merely
“clean” to restore carpet once it looks dirty, “maintaining”
carpet actually keeps it clean, which lowers costs while keeping
appearance high and prolonging the life of carpet.
This program should consist of four parts:
preventive, daily and interim maintenance, along with deep
cleaning. Take into consideration the facility’s environmental
factors of traffic and soiling when scheduling cleaning
frequencies.
Preventive measures include a comprehensive
matting system to stop as much dirt as possible from entering
the building. A combination of scraping and absorbent mats
should be used for maximum effectiveness. You can stop roughly
85 percent of soil from entering the building by laying out an
effective matting system that extends nine to 15 feet inside the
entrance.
Daily maintenance involves routine vacuuming,
which can remove 90 percent of all dry soil from a carpet. Since
it is so effective, it is important to perform this step daily
to avoid working soil into the carpet fibers. Visual inspection
during vacuuming can help catch spots on the
carpet
so that they can be removed before they become stains. Use a
multi-purpose spotting agent that is approved by the Carpet and
Rug Institute (CRI).
The next step that is often overlooked, yet is
very important in keeping up the appearance of a carpet, is
interim maintenance. This is commonly done using an
encapsulating chemistry that is agitated into the carpet using a
pile-lifting, twin cylindrical brush machine. The choice of
chemistry is important because encapsulation chemistry
crystallizes when it dries without leaving sticky residues that
accelerate re-soiling. This makes for easy vacuum recovery
during the following day’s vacuuming cycle.
Be sure to choose chemistry with certifications
from Green Seal, CRI and WoolSafe. Only a small amount of water
is used during interim maintenance, which eliminates carpet
damage associated with over-wetting, not to mention facility
disruption.
The goal of deep cleaning, the final part of a
maintenance program, is to remove embedded dry soil, oily
substances and any residue buildup. Carpet appearance is
restored
by injecting water into the carpet fiber, agitating to release
difficult soil, and wet extracting soiled solution with
commercial extractors into a recovery tank.
Water injected at high speeds effectively pulls
more suspended soils out as it is extracted in a single pass. It
is very important to prevent over-wetting by exercising caution
and following machine instructions carefully. To ensure optimum
results, pre-spraying the carpet, especially traffic lanes and
noticeable spots, is important. Choose environmentally preferred
products formulated to extract detergent residues and mineral
deposits, which can degrade carpet and accelerate wear. Agitate
the pre-spray into the carpet with a dual cylindrical brush
carpet agitator.
While deep cleaning tackles some difficult to
remove soil, it is far more effective, and the frequency of its
necessity can be reduced, when following a regularly scheduled
interim maintenance plan.
Maintaining the carpet keeps its appearance from
dropping below a certain level. If restorative cleaning alone is
used, it can lead to erratic appearance levels that degrade
significantly over time.
