Cleaning Your Rugs for the Holidays, DIY or Call In a Pro?
Whether you are ready or not, the holidays are right around the corner! Time to make sure your home is spotless for all of your impending guests.
There are many winter home improvement projects that help get our home ready to receive guests, and while we look to the obvious things to clean; cleaning the refrigerator to make room for that turkey and sides, spiffing up the bedrooms so people have somewhere nice to stay and cleaning outdoor areas in case the weather is nice; we sometimes miss one of the most important – our rugs and carpeting.
Your rugs and carpets tend to get the brunt of dirt. They are traveled over and over every day, yet most of us only vacuum once a week and shake out the rugs. While keeping up with vacuuming certainly helps cut down on allergies and irritants, a thorough cleaning of your carpets and rugs can further remove built in dirt and odors and prevent toxic mold growth in flooring.
But therein lies another problem. Deep cleaning those rugs can unfortunately bring odors to the surface; so you must make sure you clean them correctly to fight airborne allergens and odors. And what do you do with your specialty rugs like persian or oriental carpeting? You have a couple of choices when it comes to cleaning your rugs. Do you DIY or leave it to a professional?
In this DIY Reviews article, we will explore different types of rugs and which type of cleaning is best for each one.
DIY Rug Cleaners
There are many types of rugs that are perfectly fine to clean at home, and before the holidays is a perfect time to get them done! Before you start cleaning however, there are several things you should do:
- Know what your carpet is made of. If your rug is made of synthetic fibers, then most carpet cleaners can be used; but you need to make sure you buy cleaning solution made specifically for synthetic fibers. Buying one that is too harsh may break down the fibers.
- Check the manufacturers label and find out what they suggest for cleaning. It may be that a rented carpet cleaner is fine, but they may suggest you get one that doesn’t have a certain type of brush, etc.
- Make sure your particular type of rug can hold up to “steam cleaning”. Just because the manufacturer states it is ok to clean at home, does not mean steam can be used.
- Use the correct products to spot clean before using a rented machine. If you follow this step first, then you will not have to saturate the rugs while steam cleaning.
Professional Cleaning
Silk rug cleaning, like Persian or oriental rug cleaning, should always be done by a professional. These rugs are made of delicate materials that can be easily damaged.
One of the biggest mistakes you can make is spraying on harsh chemicals or cleaners that “say” they are specifically for these rugs. Most, although not all of these cleaners could contain chemicals that break down the compounds in the weave and slowly eat away at your rugs. You may think they have cleaned the stain on the surface, but the underlying nap could be damaged.
Leave these to a professional and you can keep them looking great for years to come. If you are in the Dallas area, consider Behnam Rugs of Dallas for your professional rug cleaning needs.
Special Care Rugs
For those of you that have Persian rugs, you know they need special care and do it yourself rug cleaners are not the way to go. When you consider persian rug cleaning, take into account how much you paid for your precious rug and leave it to a professional.
If you need to spot clean your Persian rug, you can, however, follow a few simple steps to do this at home and clean the spot immediately after it happens. Use a clean washcloth and first blot out all of the moisture. Then alternate between cold water blotting and dry cloth blotting until the stain is removed. You should never use harsh detergents or spray water (or any fluid) onto the stain. Blotting helps remove the stain delicately from your rugs. Spots that have been there for quite awhile or those that will not come up after cold water blotting should be professionally cleaned.
When Do You Call in the Carpet Cleaning Pros?
I know, many of us prefer to just leave work like this to the guys in the big yellow vans… At what point do you prefer to just call in a pro carpet cleaner to your home? Is it the level of the stain, or the does it just depend on how busy you are? Share your ideas below.
