How often should you have your carpets cleaned?

We recommend that your carpets are professionally cleaned by one of our qualified technicians every 6 months. Carpets should be cleaned on a regular basis and before they become heavily soiled. Allowing soil to build up will
significantly reduce the life of a carpet.

Vacuuming is simply not enough, all carpets should be deep cleaned at least every six months. This can double the life expectancy of your carpet. A thorough deep cleaning will not only rejuvenate the look of your carpet, leaving it smelling fresh and clean, it can also reduce wear to the pile and thereby extends its life. Your carpet can hide as much as 1lb (0.5kg) of dirt per sq.yd (1 sq.m).

The damaging effects of dirt

Carpets are damaged more so by what you cannot see rather than what you can. Vacuuming alone only clears the top layer of dirt and grime away. The deep down grit and dirt wear away any stain-resistance and cuts at carpet fibers when they are walked on or in those areas of high use, particularly where children play. High-traffic paths in your home, as you are probably aware, will flatten and mat over time because of this fiber abrasion. If not taken care of, this can eventually lead to fiber loss. Having your carpet professionally cleaned can prolong the life of your carpet.

Regular cleaning for your home and for your health

For most carpets, the best cleaning comes from a green-certified, safe and non-toxic cleaning solution using carbonation instead of harsh chemicals. It is the method recommended by most major carpet manufacturers and used by professional carpet cleaning services like A OK Chem-Dry. Continued, regular deep-cleaning not only removes allergens, dirt, and grime but can add years of life to your carpet by removing the abrasive grit that harms carpet fibers. General household vacuum cleaners DO NOT clean as deep as professional carpet cleaners can, even household carpet cleaners won’t clean as deep as we can. We use our own truck mounted carpet cleaning system as well as our own water supply to provide the deepest clean for your carpets.