Why Spring is the Best Time of Year to Hire a Carpet Cleaner
If you treat your carpet right, it can last ten or even fifteen years — but you have to be diligent about cleaning your carpets. Some of that is down to everyday cleaning and maintenance, but we also recommend having your carpets professionally cleaned at least once a year.
The best time of year to clean your carpets is late spring — they call it “spring cleaning” for a reason! But there are a lot of steps you can take in the meantime to make sure that your carpets survive the rough winter months.
Why Winter is So Hard on Carpets
Winter is the harshest month in terms of wear and tear on your carpets, and early spring is a close second. There are mud and snow outside, in addition to road debris and sidewalk salt, and all of them can be incredibly damaging to carpets when your feet grind them into the fibers.
Don’t worry! We have some tips for keeping your carpets in tip-top shape through the winter, despite the poor weather and increased foot traffic. But there will still be some extra dirt and water accumulating on your flooring that you’ll have to address.
Should You Clean Your Carpets Yourself?
In short, no. Sure, you can rent carpet cleaners from hardware stores and grocery stores that promise a professional-quality cleaning at home for a fraction of the price, but they’re not as good as the real thing.
Professional carpet cleaners use a technique called hot-water extraction cleaning. It’s often called steam cleaning, but that’s a misnomer. The way it works is by forcing very hot water into the carpet fibers, then vacuuming the water out with a powerful vacuum. Sometimes, the water has additional cleaning solutions or stain resistance coatings included, but simple hot water usually does the trick!
Not only does the hot water loosen dirt so that the vacuum can extract it, but it can even restore the look of the carpet fibers themselves! When flattened and compressed fibers are exposed to hot water, they bounce back and resume their original shape, making your carpet look good as new.
The at-home solutions that you can rent from grocery and hardware stores may be able to push hot water into your carpets just fine, but the vacuum power isn’t nearly up to the standards of the professional equipment that a real cleaning service uses. If water is left behind in the carpet or padding, it can weaken the carpet backing, grow mildew, or even rot your subfloor. It’s simply not worth the savings.
Why Cleaning in Spring is a Better Idea
We generally recommend having your carpets professionally cleaned once a year. It doesn’t make much sense to do that cleaning in the middle of winter when you’re just going to track more snow and mud in over the next few months. March tends to be the snowiest month here on the Front Range, and the spring thaw comes soon after, which means more mud.
By late spring, the weather has started to dry out, so you’re not tracking in nearly as much dirt and debris. The holidays are behind you, so the increased traffic of having friends and family over has subsided. And the weather is warming up, so you can open the windows to let dry air in, which will help dry the carpets faster and prevent moisture buildup.
Replacing Carpet When Needed
No matter how diligent you are with your cleaning, your carpets will eventually wear out beyond the point of being fixed. When they’re so flattened, worn through, or stained that they can’t be fixed, it might be time for new carpet altogether.
Lucky for you, replacing the carpet doesn’t have to break the bank! With the 50 to 75 percent off of regular retail prices that you save at Sloane’s Carpet Secret, it’s possible to replace your whole home’s flooring for less than $1 per square foot! When you’re ready to look at updating your carpet, stop by our showroom and take a look around. We’ll find the carpet that’s perfect for you!