QC Newsletter March 2013 - Tips from the IICRC

Tips from the IICRC:

New carpet can improve the appearance of any room, but how can carpet that is walked on every day continue looking new? To keep your carpet clean, it's necessary to vacuum regularly with a strong, well-functioning and properly-filtered vacuum cleaner. Unfortunately, due to traffic, children, pets and normal wear, carpet fibers inevitably become soiled, and a dull appearance results. And no matter how much you vacuum, eventually you will need to call a professional carpet cleaner.

Regular professional cleaning using a Cleantrust technician is as important to your carpet as having a trained mechanic perform routine tune-ups on your car. While your carpet may appear clean on the surface, periodic cleaning by a certified technician can remove what you can't see and help your carpet retain its fresh, beautiful appearance.

What is the proper way to deal with furniture indentations in carpet?

Indentations from furniture re-arrangement are a normal phenomenon in carpet.  Sometimes, the situation is self-correcting when the furniture is moved and the carpet backings and pile are allowed to re-acclimate.  In other cases, vacuuming coupled with light brushing can bring up the indented areas. In extreme cases, the indentation can be covered with a damp towel and steamed with an iron for a few seconds, followed by brushing while warm to "resurrect" the pile in that area.  Nylon carpet pile (about 70% of residential carpet) responds particularly well to this procedure.

There are, however, limitations by the type of pile fiber. If the pile is made of non-resilient olefin, as in olefin Berber or level-loop olefin commercial carpet, the indentation may be permanent. That's a characteristic of the fiber. This is why non-resilient olefin often is combined with resilient nylon in several popular carpet styles.