Healthy Carpet and Rug Tips

Although you can help your carpet to maintain a good appearance and live a healthy, long life with routine professional carpet cleaning, additional maintenance and care on your part is still needed. Proper maintenance and care of your carpet will help to preserve its luster and extend its useful life. When you fail to properly care for your carpet, it can lead to premature wear. Besides, clean carpets promote a healthy indoor environment. Below are a few tips to keep your carpets or rugs healthy.

Be Careful
Take your shoes off at the door to reduce the amount of car-exhaust particulate, germs, dirt, and pesticides you bring into your home. Purchase a vacuum clean with a High Efficiency Particulate Air (HEPA) filter which will help keep dust from blowing around in the air.

Clean your Carpets
Most carpets in any home should be cleaned at least once annually. Every six months is better to keep them in a cleaner condition. This is particularly true if you have pets, children, or heavy traffic.

You can eliminate microorganisms that come from food particles, dust mites, pollen, soil and bacteria by having your carpets cleaned. You can even improve the air quality in your house. When you get your carpet shampooed, whether you do it yourself or hire a professional, it is a good idea to run your whole house fan for ventilation. This will help keep chemical smells circulating and will circulate the air which will help your carpet dry faster.

Green your Carpet
If you’re buying a brand new carpet, have the installer air it out initially in a well-ventilated, clean area. Make sure the carpet is tacked down instead of being glued down. After the carpet is installed, leave your home for a few hours since synthetic carpets (usually olefin and nylon) can emit VOCs and other noxious gases.

It is also recommended by the Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) to open your windows and doors and run window fans or a whole house fan to keep air circulating. Keep your air-ventilation system (if you have one) running for a minimum of 48 hours after the installation of your carpet. You might want to consider buying area rugs instead since they tend to be less toxic than wall-to-wall carpets which often are installed and settled with adhesive glue that can emit off-gas fumes.

Carpets play a huge role in poor indoor air quality regardless if they are new or old. It is important that you maintain them and take care of them. Keep them clean and try to avoid cleaning products filled with chemicals or other irritants as much as possible.